Kyiv’s forces find success along southern frontline in February, while Russian troops grind forward in the east. What we know on day 1,469

Russia’s army recorded its slowest advance on the frontline in Ukraine in nearly two years in February, an analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War showed, as Kyiv’s troops scored several localised breakthroughs. The slowdown came as Moscow’s forces at the front struggled after Elon Musk cut the Russians’ access to Starlink internet terminals. Russia advanced by a total of 123 sq kilometres (48 sq miles) – the lowest since April 2024 – during the month, according to the analysis conducted by Agence France-Presse.

Ukrainian troops managed several localised advances during February, the data showed, including a 61 sq-kilometre gain on 15 February, and gains of more than 50 sq kilometres on 21 February and 23 February. Kyiv’s forces saw most success along the southern frontline, pushing Russia’s army back in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Moscow, meanwhile, has been grinding forward in the east, moving closer towards the key hubs of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Russia occupies just over 19% of Ukraine.

Russia’s Sheskharis oil terminal suspended oil loadings on Monday following a Ukrainian drone attack that injured five, damaged 20 buildings and set a fuel terminal on fire, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials and three trade sources. The Sheskharis oil terminal in Novorossiysk is Russia’s major oil outlet in the Black Sea, loading 700,000 barrels per day of crude oil. An official at Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said Ukrainian drones had struck the terminal at the port, hitting six of its seven loading facilities, and that the drones also struck Russian warships. Ukraine’s general staff said the drones also struck a naval base, along with an S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system. Russia made no mention of any damage to its military assets. Reuters could not independently verify what Ukraine had struck.

US-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine expected later this week may take place in Switzerland or Turkey if a planned meeting in Abu Dhabi is not possible due to the war in the Middle East, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Monday. He also noted that western countries have given no indication so far that their delivery to Kyiv of vital air defence missiles could be disrupted by commitments to Middle East defence. Peace talks have appeared deadlocked in recent weeks over Russia’s insistence that Ukraine hand over the remaining part of its eastern Donbas region which Moscow does not control.

Russian strikes killed at least eight people in Ukraine including during an attack on a civilian passenger train, Ukrainian authorities said on Monday. Three people were killed in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian stronghold that Russian forces are advancing towards, officials said. The head of the wider Donetsk region said two people were killed and 13 wounded in Druzhkivka.

Slovakia wants to initiate a meeting with the EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and ideally together with Ukraine and Hungary, to get oil flows along the Druzhba pipeline restarted as quickly as possible, the Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, said on Monday. Slovakia and Hungary have blamed Ukraine for dragging its feet on restarting supplies of Russian crude through the pipeline, although Kyiv says repairs take time after what it said was a Russian attack on pumping stations in western Ukraine in late January. “This has now become a European-Ukrainian problem and Europe must decide on which side it stands,” Fico said.

Ukraine will complete the technical work needed to open negotiations on all topics for its EU accession process within days, Zelenskyy said on Monday. Zelenskyy urged the EU to agree on a firm date for Ukraine to join the bloc, saying that would provide an important guarantee of the country’s future security. “We are ready, but not all leaders of the European Union are … I mean, not everyone is ready to give Ukraine this opportunity,” Zelenskyy said. Ukraine became a formal EU candidate country in the early days after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. But so far, Kyiv’s progress through the existing EU process has been held up by Hungary, which has blocked the unanimous approval required to open formally each of the six so-called accession “clusters” of issues to be resolved.

Trump boycotted the dinner in 2017 and has not attended any in either of his terms as president

Donald Trump said Monday he will attend the White House correspondents’ association dinner for the first time as president.

Writing in a social media post, Trump said: “In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!”

Largest study of its kind suggests high red meat consumption has biggest impact, followed by smoking

More than a quarter of healthy years lost to breast cancer are due to lifestyle factors such as red meat intake and smoking, according to the largest study of its kind.

