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‘I cannot carry all of this alone’: the couples kept apart by the war in Gaza

Wijdan Abu Matar, 43, was forced to leave Gaza in November 2023 with her eight children for medical treatment, while her injured husband, Hatem, remained behind. Wijdan and her family were living in the Nuseirat refugee camp when the Gaza war began with the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Ten days later, on 17 October that year, an Israeli strike hit the al-Muhandseen tower, near their home, injuring Wijdan and every member of her family. “We were sitting together, just about to start lunch when the bombing happened,” Wijdan recalled. “The ceiling collapsed over our heads. Everything went dark. I couldn’t see anything. I just started screaming the names of my sons and daughters.” Her daughter Nour, 15, suffered the most serious injuries, including a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain. Five-year-old Amna suffered severe burns to her chest. The family was initially separated after the strike. Nour spent about 33 days in intensive care, with Wijdan by her side. Amna and Aysel, three and a half, were at a different hospital for 15 days. On 30 November 2023, Wijdan travelled with Nour to a hospital in Egypt for treatment. For months, the family remained scattered across Egypt, receiving medical treatment and staying with other relatives. “I felt completely helpless,” Wijdan said. “There was a fire in my heart because I was away from my husband and my family was scattered.” Eventually, Wijdan managed to bring her children together in an apartment in Egypt. Three years on, however, she is still separated from her husband, who remains in Gaza. “I have become both the mother and the father to my children,” she said. “The responsibility is exhausting me, and I am constantly worried about my husband.” Hatem suffered a serious leg injury that limits his mobility and is now displaced in a tent in Nuseirat. Even speaking to him is difficult because of Gaza’s unreliable internet connection. “When he manages to get online, he calls me and the children. He tells me, ‘I am counting the days until I can see you again.’ I can see the tears in his eyes,” Wijdan says. Wijdan has no regular source of income and relies on donations. Hatem stopped receiving a salary 10 months ago and his injury prevents him from working. In Egypt, life is difficult for Wijdan and her family. She says she cannot afford transportation to send five of her children to school. “I see my children’s future slipping away in front of me, and there is nothing I can do.” Nour still requires medical treatment, but Wijdan often cannot afford her medication. She sometimes considers returning to Gaza to be with Hatem, but fears exposing her children to further suffering. “I dream of getting my children the treatment they need, and I hope we can reunite with my husband as soon as possible so he can also receive treatment,” Wijdan said. “I cannot carry all of this alone. Psychologically, I am exhausted. I have lost 35 members of my family in this war.” Since the war began with Hamas’s attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, at least 73,783 Palestinians have been killed and 174,738 wounded, according to the health ministry. Earlier this year an independent UN inquiry found that Israel continues to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza. Sami Abu Tabaq, a 29-year-old Palestinian photojournalist, was forced to leave the Gaza Strip in April 2024, leaving behind his family and his fiancee, Ola. “Loneliness kills me every day,” he said. “Life away from the woman I love and my family is incredibly hard. I’m desperately waiting for the day God brings us together again.” Sami became engaged to Ola five months before the war began. They had met by chance when he chose her family’s home as a location for a photoshoot. Before the war, they saw each other constantly. They went to the sea, had dinner at restaurants in Gaza, and spent months preparing the house where they planned to live after their wedding, which was scheduled for November 2023. Sami and his family fled their home in Tal al-Zaatar, Jabaliya, early on in the war. Their home was badly damaged and later destroyed, along with the house Sami and Ola had been planning to move into once they got married. When his sister decided to flee south with her children, Sami accompanied her but he could not reach Ola to say goodbye. The separation became unbearable. Days, sometimes weeks, passed without Sami knowing whether Ola was alive. Once, he saw reports that an entire residential block near her home in Gaza City had been bombed. “I almost lost my mind. I had never felt so helpless,” he said. Unable to return north, he asked his brother to check on her. Eventually, his brother confirmed that she and her family were alive. Sami continued working as a photojournalist from southern Gaza. Four journalists who had shared his tent were later killed, including Hamza al-Dahdouh, a son of the Al Jazeera journalist Wael al-Dahdouh. As Israel threatened a ground invasion of Rafah in 2024, Ola began urging Sami to leave Gaza, fearing he would be killed. Sami paid a company coordinating exits at the time for both of them to cross into Egypt. But Ola could not reach southern Gaza to travel through Rafah. “She told me, ‘You go, and I’ll follow you,’” Sami said. “And here we are, still waiting, nearly two and a half years later.” They still have not managed to get married. By his second day in Egypt, Sami was overwhelmed by guilt. “The overthinking kills me,” he said. “I felt ashamed to turn on the lights or eat proper food while my fiancee and my family were struggling to find the most basic things.” In Egypt, his life has become dominated by loneliness and sleeplessness. “There is safety in Egypt and there are beautiful places, but I stay home. Happiness has no meaning without her. I cannot enjoy anything while she is not here,” he said. Despite the war, Ola completed her bachelor’s degree in nursing at the Islamic University of Gaza. She has also endured enormous loss: her cousin, the journalist Ayat Khadoura, was killed, along with about 50 other members of her extended family. From Egypt, Sami tries to create moments of happiness for her. For her latest birthday, he contacted her brother in Gaza and secretly arranged a cake, gift and flowers. “When she woke up and saw everything, she was so happy. I love her reaction when she’s happy.” The only problem was the flowers. “They were artificial,” he said. “I wasn’t happy with them, but natural flowers can’t get into Gaza because Israel does not allow them in.” Sami says he has tried every possible way to get Ola out, without success. She is now applying for scholarships abroad, hoping education might provide a route to evacuation and, eventually, to him. Sami recently travelled to Mecca for Umrah, where one prayer remained constantly on his mind. “I prayed, ‘God, please bring us together soon,’” he said. “But one thing I know for sure: I will wait for her for the rest of my life, until God brings us together.”

