Yulia Lemeshchenko was defiant and did not deny the accusations, saying she had decided to fight against Russian military aggression
At the beginning of autumn 2023, Yulia Lemeshchenko stopped appearing at the Kharkiv gym where she trained most days. A driven athlete, whose talent for weightlifting led her to become champion of Ukraine in 2021, her disappearance prompted confusion among her training partners.
Months later, she resurfaced in a Moscow courtroom, accused of plotting sabotage and assassinations in Russia on behalf of the Ukrainian security services. Prosecutors claimed Lemeshchenko had blown up power lines outside St Petersburg and had later travelled to Voronezh, where she was staking out a Russian air force commander with a view to killing him.
The US president’s fears about ‘woke’ Europe are laughable. He would feel right at home in today’s EU
I expected the EU to push back strongly against Donald Trump’s new national security strategy. Not only does it show contempt for the EU and its “weak” leaders, but it also targets European citizens and migrants with racist dog whistles and barely disguised Islamophobia. Yet instead of a rousing defence of the bloc’s commitment to human rights and equality, there have just been bland platitudes.
António Costa, the president of the European Council, denounced Trump’s plans to boost support for Europe’s far-right parties. But there was no public challenge to the racist logic underpinning his argument. Costa, who has spoken proudly of his mixed ancestry, could have made a convincing counterargument to the US president’s false premise that Europe was heading for “civilisational erasure” because of migrants and, by extension, millions of Europeans of colour.
Shada Islam is a Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs. She runs New Horizons Project, a strategy, analysis and advisory company
Trump has called on Venezuela’s interim leader to adhere to US demands as top Republicans scramble to answer questions about what happens next – key US politics stories from 4 January 2026
Proclaiming the US would “run” Venezuela after abducting its president and his wife, president Trump has now qualified his claim. Amid questions, including from top Republicans, Trump has now called on Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, to accommodate US demands or face the possibility of a fresh military intervention.
Rodríguez, 56, who had on Saturday pledged fealty to ousted president Nicolás Maduro and condemned his capture as an “atrocity”, appears to be adhering to the US line.
Bangladesh was scheduled to play three cricket matches in Kolkata next month, but concern about players’ safety has spiked
Bangladesh will not play their Twenty20 World Cup matches in India, with the country’s cricket board saying they are concerned for the safety of their players amid growing tensions between the countries.
Bangladesh were scheduled to play three Twenty20 World Cup matches in Kolkata next month, with the 7 February to 8 March tournament being co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had targeted Moscow with drones every day of 2026 so far. What we know on day 1,412
Russia’s defence ministry claimed that Ukraine has targeted Moscow with drones every day of 2026 so far, in what would mark an escalation from earlier, more sporadic attacks on the Russian capital. By midnight on Sunday alone, Russian air defence systems had destroyed 57 drones over the Moscow region out of 437 downed over Russia, the ministry said. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, but Kyiv has increasingly used long range drones to strike targets deep inside Russia. Ukraine says such attacks aim to disrupt military logistics and energy infrastructure, raise costs for Moscow’s war effort and respond to repeated Russian missile and drone attacks in the war that Russia launched nearly four years ago.
Three out of four of Moscow’s airports shut to air traffic on Sunday after Ukraine launched dozens of drones, authorities said. The attacks led to multiple flight delays, including at Moscow’s second-busiest airport of Vnukovo, Russian media reported. The disruption comes during Russia’s extended New Year and Orthodox Christmas break, when many Russians take vacations and travel domestically and abroad, making it one of the country’s busiest periods for transport and tourism.
Two people were killed in Ukrainian drone strikes in Russian border regions, local officials said on Sunday. Belgorod’s governor said one person died and two others, including a young child, were wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a car. Another person was killed in a drone strike on a village in the Kursk region, the region’s governor said.
Russia launched overnight strikes on Kyiv province killed two people, Ukrainian authorities said Monday, after a countrywide air alert was issued. One person was killed in the capital, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration. And in the neighbouring city of Fastiv, a man in his 70s also died, Mykola Kalashnyk, the Kyiv regional governor, said.