The study, published in the Lancet Oncology, used data from population-based cancer registries to produce a comprehensive analysis of breast cancer and its risk factors.

As US-Israeli airstrikes hit their cities, people tell of how the authorities are warning them off the streets

At least 200 civilians have been killed since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran last weekend, according to rights groups, as people inside Iran told the Guardian they were fearful of a rising death toll.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that at least 555 people had been killed across Iran. However, in its latest update, the Norway-based human rights group Hengaw said the death toll on day three had reached at least 1,500, including 200 civilians and 1,300 members of the Iranian forces.

US military also says three US fighter jets were shot down in ‘friendly fire’ incident, all six crew members survived

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Six US service members have been killed in the US military operations against Iran, the US Central Command said on Monday afternoon.

The announcement comes one day after the military confirmed the deaths of three US service members on Sunday, which marked the first known US fatalities since the strikes against Iran began on Saturday, and just several hours after the Central Command had reported that a fourth US service member had been killed.

The Fifa president’s sycophancy towards the US president has left the organisation facing a new nadir, but any reckoning seems a distant prospect

Mr President. Fellow exco members. We’re going to need a bigger Board of Peace. How many mini‑pitches are we up to now? Gaza got 50 of them last month. What will it take to football-fix the global conflict being set in train by Fifa’s own Peace Prize Boy? A hundred mini-pitches? Four billion mini-pitches? All the mini‑pitches in the universe?

In a more sane version of what we must, out of habit, call the real world, it would seem absurd to talk about sports administration in the context of the US, Iran and the airborne conflict being played out across the borders of their allies.

• Back-line may feature one survivor from Ireland defeat

• Ben Spencer, Cadan Murley and Seb Atkinson in frame

Steve Borthwick is ready to radically overhaul his misfiring England side for the Six Nations clash against Italy on Saturday, with Fin Smith expected to be handed the No 10 jersey.

The Northampton fly-half sat out training on Monday because of illness but England have been quick to allay fears that his participation against Italy is in doubt. Provided he recovers, Smith is expected to start at fly-half in place of George Ford.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese flee homes in eerily familiar scenes as Israeli strikes leave 52 people dead

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Abu Yehya and his two sons awoke to the sound of bombing in the early hours of Monday morning. A dozen blasts, one just a few hundred metres away, sent them into the streets of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

They walked for four hours, bleary-eyed, until they reached the same spot in downtown Beirut where they had fled during the last conflict, 18 months earlier, and curled up on the asphalt. There, they learned Hezbollah had struck Israel, and Lebanon was once again at war.

Effects of extended conflict between US and Iran could also lead to higher interest rates and hit economic growth

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The impact of the deadly and unpredictable conflict in the Middle East on the global economy will be felt most immediately, and keenly, through the rising cost of oil.

Prices jumped on Monday, as markets had their first opportunity to digest the weekend’s tit-for-tat attacks. A barrel of Brent crude oil was trading at about $79 (£59) by lunchtime in London, up about $6 or 8.5% on the day.

The first lady’s UN security council speech came days after Iranian media reported an airstrike killed 165 people and injured 96 others at girls’ school

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Melania Trump became the first spouse of a sitting world leader to preside over the UN security council on Monday, calling on member states to protect children’s access to education days after Iranian state media reported that an airstrike killed at least 165 people at a girls’ school in southern Iran.

The meeting, titled Children, Technology and Education in Conflict, had been scheduled before the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday.

Zinke, interior secretary during Trump’s first term, cites health problems and declines to run again in Montana

Ryan Zinke, a Montana Republican who served as interior secretary during Donald Trump’s first administration, said he would not seek re-election to a fifth term in the US House, citing health concerns.

The decision gives Democrats an outside chance to pick up a House seat in a state that has veered to the right politically over the past decade.

The war in the Middle East triggered by the joint US and Israeli attack on Iran expanded dramatically on Monday, with casualties and destruction reported across at least nine countries, including major strikes on Tehran.