Mexican judge sentences three men to 158 years in prison for murders of Australian and US surfers

A Mexican ⁠judge ⁠has sentenced three men to 158 years ⁠and nine months in prison each for ⁠the murder of two Australian ‌brothers ‌and their American friend during ‌a 2024 surf trip to the state of Baja California. The ‌defendants were declared guilty a week ago of homicide, aggravated robbery, robbery with violence and vehicle theft ⁠with violence, crimes committed against Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, and their ‌American friend Carter Rhoad. Rhoad and the Robinsons were shot dead in a suspected robbery while travelling through Mexico. They were camping in a remote beachside area near the city of Ensenada when they were attacked on 27 April 2024. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Their bodies were found days later in a clifftop well with gunshot wounds to the heads. Jesus Gerardo – known as “El Kekas” – was accused of leading the attack. His surname has not been disclosed for legal reasons. Two other defendants, Irineo Francisco and Angel Jesus, were also found guilty and have been sentenced. The families of the victims followed the sentencing hearing via video link. Prosecutors had requested damages of more than $100,000 but the judge ruled against it and said any compensation would have to be pursued through civil proceedings. The brothers’ parents, Martin and Debra Robinson, travelled from Australia to the port city of Ensenada for the trial, which began on 7 September. They have established a foundation in their sons’ names to carry on their legacy. The Callum and Jake Robinson Foundation aims to “help people live bigger, shine brighter and love harder in their honour”. Callum, the older of the two brothers, moved to the US as a professional lacrosse player and has been remembered for his loving nature and passion for the environment, having been involved in coastal cleanups. Jake, a doctor, was set to take up a position at Geelong hospital after returning to Australia. He has been remembered for his academic success, his passion for sport, particularly cricket and surfing, and his compassion. Baja California is one of Mexico’s most violent states, plagued by organised crime and drug trafficking, although cartel activity does not usually affect tourists. Other foreign visitors have, however, been targeted in criminal attacks on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Two Australian surfers, Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, were killed in 2015 while travelling through the north-western state of Sinaloa. Their bodies were later burned.

