Buildings reportedly damaged in capital and other regions under fire hours after US president says ‘we’re doing very well with Ukraine and Russia’. What we know on day 1,441

Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with missiles early on Tuesday, officials said, with initial reports saying apartment blocks and other buildings had suffered damage. Officials reported Russian air attacks on other Ukrainian regions, including Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, where the regional governor said two people were injured. Witnesses reported loud explosions in Kyiv after midnight and said missiles and drones were being deployed. Several apartment buildings, an education establishment and a commercial building had been damaged in districts east of the Dnipro River, the city’s military administration chief, Tymur Tkachenko, said on Telegram. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a building housing a kindergarten had been set on fire and he ordered emergency medical crews to affected parts of the capital. The governor of south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region said his region was also under attack and anti-aircraft units were in action in neighbouring Zaporizhzhia region.

Donald Trump said earlier that his administration may have some good news soon on its push to end the war in Ukraine. “I think we’re doing very well with Ukraine and Russia. For the first time, I’m saying that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “I think we’re going to, maybe, have some good news.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Russia had largely observed a temporary ceasefire on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Russia had not carried out any targeted missile or drone strikes on the infrastructure in the past 24 hours but steady Russian shelling had hit energy facilities near the front line, the Ukrainian president said. “The de-escalation measures ... are helping to build public trust in the negotiation process and its possible outcome. The war needs to be ended.”

Zelenskyy said Russia’s continued shelling of Ukrainian positions and logistics had damaging transmission lines and other sites in parts of the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Speaking in his nightly video address on Monday, he said the pause in strikes on energy infrastructure underscored the fact that US efforts to pursue negotiations to end the war were having an impact. “This demonstrates that when the United States has the motivation to genuinely change the situation, the situation can indeed change.”

Zelenskyy said it was “realistic to achieve a dignified and lasting peace”, ahead of the next round of peace talks with Russian and US officials due this week in Abu Dhabi. “Ukraine is ready for real steps,” he said. The talks are scheduled to take place over two days from Wednesday. A White House official said Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff would attend. Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian delegation would also hold bilateral meetings with US officials during the two days.

Russia has repeated that it would regard the deployment of any foreign military forces or infrastructure in Ukraine as unacceptable foreign intervention and treat those forces as legitimate targets, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday, citing foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate such troops’ presence there.

The EU’s decision last week to ban Russian gas imports was “100% legally sound”, the bloc’s energy commissioner said, adding it would prevent Russia from weaponising energy. “We’ve said we will no longer help indirectly finance [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s war in Ukraine by buying gas there,” Dan Jorgensen told reporters in Lisbon on Monday after meeting with Portugal’s energy minister. “That also means it’s no longer possible for Russia to blackmail EU member states to weaponise energy against us.”

Germany has detained five people suspected of operating a network that exported goods to Russian defence companies, contravening EU sanctions imposed over the war, German federal prosecutors said on Monday. The federal prosecutors’ office estimated the group had allegedly arranged 16,000 shipments, worth a combined €30m ($36m) since February 2022, and that Russian state agencies were suspected of directing the procurement activities. The Russian embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the accusations.

Josie Scott, who has played in the Australian heavy metal band with her brother Kim for 40 years, writes to fans: ‘I’ve decided to embrace, rather than endure, who I am’

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The guitarist and vocalist in Australian heavy metal band the Mark of Cain has come out as a trans woman, writing that seeing younger trans people live freely had “helped shine a light on the possibility that maybe I can finally be me in my autumn years”.

On Monday night, Josie Scott wrote a statement to fans on the band’s social media, announcing that her family know her as Josie or Jo and “given where I identify on the gender spectrum, I fit within the paradigm of being a trans woman”.

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A succession of political leaders have been trooping to Beijing in recent months. Is it an indication of a new world order? Tania Branigan explains

Xi Jinping had a busy January. First came the Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin. Then it was Mark Carney of Canada’s turn. He was followed by the Finnish prime minister, the Uruguayan president and then, last week, Keir Starmer.

But what does this rush to China mean? The Guardian leader writer Tania Branigan says much of it is to do with Trump. “There are real opportunities that people see in China – and at a point where the US looks so erratic, so hostile to people who have traditionally been among its staunchest allies. There is a sense that it just makes sense,” she tells Helen Pidd.

Up to 350,000 Haitians legally live and work in the US due to being granted temporary protected status

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from stripping temporary protected status from up to 350,000 Haitians, a status that allows them to legally live and work in the United States amid the turmoil in their homeland.

Judge Ana Reyes issued a temporary stay that prevents Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, from implementing her decision to remove the status known as TPS, which was scheduled to expire on Tuesday.

Teen swims 4km to sound alarm, which led to the rescue of his family

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A 13-year-old boy has saved his mother and two younger siblings by swimming for four hours in fading light and rough conditions, after they were swept out to sea in south-west Western Australia.