Since the US and Israel first struck Iran with bombing and missile attacks over the weekend, the speed at which this war has exploded into a regional conflict is ‘dizzying’, says the Guardian’s Oliver Holmes. Tehran swiftly retaliated to the attacks, which killed the country’s supreme leader, by launching strikes across the Middle East.

• A visual guide to the US-Israeli war on Iran and Tehran’s response

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

After spending taxpayers’ money, Florida governor will likely be left holding bill for $608m promised by Trump administration

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Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, spent $1.2m of taxpayers’ money per day to open and operate the notorious immigration jail known as Alligator Alcatraz, court records obtained by the independent investigative news website the Florida Tributary reveal.

A switch in position by Donald Trump’s administration also now looks likely to leave Florida on the hook for at least $608m spent on the harsh Everglades detention and deportation facility and other immigration jails, the outlet said. That was despite gloating by DeSantis in September that the state would be reimbursed from federal funds.

David Harbour stars in a deliciously dark dating app drama that is close to the bone after his real-life Lily Allen fallout. But his performance along with Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini’s make for a wonderfully bingeable show

Never trust a man who rides a recumbent bicycle. That seems to be the first lesson provided by DTF St Louis, a new seven-part dark comedy starring Jason Bateman, David Harbour and Linda Cardellini, and who – honestly – could fail to get behind such a message?

Bateman plays Clark Forrest, local weatherman, microcelebrity and recumbent bicycler round his little patch of St Louis, Missouri. He becomes fast friends with a sign language interpreter, Floyd (Harbour), when they are sent to report on a violent storm together and Floyd saves him from being decapitated by a flying stop sign. Floyd is a goodhearted soul with a mutinous stepson, a hot wife and Peyronie’s disease. That’s when the penis acquires an abnormal curvature that can make penetration difficult, due to a connective tissue problem that is often associated with middle age.

Channel 4’s edgy new ‘social experiment’ cuffs strangers together in a bid to heal a divided Britain. Instead, what emerges is nasty, crass and completely abysmal

After his brilliantly machiavellian performance on The Celebrity Traitors, Jonathan Ross was destined to pop up on our screens again soon. Cue his big post-Traitors gig, hosting Channel 4’s new six-part “social experiment”. It is, explains Ross, a show about whether “a divided Britain [can] settle its differences”, by handcuffing two strangers from different walks of life together for 24 hours a day (including in the shower – ooh-er!) and seeing who can last the longest for a shot at a £100,000 prize. Really, though, it’s a show that manipulates those differences for views – a cheap throwback to Wife Swap at best and The Jeremy Kyle Show at worst.

Each pair has clearly been selected for maximum mutual discomfort. Jo is the owner of a plus-size fashion brand and Reuben thinks fat people are lazy; Tilly spends her spare time helping homeless people while millionaire Anthony reckons he’s an expert ’cos he’s been camping before; George is a former prison officer who believes learning is the best way to empower himself while Sir Ben is an aristocrat who – despite having an expensive education – still chooses to own a painting by Adolf Hitler.

Bill and Hillary Clinton last week faced hours of questioning from lawmakers about the convicted sex offender

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Videos of Bill Clinton, the former US president, and Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, answering questions about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released on Monday by a House committee investigating the late financier.

The recordings of the depositions, which spanned hours over two days last week, show how both Clintons distanced themselves from Epstein. Bill Clinton told the committee that he had ended his relationship with Epstein years before the financier entered a guilty plea in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

• US captain scored in final despite dealing with injury

• Knight says she has been overwhelmed by fans’ support

Hilary Knight revealed on Monday that she led the US women’s ice hockey team to gold at last month’s Olympics while suffering from a torn medial collateral ligament (MCL) in one of her knees.

