Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least one person died and seven were injured in this morning’s Russian attacks on Kyiv. In a series of updates, he said Russian drones struck a business centre, a transport facility, and a “non-residential building,” among others. Separately, Ukrainian oil company Ukrnafta said Russia hit one of its petrol stations in the capital, the sixth such facility attacked in recent weeks.
Fears are mounting that the next UN secretary general will downgrade the priority of the climate crisis, according to climate and civil society experts. The current secretary general, António Guterres, has been the most forthright on the subject, calling fossil fuel companies “the godfathers of climate chaos” and warning governments they are rushing down a “highway to hell” by failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions. His repeated championing of the urgency of the crisis and willingness to take on vested interests are credited with significant global impacts, forcing governments to confront their policy failures and keeping alive the aims of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, despite the rising tide of populism and disinformation. Guterres must step down at the end of his second five-year term on 31 December and the choice of his successor will be one of the top concerns among the scores of heads of government meeting in New York this week for the UN general assembly. Many of Guterres’s most likely successors have shown less enthusiasm for tackling the climate crisis, despite rising alarm at its impacts, and experts have told the Guardian that some of the candidates could be “disastrous” yet could enjoy the support of influential countries including the US and its allies. Three candidates in particular have raised concerns: the Argentinian diplomat Rafael Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency; Macky Sall, the former president of Senegal; and Olara Otunnu, a Ugandan former presidential candidate who has served as UN undersecretary general for children and armed conflict. Numerous insiders and experts told the Guardian that Grossi was “trying to be a friend of Donald Trump” and maintained close links with Argentina’s populist president, Javier Milei, a climate denier. “Grossi is not a climate denier himself, but those links could lead him to downplay climate,” said one close observer, who could not be named. Sall is seen as a potential champion of gas in Africa as a “transitional fuel”, which many African leaders want to exploit. “I wonder how far he would be willing to push [climate action] when it conflicts with African [fossil fuel] energy interests,” said the observer. Otunnu may feel national pressure on the politics of African gas and oil exploration, as Uganda has discovered large oil and gas deposits that it plans to exploit. “He’s a big question mark,” said another expert. “Given the fossil fuel politics of Uganda, would he make climate constraints politically binding when they conflict with development priorities?” Andreas Sieber, the head of political strategy at the campaign group 350.org, said: “The gender gap is impossible to miss: all five women candidates range from credible to genuinely compelling, while the men could be auditioning for a job description from the past century.” Some candidates have a stronger climate record. Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana has pushed strongly for Indigenous rights and social development, particularly on fairer finance. Rebeca Grynspan, an economist from Costa Rica, has linked the climate crisis to debt in the developing world, arguing both crises need to be tackled together. Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, has said governments can no longer treat climate action as a choice but a necessity, but she was reported this week to have dropped out of the race. María Fernanda Espinosa, a former foreign minister of Ecuador, led the country’s negotiating team at several UN climate Cop summits. Ivonne Baki, also known as Ivonne A-Baki, another Ecuadorian former minister, has pioneered several conservation schemes but expressed doubt over the efficacy of emissions reductions, to the consternation of climate campaigners. A spokesperson for Baki told the Guardian: “Ambassador A-Baki’s commitment to climate action is longstanding and unequivocal. What she has questioned is not the need to reduce emissions, but whether climate policy will succeed if it becomes detached from economic realities, development needs and the livelihoods of the people it is intended to protect. Her position is that the world must pursue emissions reductions while dramatically strengthening adaptation, climate finance and protection of the natural systems on which human security depends.” Carlos Lopes, a professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town, said: “There is a real risk that the next secretary general may be less forceful on climate than Guterres has been, not necessarily because of