In Ukraine, three people were wounded in the Kharkiv region in drone strikes from Saturday into Sunday, the country’s state emergency service said. Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian missile attack on the city of Kharkiv on Friday increased to five when body parts were found under the rubble of a building, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire in an industrial zone in the town of Yelets in Russia’s Lipetsk region, the regional governor said. There were no casualties reported. Yelets is home to the Energiya battery plant, a major producer of batteries and accumulators for Russia’s defence industry, which Ukraine said it has hit in the past.
King tides cause highest floodwaters in decades for area, while people are rescued from trapped cars and roads close
High tides and heavy rains have flooded parts of the Bay Area, prompting road closures and rescues of people trapped in cars.
Five northern counties remained under a flood watch, with up to 3in (7.6cm) of rain possible through Monday night in areas that have been drenched off and on since around Christmas, said the National Weather Service office in Eureka. At least a foot (0.3 meters) of snow was likely in the mountains.
Marvel, Lost and Hobbit actor says ‘almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity’ after she fainted and fell face-first into a boulder
Evangeline Lilly has revealed she has brain damage, months after she suffered a concussion when she fainted and fell face-first into a boulder.
The 46-year-old Canadian actor, known for her roles in Lost, The Hobbit films and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, shared the “bad news” video on her Instagram, one of many updates she has shared since she suffered the traumatic brain injury (TBI) in May, when she fainted on a beach and hit her head on a rock.
People who are sent to Manston processing centre will be eligible for searches for electronic devices from Monday
Home Office plans to immediately begin seizing asylum seekers’ mobile phones and sim cards without the need for an arrest have been condemned by a solicitor and anti-torture campaigners.
People who arrive by small boat and are sent to Manston processing centre in Kent will from Monday be eligible for searches for electronic devices, a minister has said, with technology on site to download data.
Rodgers leads Steelers to first AFC North title in five years
Panthers win NFC South after Falcons beat Saints 19–17
Jags rout Titans to clinch AFC South, extend hot streak
Garrett gets sack No 23 to set NFL single-season record
Aaron Rodgers threw a go-ahead touchdown pass to Calvin Austin III with 55 seconds left, and the Steelers beat the Ravens 26-24 on Sunday night when Baltimore’s Tyler Loop missed a 44-yard field goal as time expired, giving Pittsburgh the AFC North title.
Pittsburgh (10-7) will host Houston (12-5) in the opening round of the playoffs on Monday 12 January, following an electric fourth quarter that saw four lead changes, including three in the final four minutes.
Protests bubbled up in several US cities over the weekend as people demonstrated against the Trump administration’s unilateral military intervention in Venezuela – even as many in the diaspora publicly celebrated the forced removal of president Nicolás Maduro.
Gatherings took place as crowds expressed opposition to a potential war with Venezuela and to declare illegal the US operation to snatch Maduro early on Saturday and bring him to the US to face drug-trafficking charges in court.
47th over: England 223-3 (Root 78, Brook 83) Here comes England’s spectre. Brook pulls his first ball, splendidly stopped on the rope by Webster. Pancakes his fifth in a not altogether convincing way, but gets away with it.
46th over: England 217-3 (Root 77, Brook 79) With Brian Draper’s Jerusalem being sung by men in white T-shirts with a printed MCC tie, Root nicks his first ball from Scott Boland for four.
“Uncertainty,” said Griselda Guzmán, a 68-year-old pensioner, fighting back tears as she lined up outside a grocery store with her husband to stock up on supplies in case the coming days brought yet more drama.
He could be in place before Wednesday’s game at Fulham
Chelsea are closing in on the appointment of Liam Rosenior after the Strasbourg manager flew to London to hold talks over the role.
The 41-year-old is due to meet with the west London club on Monday and it is expected that discussions will end with him agreeing to replace Enzo Maresca, who left Stamford Bridge in acrimonious circumstances earlier this.
The prospect of the United States seizing direct control of Venezuela appeared to recede on Sunday after the shocking ousting of president Nicolás Maduro – but US officials warned they might make a fresh military intervention if interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, did not accommodate their demands.
Speaking to reporters late Sunday, Donald Trump also raised the possibility of military action in Colombia.
It would have been easy for Pep Guardiola and Manchester City to think that this was a good time to face Chelsea. The London club had crashed in December, their Premier League form awful and the rising tensions between Enzo Maresca and the board would explode on New Year’s Eve.