The family were holidaying in Quindalup, 200km south of Perth, when strong winds pushed their inflatable paddleboards and kayak offshore from Geographe Bay on Friday afternoon.

As Bangladesh prepares for the first election since Sheikh Hasina fled to India, Awami League figures living in Kolkata believe she can still return a hero

Back in Bangladesh they are deemed criminals and fugitives, facing charges of crimes against humanity, murder, sedition or embezzlement. But in the comfort of the crowded food courts of Kolkata shopping malls, over black coffee and Indian fast food, the exiled politicians of the Awami League sit plotting their political comeback.

More than 16 months ago, a revolution against Bangladesh’s autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina forced her to dramatically flee the country, jumping on a helicopter to India as an enraged onslaught of protesters marched towards her residence. The streets she left behind were bloody; her regime’s final crackdown on protesters in the July uprising had left as many as 1,400 dead, according to a UN report.

Serious questions need to be asked about Mandelson, Andrew and what the PM knew when. The credibility of UK politics is on the line

Peter Mandelson did not want, he wrote disdainfully to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, to “live by salary alone”. Not for him the life of the little guy, slave to a mere six-figure salary: he had always aspired to something grander, a lifestyle well beyond his means, to which rich men such as Epstein were so often his passport.

First it was his millionaire colleague, Geoffrey Robinson, from whom Mandelson secretly borrowed money to buy a house he couldn’t afford. In 2003 and 2004 it was Epstein, at least according to files released in the US this week, suggesting the financier paid £55,000 into Mandelson’s bank account, though he now says he can’t find records of it. Five years later, in 2010, the files record Mandelson confiding in Epstein of his hopes for a gig with merchant bankers JP Morgan, where he could leverage his “networks” to make the really big deals.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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The latest revelations and reaction to them may mean he has finally encountered a scandal he is unable to outrun

It was the evening of 6 May 2010 and, months after being released from jail for procuring a child for prostitution, Jeffrey Epstein was curious as to the result of Britain’s general election.

“Well?” he emailed Peter Mandelson, the then de facto deputy prime minister in Gordon Brown’s government.

In need of a February pep talk? Our fashion expert’s must-haves are here to lift your mood

• How to dress in cold weather

Let’s get real. Few of us look or feel at our most fabulous in February. It’s been cold and dark for, what, 18 months? Feels like it. Getting dressed feels less stylish self-expression than huddling for warmth.

But there are reasons to be cheerful – or, more to the point, things that can bring you cheer. There is Valentine’s Day. (I will never understand why people like to sneer about Valentine’s Day. A daft festival of joy in the bleakest moment of the calendar. Take the win!) I’ve also found a shirt that will be your new favourite layering piece. And a very fun jumper for £54. Read on for the lowdown.

Even as I’ve spent my entire adult life wanting to look different, I’ve found and cultivated other parts of myself that have nothing to do with appearance

I have a memory that I frequently find myself returning to these days.

I’m in high school and we’re in the change room at the local pool for the dreaded stint of swimming. Like most of my peers, I am embarrassed by my body and am therefore changing into my swimmers under a towel.

Purple Bliss tomatoes, which get colour from the genes of snapdragon flowers, could become the first fresh GM food available in Australian stores

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Caprese salads could take on a new hue after genetically modified purple tomatoes cleared regulatory hurdles, raising expectations they would become the first GM fresh food available in Australian green grocers.

The genetically engineered Purple Bliss tomatoes developed by Norfolk Healthy Produce gain their vibrant violet from the genes of snapdragon flowers. The tomato has been modified to produce pigments called anthocyanins, which are found in blueberries and blackberries and thought to have antioxidant properties.

CEO Alex Karp hails ‘iconic’ financial results despite criticism over contracts with ICE and homeland security

Palantir celebrated its latest financial results on Monday, as the tech company blew past Wall Street expectations and continues to prop up the Trump administration’s push to deport immigrants.

Palantir has secured millions of dollars in federal contracts amid Trump’s crackdown on immigrants. The multibillion-dollar Denver-based firm creates tech focused on surveillance and analytics, to be used by the government agencies and private companies.

• Guarino Sabaté thrown curveball days before Games

• Music rights disputes create Olympic chaos for skaters

• ISU pushes for global music clearance system fix soon

The Spanish figure skater Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté faces a last-minute scramble to redesign his Olympic short program after a copyright dispute blocked him from using music from the Minions franchise just days before competition begins at the Milano Cortina Winter Games.

The six-time Spanish national champion, who is set to make his Olympic debut in the men’s singles event, said he learned late last week that the routine he has performed throughout the 2025-26 season would not be cleared for Olympic use. Guarino Sabaté said he had submitted the music through the International Skating Union’s recommended rights-clearance process months ago and had competed with the program without issue during the season, including at last month’s European championships in Sheffield.