Mimicking populists will not ease cost of living or boost productivity, Mathias Cormann warns

Australia’s mainstream political parties are being warned not to adopt populist policies such as migration caps to address voters’ grievances over the cost of living. Instead, Australia’s longest-serving finance minister, Mathias Cormann, is urging politicians to deliver housing, real wage growth and lower energy costs by boosting productivity. Now the secretary general for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Cormann will deliver an address to the Centre for Independent Studies on Saturday night spruiking productivity as the only way to reliably lower the cost of living over the long term. Though not directly named in his address, One Nation – which largely runs on an anti-immigration platform – has surged in popularity since the 2025 federal election, with its primary vote reaching 25%, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, rising above the Coalition’s 22%. While populist parties may have gained traction by speaking to real grievances about rising energy bills, home ownership and real incomes going backwards, Cormann is expected to warn Labor and the Coalition not to follow suit. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “Mainstream parties that respond to a populist surge by adopting its economics do not recover their voters. They lose twice: once to the original, which the electorate will always prefer to the copy, and once to the centre, which has nowhere else to go,” he will say in his address. “The lesson is consistent: deliver homes, lower energy costs, real wage growth and a credible budget, and the populist tide recedes. “Mimic the populists, and you simply confirm that they were right all along. The way to defeat populism is to solve the problems it feeds on.” Cormann will point to “arbitrary migration caps” imposed regardless of their effect on business, hospitals, aged care or universities. He will acknowledge more Australians now than any time in the past 20 years say the migration intake is too high and may support such policies, with many attributing their concerns to housing. But the answer is to address housing supply, infrastructure, services and the composition of the migration intake, he will say. According to OECD research across Australia’s regions, in places where more migrants arrived, employment among Australian-born workers grew faster, not slower, with no measurable effect on their wages. Without migration, Australia’s working-age population would decrease as the number of older people grows. “An ageing country that chooses to shrink its working-age population while promising to spend more on health, care and defence has not developed a plan – it has put forward a contradiction,” Cormann will say. Tariffs, which have been imposed by US president Donald Trump and proposed by One Nation, would also fail to address the cost of living and could instead raise costs for farmers, miners and builders, Cormann will say. He believes Australia can only grow its way out of the issue through productivity. “There is no shortcut to a lower cost of living. There is no populist shortcut, through tariffs and caps and state banks,” he will say. “There is only the long way round: an economy that produces more, competes harder and grows faster than its costs … anyone offering you a quicker route is offering you a poorer country.”

Ukraine war briefing: Russia building non-negotiable ‘security zone’ inside Ukrainian border, Putin declares

Russia is establishing a “security zone” inside Ukraine along the border and it will be non-negotiable in any ⁠future talks with Kyiv, Vladimir Putin has said. The Russian president, wearing military uniform and speaking during a visit to a command post, said the operation ⁠was in response to Ukraine’s ⁠2024-25 incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region. “The Russian armed forces were tasked not only with expelling the enemy from our land but also with establishing a security zone ⁠in the adjacent territory. This task is being carried out successfully,” he said in televised comments on Friday. “Our goal is to ensure the absolute security of Russia’s border regions ⁠for the future, and we do not plan to make this a subject for potential peace negotiations with Ukraine.” The planned ‌security zone spanned 660km (410 ‌miles), of which 70% was currently under Russia’s control, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. Peskov did not say how deep it would ‌reach inside Ukraine. The zone requires Russia to carve out land in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, which are not among those it is illegally claiming as its own territory. Donald Trump has put on hold a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, telling the US Congress the pause on the legislation which passed both chambers was in the national interest. The US president said in an executive order on Friday he was waiving many ⁠sanctions, restrictions and duties ⁠on Russia, in a move that comes as he has been publicly criticising ⁠Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian military’s access to the Starlink satellite internet service had not yet been fully restored, as media reports suggested the order to throttle the service had come from within the White House. Zelenskyy met European leaders on Friday in Brussels and asked the EU for another €70bn ($79bn/£59bn) next year to fund Ukraine’s defence against Russia, report Jennifer Rankin and Andrew Roth. Hours earlier Trump called Ukraine’s renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries “a disgrace” after his purported “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine failed to take hold. A Russian ⁠airstrike on Kherson in southern ⁠Ukraine killed one ⁠person and ‌injured ‌19 others, the governor ‌said on Saturday. The person ‌killed was an ambulance driver and ⁠a child was among the injured, Oleksandr Prokudin said ‌on Telegram. Russian attacks on Friday killed at least eight people and injured 60 ⁠across Ukraine, hit two shopping centres and cut power to more than 1 million people after strikes on the energy grid, ⁠officials said. Two were kiled and 12 more wounded in attacks on three districts of the eastern city of Kharkiv, governor Oleh Syniehubov ⁠said. Further Russian strikes through the evening injured nine, officials said. Attacks in Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region killed two and another two were killed in south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. A drone strike on a food-processing facility killed one person and wounded eight in the north-western region of Volyn, according to governor Roman Romaniuk, leaving 370,000 people temporarily without power. Drone attacks also struck a customs terminal and torched about 10 trucks in the town of Kovel, he said. Other attacks hit at least two shopping centres – one in the northern city of Sumy and another in the neighbouring region of ⁠Rivne, officials said. The attacks came as a new report showed that civilian casualties from Russia’s invasion have climbed steeply. At least 328 civilians were killed and 2,105 wounded last month – a total that is 85% higher than in September last year, the report from the UN human rights office in Kyiv said on Friday. It said intensifying Russian attacks in October already had killed dozens of civilians, including children. “The first two weeks of October were among the deadliest periods for civilians in years,” said Danielle Bell, the UN office head. As Russian missiles and drones have systematically slammed into power plants in Kyiv and Kharkiv this week, the rolling blackouts and water outages have increasingly resembled a supposed Russian blueprint to destroy life in major Ukrainian cities seen by the Guardian, writes Andrew Roth in this analysis.