“I’m not walking around the best, and I’m missing a few games for the [PWHL’s] Seattle Torrent,” Knight said on CBS Mornings. “To be able to play through injury was definitely a mental sort of gymnastic challenge for myself and also physical, but we’ve got some amazing support staff that did their best to get me out there and perform at my best – as best as I could.”

President using ‘very common cream’, personal doctor Sean Barbarella says without giving details

Donald Trump was seen with a rash on the side of his neck during the Medal of Honor Ceremony on Monday, fueling more speculation about the state of the president’s health.

In a statement, Trump’s personal doctor said that the rash was caused by a cream that the president was using as a “preventative skin treatment.”

Trump’s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran has divided the American right – from Murdoch’s cheerleaders to Maga isolationists

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As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump repeatedly pledged to get the US out of “endless wars”, put “America first” and focus on domestic policy. After his first term, he was fond of boasting, somewhat misleadingly, that there were “no wars” during his presidency.

Now the Trump administration’s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran has shocked the US and the world. It has also divided conservative media in the US – with many journalists and pundits on the right celebrating Trump’s decision to confront a longtime American foe, but others expressing dismay or confusion at the revival of a Bush-style interventionism that they thought the Maga movement had repudiated.

Prime minister does not believe US has a plan beyond ‘shock and awe’ stage, as some MPs dread what lies ahead

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• What we know so far on day three of the Iran war

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Tony Blair’s support for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 has long loomed like a spectre over the Labour party.

It was present in 2013 when Ed Miliband as opposition leader voted to block UK military action against the Syrian regime.

Bulky and noisy Iran-made unmanned attack drones have hit buildings in Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE and elsewhere

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• A visual guide strikes on Iran and Tehran’s response

Iran’s noisy $50,000 delta-winged Shahed 136 drones have long been an unwanted sight over the skies of Ukraine.

Now, over the last 48 hours, hundreds of the distinctive weapons have struck Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE and across the Gulf as Tehran tries to intimidate and impose costs on regional allies of the US.

Actor has ‘no hard feeling’ towards Tourette activist John Davidson, but says BBC’s failure to edit out slurs kept her awake at night and brought tears to her eyes

Sinners star Wunmi Mosaku, winner of the best supporting actress Bafta, said that the N-word incident at the Baftas “tainted” her celebration and “kept [her] awake at night”.

Mosaku was speaking in Los Angeles on Sunday at the Actor awards (formerly the Screen Actors Guild awards), where Sinners won best cast, and said: “It was incredibly painful to have that celebration kind of really tainted for me.”

Unlike his predecessors, Friedrich Merz projects certainty, even when he’s wrong. Now he must turn words into a deliverable plan

The 18th-century philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder is credited in Germany with coining the maxim: “Talk is silver, but silence is golden.” The saying has come to define Germany’s political culture. Olaf Scholz was economical with words and drew mockery for his wooden, monosyllabic replies as the “Scholzomat” or even the “coma chancellor”. Scholz was not entirely different from his predecessor. Angela Merkel grew up in East Germany’s communist dictatorship and learned early that words could be dangerous. She spoke cautiously, almost clinically, in the monotone of a central banker. Every word served a purpose. That was precisely why everyone listened closely.

Friedrich Merz, by contrast, is anything but a soporific speaker. The trained lawyer has a sharp tongue and visibly enjoys the sound of his own voice. In this, the conservative chancellor resembles the French president, Emmanuel Macron – another beau parleur. And like Macron, Merz is a know-all. He rarely misses a chance to show his audience how clever he is.

Joseph de Weck is a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Claire Danes, Wunmi Mosaku, Rose Byrne and host Kristen Bell were among the crowd at the 32nd Actor awards, formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards, held in Los Angeles on Sunday. This year, for the first time, the awards had a fashion theme: ‘Reimagining Hollywood glamour from the 20s and 30s’. While some stars dressed the part, others interpreted the costume cue very loosely

• Actor awards 2026: Michael B Jordan, Jessie Buckley and Catherine O’Hara among big winners