the individual ultimately selected, but because the political environment has changed considerably: climate diplomacy is facing stronger geopolitical headwinds, the multilateral system is under greater strain, and we are seeing forms of ‘climate hushing’, including among countries that only a few years ago wanted to be seen as leaders.” He added: “A new secretary general may understandably want to establish a distinctive agenda, but climate cannot now be treated as one issue among many competing for attention.” Continuing Guterres’s strong sense of mission on the climate must be the minimum for his successor, experts told the Guardian. “It’s absolutely critical that the climate remains at the heart of what the UN does,” said Cosima Cassel, the climate diplomacy programme lead at the E3G thinktank. The new incumbent must take on fossil fuel interests emboldened by the Trump administration and with profits bolstered by soaring fuel prices. Against a rising tide of climate denialism and misinformation, the UN is also asking governments to regulate AI, a task begun under Guterres but which will fall mainly to the next head, and could be crucial in determining whether AI becomes a vast new source of emissions. Focusing on methane – a greenhouse gas 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, which comes from leaky oil and gas operations, waste landfills and agriculture – should be a top priority, said Durwood Zaelke, the president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. “Cutting methane is the single most important strategy to slow near-term warming,” he said. “If we want to stop the punishing heatwaves, we need to turn off the methane blowtorch.” Countries have few constraints on the gas at present: even basic efforts such as plugging abandoned coalmines are still lacking. Electrification, which will be under the spotlight at the Cop31 summit this November, should also be a key push, aided by concerns over oil dependence raised by the Iran war. And climate finance is still not flowing to poor countries: as the tragedy in Nepal demonstrated, countries stricken by climate disaster are not receiving “loss and damage” money promised for their rescue and rehabilitation. The new UN chief must threaten and cajole rich countries into paying their share, even while the UN faces budget cuts of its own amid the withdrawal of US cash. Claudio Angelo, of the Observatório do Clima network in Brazil, said: “A secretary general can only be as good as the institution they head, and the UN is being hollowed out by the US.” Many prominent figures in climate diplomacy see the UN as an essential linchpin in climate action. Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, said: “We are watching the planet’s life support systems collapse around us. This could not be more urgent. The next secretary general doesn’t just need to match the ambitions of previous SGs, they have to make this one of their top priorities and be a beacon for leaders all over the world to phase out fossil fuels.”
Good morning. In the early hours of Tuesday a plane carrying Andy Burnham, a handful of UK ministers, an excited group of British political journalists, and Burnham’s wife, Marie France, landed at a New York airport for one of Burnham’s first major outings as prime minister: a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump. Considering the president once described Burnham as the mayor of “a town,” and the prime minister once said Trump wouldn’t be welcome in said town (Manchester), the meeting yesterday afternoon went remarkably well. That was the feeling among observers at the UN general assembly, an annual festival of hobnobbing and dealmaking for global leaders. Save for a few minor hiccups (Trump described Burnham as a “natural businessperson,” which will be news to Burnham), their meeting was relaxed. Marie France was entertained at a “spouses lunch” with Melania, and Burnham will no doubt have ended the day with a sense of relief. But for all the warm words in Manhattan, Burnham and his foreign secretary Ed Miliband still have tricky questions to answer about how they deal with Trump. Faced with a resurgent far right that has been emboldened by his administration, how should Burnham approach the country that was – until recently – the first ally Britain would call in a diplomatic crisis? Today’s newsletter tries to answer that question with the help of our political editor, Pippa Crerar, who was on the plane. First, though, here are the headlines. Five big stories UN general assembly | Donald Trump has called on nations to unite to isolate Tehran and bring down global energy prices, as he gave a bellicose defence of his administration’s foreign policy and decision to strike Iran. The far right | Charities have condemned footage of a far-right activist using a blade to slash an inflatable dinghy in the Channel while a rescue worker was onboard, in a further escalation of organised anti-immigration protest. UK news | Children as young as 13 in the UK