Uncovering the secrets of New Zealand’s elusive ‘jungle penguins’

Deep in the misty fjords of New Zealand’s South Island, a team of researchers is trying to catch one of the world’s most elusive penguins: the forest-dwelling tawaki, or Fiordland crested penguin.For weeks, researchers stand sentry each day over a burrow on Eleanor Island, hoping to corner the female bird so they can retrieve data from its tagging device. But this penguin has developed a clever exit strategy – digging multiple tunnels to elude its captors. The Tutoko I prepares for a research trip during its annual Fiordland crested penguin nest survey around Doubtful Sound “It took us about four days to recapture that bird,” says Dr Thomas Mattern, a research fellow at the University of Otago and chair of the Tawaki Project, a scientific initiative established to study the population. “We plugged all the holes around the nest so that it could not escape, until we finally could recover that device,” he adds. In a first for the species, Tawaki Project researchers are conducting long-term population counts, unlocking secrets about the bird’s breeding and foraging habits, and what threats they might face. The project is New Zealand’s most comprehensive mapping of tawaki nests. Over September, it mapped 93 nests across two islands in Fiordland, and has now mapped 1,200 nests across nine fjords in the past 12 years. Its mapping shows the tawaki population is roughly three times bigger than earlier surveys suggest, says Mattern, pictured below at Precipice Cove. Dr Thomas Mattern searches for tawaki near Precipice Cove during a research trip with the Tawaki Project The Māori name for crested penguins, tawaki, is a catch-all for several species around New Zealand and the sub-Antarctic region, but the focus of this annual voyage is on the declining species that inhabits remote Fiordland, New Zealand’s largest national park, which is Unesco heritage listed. Until German-born Mattern and his wife, Ursula Ellenberg, founded the volunteer research project in 2014, almost nothing was known about Fiordland’s tawaki, which stands half a metre tall, and features prominent yellow eyebrows. “Tawaki are a ghost,” Mattern says of the penguin’s enigmatic behaviour. But “they are the most amazing penguin species … They do not fit any penguin mould. What we know about penguins, you throw it all out of the window.” Clockwise from top left: A tawaki taking shelter. A research vessel at anchor near the Shelter Islands. Dr Thomas Mattern looks for penguins. A nest tag on Eleanor Island Unlike most penguins, the Fiordland tawaki do not breed in colonies, preferring instead to build single burrows deep in dense rainforest, sometimes at high elevations. While some other species can nest in forests, tawaki are unique because they nest exclusively in forests, Mattern says, describing them as “proper jungle penguins”. Its hunting habits are also unusual. Some groups fish entirely within the fjords, while others hunt in the ocean. The tawaki’s habits have baffled scientists “When you think you have them nailed down, you go to a different fjord, and they show behaviour that just does not conform to any of the ideas you have developed so far,” Mattern says. ‘Absolutely zero sense’ Tawaki have also become infamous among scientists for their baffling journey to feed before they go through their annual “catastrophic moult” – the scientific term for when animals shed and replace all their feathers in one go. All penguins moult after breeding season and before they do, they eat vast quantities of food to put on weight. Despite an abundance of food around the fjords in December (when breeding season ends), tawaki undertake a 5,000 to 7,000km return trip to the sub-Antarctic region to feed. “These emaciated tawaki, that have just said goodbye to their chicks, hop in the water and travel halfway to Antarctica, which makes absolutely zero sense because there should be more than enough food in the water just outside their breeding area,” Mattern says. “They are running a marathon, while trying to gain weight.” Researchers Owen Dabkowski and Mandy Abernethy explore a nest on Eleanor Island Mattern believes tawaki are likely acting on ancient instinct, heading to grounds where all other crested penguin species feed. The Tawaki Project is funded by public donations and international grants, and supported by local volunteers, such as Richard Abernathy, the owner of tourism company Fiordland Expeditions, who donates his boat and time to the expedition for several weeks a year. “Since 2018, we’ve been chasing penguins all over Fiordland,” says Abernathy whose ability to find nests in surprising places has earned him the nickname “sniffer dog”. Together, their efforts have “shed light on the most understudied species” in New Zealand, Mattern says. In 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List moved tawaki up in status from “vulnerable” to “near-threatened” because the researchers were able to develop a better picture of their populations, estimated to be in the region of 12,00 to 15,000 mature birds. A tawaki swims in Charles Sound in Fiordland But risks remain, including from commercial fishing practices. “[We’re] looking at survival rates … to determine whether the population is stable,” says Mattern. “If they’re going down, then we need to kick into gear to improve the situation for them.”