There have not been many managerial changes on the very first day of a year and this one left Calum McFarlane, the club’s under-21 coach, thrust in as the interim manager. Never before had he taken charge of a single senior game.
Cameroon await in last eight after beating South Africa
Brahim Díaz scored his fourth goal for Morocco at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to put the hosts into the quarter-finals with a nervous 1-0 victory over Tanzania in Rabat.
Morocco dominated possession but Tanzania had opportunities to cause a huge shock, and it took a fine strike from Brahim to book a place in the last eight.
King Charles leads tributes to Holocaust education campaigner, who he met in 2022, saying he and Camilla ‘admired her deeply’
King Charles has paid tribute to Anne Frank’s stepsister, Eva Schloss, who has died at the age of 96.
The king, who danced with Schloss while visiting a Jewish community centre in north London in 2022, said he and Queen Camilla had “admired her deeply” and he was “privileged and proud” to have known her.
Mark Ratcliffe, 67, had been trying to save Sarah Keeling, 45, and her daughter Grace, 15, who remains missing, police say
A man who died trying to save two people from the sea in East Yorkshire on Friday was attempting to rescue a mother and her teenage daughter, Humberside police have said.
The body of Sarah Keeling, 45, was recovered from Withernsea on Friday, while Grace Keeling, 15, remains missing after being washed away.
The operation to capture the Venezuelan president and his wife involved at least 150 aircraft, months of surveillance – and reportedly a spy in the government
It took the US two hours and 28 minutes to snatch President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in the small hours of Saturday morning, an extraordinary display of imperial power that plunges 30 million Venezuelans into a profound uncertainty. But it was also months in the planning.
Critical to Operation Absolute Resolve was the work of the CIA and other US intelligence agencies. From as early as August, their goal was to establish Maduro’s “pattern of life”, or as Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, described it, to “understand how he moved, where he lived, where he travelled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets”.
11 min Cherki is fouled 25 yards from goal by James. He and Foden are over the ball…
7 min It’s been a comfortable start for Chelsea, with City playing at a relatively slow pace. Their shape is interesting: it’s ostensibly 4-1-4-1 but Reijnders is playing very narrow, so they almost have three central midfielders, Cherki to the right and Nico O’Reilly, the left-back, taking care of business on the other side.
The illegal abduction of Venezuela’s president, and threat to ‘run’ his country, is a dangerous act. Its repercussions will be felt far beyond the region
Amid the immense confusion surrounding the US strikes on Venezuela, the seizure of the president, Nicolás Maduro, and Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will “run” the country and “take back the oil”, one thing is clear – they set a truly chilling precedent. The US has a grim history of interference, invasion and occupation in the region, but the early hours of Saturday saw its first major military attack on South American land. “American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Mr Trump declared. The decision to unilaterally attack another country and abduct its leader – days after he publicly sought an off-ramp – has still wider repercussions. It should alarm us all.
Venezuelans have endured a repressive, kleptocratic and incompetent regime under Mr Maduro, widely believed to have stolen the last election. They now face profound uncertainty at best. Mr Trump has suggested that Mr Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, would follow US instructions, and dismissed the rightwing opposition leader and Nobel prize-winner María Corina Machado as a plausible replacement. But Ms Rodríguez, now interim president, has so far struck a defiant tone – and other parts of the decapitated regime are more hardline.
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New York’s new mayor will face headwinds as he attempts to carry out a programme of civic renewal. But his affordability agenda speaks to the times
The multiple firsts achieved by New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, have been well chronicled: he is the first Muslim to occupy that role, the first south Asian and the first to be born in Africa. He is also the youngest mayor of the largest city in the United States for over a century, having received more votes in November’s election than any candidate since the 1960s. And politically, he is probably the most leftwing incumbent of the office since Fiorello La Guardia in the 1930s and 40s.
Hardly surprising then, that Mr Mamdani’s extraordinary rise to prominence should be accompanied by high expectations and tense anticipation. At last Thursday’s inauguration ceremony, he promised to “govern expansively and audaciously”. Whether he succeeds in doing so will have considerable ramifications for progressive politics more widely.
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