have been referred to a specialist clinic for a “devastating” bladder condition linked to sustained use of ketamine. West Bank | British banks and financial institutions are receiving warnings from MPs that they should not invest in Israel’s E1 settlement project. UK politics | Andy Burnham has opened the door to fighting the next election on the UK rejoining the EU, but said his immediate priority was continuing to rebuild bridges with European allies. In depth: ‘There are some really thorny issues coming up’ A non-exhaustive list of Trump’s recent foreign policy achievements is a good reminder of just how swiftly he has destroyed what is rosily described as the “rules-based international order”. Since taking office in 2025, he has installed loyalists in key positions, flirted with the idea of withdrawing from Nato, abolished USAID, gutted the US state department, threatened to acquire Greenland “by any means necessary”, captured the president of Venezuela and recast foreign policy as a brutal means of putting “America first”. His administration’s national security strategy, published in December 2025, was described by one former Pentagon official as a “manifesto for the global far right”. It declared that Europe faces the “stark prospect of civilizational erasure” (echoing the far-right conspiracy of a “Great Replacement”) and said that America would encourage the promotion of “patriotic European parties”. Despite this, western leaders have taken a while to adjust to the second Trump presidency. “Starmer got quite a lot of criticism for being obsequious to Trump,” Pippa tells me. His reverence was on full display when he placated Trump with a royal visit that included a dinner-party seat next to the Princess of Wales, and when he struck a controversial trade deal that will force the NHS to spend more on US-branded drugs (the deal, for which the US agreed not to put tariffs on British pharmaceutical exports, could cost the NHS as much as £44.7bn by 2030, my colleague Aditya Chakrabortty reported in June). Starmer’s stance gradually toughened as he realised that placating Trump was no guarantee of protection. Later in his premiership, he refused to let Trump use UK military bases in America’s initial strikes on Iran. “But he was seen by some inside the government as being too flattering and fawning,” says Pippa. *** What’s changed? On the surface, not much. Within hours of arriving at the UN, Trump managed to alienate just about everyone, telling a journalist from CNN, one of the three networks he’s banned from the White House, “you should not be here covering me,” openly contemplating the annihilation of Iran, a UN member state, taking a shot at Cuba and attacking the UN for “imposing a radical left-wing agenda”. Burnham, meanwhile, wasn’t that different in tone from Starmer. He shook Trump’s hand, forgave him for once describing him as the mayor of a town, made the obligatory noises about loving the US, and appeared to nod along while Trump excoriated the Chagos Island deal (Starmer’s proposal to give Mauritius sovereignty over the island on the condition that the UK can continue to operate the Diego Garcia military base there). “Our understanding is that Downing Street is sticking to the Chagos deal,” Pippa tells me. Even so, Burnham has said he wants to take a different approach to US relations, suggesting in June that he wouldn’t just “go along with anything they say”. The clearest sign of this intention was the sweeping sanctions that Ed Miliband imposed on trade with Israeli settlements earlier this month. At yesterday’s meeting, a journalist asked Trump what he thought about the decision. Trump didn’t take the bait, and instead deferred to Burnham. “It was an unusual show of reticence,” Pippa says. It seemed like a vindication of the careful diplomatic work that took place over the summer, when Miliband and diplomats at the Foreign Office formed a 12-nation coalition to back the policy. Perhaps it will give them confidence that it’s possible to make a principled stand without suffering severe repercussions. *** What were the flashpoints? “It’s impossible to get away from the fact that despite the cordial relations, there are some really thorny issues coming up,” Pippa says. One of those is Iran. Burnham told journalists on the plane to New York that he would be pushing Trump to de-escalate the conflict (Trump said yesterday that he’d strike a deal with Iran after the midterm elections, which seems highly unlikely). Britain has longstanding diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, and Burnham recently agreed that Britain would help refuel Saudi jets that are defending energy infrastructure against Houthi rebels. With this decision, he’s treading a fine line between assisting a regional ally, and getting drawn into a wider conflict. In his speech at the general assembly, Burnham announced he would be launching a new international centre to establish global standards on AI. It’s unclear whether he’ll go as far as nations such