Starlink access still not fully restored for Ukraine’s military, says Zelenskyy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the Ukrainian military’s access to the Starlink satellite internet service has not yet been fully restored, as media reports suggested the order to throttle the service had come from within the White House. Zelenskyy met European leaders on Friday in Brussels, where he asked the EU for another €70bn (£60bn) next year to fund Ukraine’s defence against Russia. The meeting offered an important opportunity for Zelenskyy and Europe to align their strategies, as Zelenskyy once again found himself embroiled in a major quarrel with the US president, Donald Trump. Hours earlier, Trump had called Ukraine’s renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries “a disgrace” and criticised ⁠Zelenskyy, after a purported “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine failed to take hold. “All he’s doing is making the world oil price higher,” Trump told the Newsmax television channel. “Well, I think that’s a disgrace.” Energy analysts told the BBC that the US-Israeli war on Iran was having the biggest impact on diesel export volumes, although the Ukraine war was also significant. Trump’s administration is suspected of withholding intelligence from Ukraine on incoming Russian ballistic missile strikes, and of throttling Starshield, the military version of the Starlink satellite internet network, to prevent it from being used on drones flying faster than 100mph. Neither has officially been confirmed. Speaking after meeting EU leaders on Friday, Zelenskyy said that Starshield had not yet returned to normal. “Our defence ministry is in touch and my partners, they told me that there were signals from the White House that they would return these capabilities,” Zelenskyy said. “Have they returned to the previous speed limits? No. But is it coming back now? Yes.” Reuters on Friday reported that the order to throttle Starshield had come from inside the White House, according to two US officials and a western official briefed on the matter. They did not identify the White House official who had made the decision, but said the Pentagon had been informed that the SpaceX Starshield service for the Ukrainian military had to be slowed. Trump said on Friday he did not think either ⁠he or ⁠Elon Musk was responsible for Ukraine losing Starshield access and that any limits were not imposed by the US. Starshield is produced by Musk’s SpaceX but controlled by the US government. Zelenskyy called it a “very dangerous and unpleasant surprise” that speeds had been reduced on Starlink, which Ukraine uses to support its most effective air defence systems against Russian jet-powered drones. Russian attacks killed at least eight people and injured 60 ⁠across Ukraine on Friday, hitting two shopping centres and temporarily power to more than 1 million people, ⁠officials said. When Zelenskyy arrived for talks with EU leaders, he was applauded by the heads of state and government of the bloc’s 27 countries. Zelenskyy later said he had heard “only support”, when asked about reports that European leaders had asked him to dial down his criticism of Trump. According to a transcript of his remarks, he told EU leaders that the war would cost €155bn in 2027. “And we need at least €70bn more from you – for defence, for weapons, and for our resilience,” he said. “This is a realistic amount.” The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed with Zelenskyy that “it is clear that we have a gap of €70bn that has to be covered” for 2027, although she expected Ukraine’s other partners – which she did not name – to cover part of the sum. The EU is currently giving Ukraine regular payments from a €90bn funding plan agreed last December that was intended to cover two-thirds of Kyiv’s civilian and military needs for 2026-27. The remaining third was to be filled by other “international partners”, such as the UK, Canada, Norway and Japan. The realisation that Kyiv again risks a financial crunch has put Russia’s €210bn assets frozen inside the EU back on the table. The EU takes the profits from those assets to support Ukraine, but last year decided against using the funds themselves, instead opting for an EU-backed €90bn loan. Belgium, which hosts the vast majority of the Russian funds, remains strongly opposed to using the frozen assets, fearing it will be left to carry the financial burden if the plan goes wrong. But Zelenskyy said there could be an alternative. “We need something like a special EU-controlled custodian to reduce the risk of them being unfrozen and divided up among those who clearly do not want what is best for Europe or an end to this war,” he said. The European Commission, a strong backer of last year’s rejected frozen assets plan, has been reluctant to propose new variants – such as an EU-controlled custodian – because it fears running into same opposition from Belgium and other sceptical member states. Before the summit, Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, said Zelenskyy would “probably look everybody straight in the eye and say: thank you for the €90bn, but that money is going to run out because a war is a very costly thing”.