Buddhist spiritual leader wins best audiobook and says he sees win ‘as a recognition of our shared universal responsibility’

• Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar win big in Grammys ceremony filled with anti-ICE sentiment

The Dalai Lama has taken home his first Grammy award, prompting criticism from China.

The 90-year-old Buddhist spiritual leader, who lives in exile in India, was announced as the winner for the narration and storytelling category for his spoken word album, Meditations: The Reflections of His Holiness the Dalai Lama – adding the award to a collection that includes a Nobel peace prize, a presidential medal of freedom and the Gandhi peace prize.

Immigration officials said agent shot two ‘vicious gang members’ in Portland, but records obtained by the Guardian reveal US prosecutor contradicted claims

Immediately after a US border patrol agent shot two people in Oregon last month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the targets were “vicious” gang members connected to a prior shooting and alleged they had “attempted to run over” officers with their vehicle.

In the weeks since, key parts of the federal government’s narrative have fallen apart.

Deal comes as Musk pursues plans for datacenters and solar-powered satellites in space to propel AI

Elon Musk’s aerospace firm SpaceX has acquired his artificial intelligence business xAI, in a merger that consolidates part of Musk’s empire as SpaceX prepares to go public later this year, at a valuation likely to exceed $1tn.

The two companies announced the deal on Monday in a statement on SpaceX’s website, saying the merger would form “the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform”.

Prosecutors say other man was lured to Brendan Banfield’s house as a fall guy in scheme to get rid of Banfield’s wife

A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair was found guilty Monday of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy.

Brendan Banfield, a former IRS law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of 24 February 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhães, the au pair, shot him, too.

Met police assessing reports of alleged misconduct in public office after government information apparently shared

Peter Mandelson is facing a possible police investigation into his alleged leak of market-sensitive information to Jeffrey Epstein at the height of the financial crisis.

New disclosures from the Epstein files appear to show Mandelson sent a string of emails to the late sex offender containing confidential information that the government was receiving to deal with the global crash while he was business secretary under Gordon Brown.

A confidential UK government document outlining £20bn in asset sales.

Mandelson claiming he was “trying hard” to change government policy on bankers’ bonuses.

An imminent bailout package for the euro the day before it was announced in 2010.

A suggestion that the JPMorgan boss “mildly threaten” the chancellor.

• Mateta to rejoin squad following medical concerns

• Palace fail with loan bid for Everton’s Dwight McNeil

Jean-Philippe Mateta will be reintegrated into Crystal Palace’s squad after the France striker’s deadline-day move to Milan collapsed, but he faces competition for his place from the new club-record signing Jørgen Strand Larsen.

The Norway striker’s move from Wolves was confirmed just before the 7pm deadline on Monday for an initial £43m plus £5m in bonuses, with Palace having already broken their transfer record this month in signing Brennan Johnson from Tottenham for £35m.

• ‘We have the most goals, the most clean sheets’

• Liam Rosenior predicts ‘physical’ Carabao Cup second leg

Mikel Arteta has laughed off a suggestion from Paul Scholes that Arsenal would be the most boring team to win the Premier League, insisting his side are considered “the most exciting in Europe” in other countries.

Scholes, the former Manchester United midfielder, pointed to the lack of goals from Arsenal’s front four this season and reliance on set pieces as evidence for his claim. Viktor Gyökeres is the club’s top scorer in the league with six, and Arsenal have scored 17 goals from set pieces – three more than any other club.

Habib Diarra and Chemsdine Talbi sat behind opposing dugouts during the acrimonious Africa Cup of Nations final last month, as Senegal defeated Morocco in Rabat.

While suspension deprived Diarra of his starting place for the victors, Morocco’s Talbi was an unused substitute. But, on a freezing Wearside night, they were reunited as Sunderland teammates and duly revelled in taking their frustrations out on Burnley.

• Hosts’ big clash with All Blacks on second weekend

• England will begin against Tonga in Brisbane

The 2027 World Cup will get off to a low-key start with Australia kicking off against Hong Kong after the organisers opted against beginning the tournament with the Wallabies’ blockbuster pool fixture against New Zealand. When Australia were drawn in the same pool as their arch-rivals in December it was widely expected that such a mouth-watering fixture would raise the curtain on the tournament.

However, with the first match taking place on Australia’s west coast in Perth on 1 October, organisers have opted to pit Hong Kong – competing at their first World Cup – against the Wallabies in what is sure to be a one-sided affair. The opening weekend of the tournament features just one fixture involving two tier-one nations – South Africa against Italy.

Author says accusations ‘spread and amplified’ by people more interested in ‘outrage and getting clicks’

Neil Gaiman has said that multiple sexual assault allegations against him are “simply untrue” and claimed to be the victim of a “smear campaign”, in the first post addressing the accusations for almost a year.

Gaiman, 65, author of novels including American Gods and the Ocean at the End of the Lane, has faced allegations of sexual abuse and coercive behaviour, which were outlined in a podcast by the Tortoise Media team in July 2024.