EU’s support to Ukraine matters more than ever, von der Leyen says, as US relationship sours – as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. Earlier, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked the leaders for another €70bn next year to fund Ukraine’s defence against Russia as he joined a key EU summit in Brussels (10:10, 13:44, 15:13, 15:26, 16:00). EU’s Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa confirmed the bloc will look at the request (19:01, 19:14, 19:20), as they said the EU’s support to Ukraine “matters more than ever” given growing pressures from Russia. During a press conference in Brussels, Zelenskyy responded to US president Donald Trump’s criticism of his actions (13:51, 13:56, 14:04), and confirmed that Starlink satellite systems were back up, but with speeds not completely restored to previous levels (13:42). Zelenskyy smiled but offered no response to a suggestion he was being used as a “scapegoat” for Donald Trump’s domestic problems ahead of next month’s midterm elections (14:06). German chancellor Friedrich Merz said there was a “broad consensus” on the EU’s need to keep supporting Ukraine throughout this coming winter, acknowledging Kyiv’s request for further financial assistance (16:45), and appearing to back retaliatory strikes against Russian communication and energy supply systems (16:49, 16:54). Several other EU leaders offered their backing for Ukraine, (10:10, 10:21, 10:25, 10:36, 11:09, 11:23), with top EU figures saying the bloc would not lift any sanctions on Russia unless it stops the war (10:10), and criticising Trump’s diesel deal with Russia (10:10, 19:32). Zelenskyy declined to say if Ukraine will be targeting Russian refineries (13:47). EU’s Costa insisted the new EU budget needed to be agreed by the end of the year, despite calls to delay its adoption considering a number of big elections in the EU (19:27). The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, insisted the bloc needed a bigger budget with “flexibilities” to respond to various crises (19:12). Germany’s Merz conceded there were still “significant differences” between EU capitals on the budget, with talks expected to continue until the end of the year (16:43, 16:54, 16:59). Separately, Pope Leo spoke with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, this afternoon, expressing his grave concern for the humanitarian situation in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky (17:36). The Kremlin said Putin expressed his support for Leo’s ideas, but blamed Ukraine for the situation in the city (18:22). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.