as Norway and Finland in backing legislation to prevent the launch of new AI models that haven’t undergone rigorous safety testing, something that ministers in Starmer’s government were previously exploring. In any case, his speech on AI put him firmly at odds with Trump, who described attempts to regulate AI as a “globalist scheme”, and declared that from now on, his administration will now be referring to AI as SI: Super Intelligence. *** What should Burnham do next? As the Trump administration has helped to erode old alliances like Nato and the G7, new and temporary alliances have emerged, including the nations that Miliband convinced to back his West Bank sanctions. In a speech at Davos earlier this year, Canada’s Mark Carney spoke of a “rupture in the world order” and called for the world’s democratic “middle powers” to come together to build alliances based on shared values. “Burnham doesn’t want to take the Carney approach of all-out diplomatic war with the US, because the US is still our biggest security and economic ally,” Pippa tells me. “But we live in a world of spheres of influence – the US, China, and the EU – and that means having to make decisions about which sphere we want to belong to, whether geographically, or ethically.” As the Guardian contributor Steve Bloomfield recently wrote in this interesting piece, the idea of foreign policy with an “ethical dimension” of the sort once espoused by the Labour foreign secretary Robin Cook has often been regarded as something of a joke. But in a battle between liberal democracies and an authoritarian far right, demonstrating an alternative to the cruelty and belligerence of the Trump administration is arguably more important than ever. Miliband’s sanctions announcement is a promising start, but nobody knows yet how far Burnham will be willing to go. What else we’ve been enjoying The diary of a 12-year-old boy living in Gaza, part of our powerful Gaza: a week in the life series about the daily routines of ordinary Palestinians, is not an easy read and all the more essential to take in because of that. Libby For those of us keen to understand more about the complexities of our prison crises, this interview with Pia Sinha, head of the Prison Reform Trust, is a hugely enlightening read. Lucinda Everett, newsletters team The most interesting part of any party conference is what the politicians are trying to avoid talking about in public: here Gaby Hinsliff explains why the pensions triple lock is prompting a phoney debate on tax and spend. Libby “Most clubs have got cryotherapy chambers”. That’s just one of many brilliantly debunking insights from a top performance director in an interview with Sam Cunningham about how pseudoscience is taking over football. Lucinda I’m a true believer in olive oil, so was relieved to hear Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman tell our Science Weekly podcast that Mediterranean trumps all the other faddy diets he’s investigated. Libby Sport Cricket | Will Jacks excelled with both bat and ball as England overwhelmed Sri Lanka by 89 runs in the first one-day international at Chester-le-Street. Football | Manchester City rallied from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Bayern Munich in the return of the Women’s Champions League. Two-time European champion Arsenal needed a stoppage-time winner to defeat HB Køge 1-0 at home. Rugby union | England back row Henry Pollock has signed a bumper new contract with Northampton. The 21-year-old has agreed a “multi-year” deal, the Prem champions announced on Tuesday morning. The front pages The Guardian leads on the prime minister’s meeting with the US president, under the headline “Trump praises Burnham but says Chagos Islands deal is ‘terrible’”. The Times has “Trump wins review of ‘ridiculous’ Chagos deal”, while the Telegraph says “Burnham bows to Trump on Chagos”. The Mail leads with “Burnham wobbles on Chagos as Trump hits out”. The i goes with “Burnham warns world over AI – and sets UK on collision course with America”. The Mirror looks to the meeting between the leaders and simply asks “Don well?” Elsewhere, the Financial Times reports “White House and Gulf billionaires back Boehly swoop on Lukoil assets”. And under the headline “Pulp fiction”, the Sun looks at Piers Morgan’s threats to sue Earl Spencer over his new memoir. Today in Focus: The Latest Trump v the media In what is one of the biggest battles yet between the press and Donald Trump, major TV networks have united in a boycott of pooled coverage of his administration. It comes after three news organisations – CNN, MS Now and Politico – were denied access to the White House because of Trump’s concerns about their coverage. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s international news editor Paul Owen. Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad When 23-year-old Fariba Hashima started cycle training in her native Afghanistan as a teenager, she was attacked with stones and had to disguise herself as a boy to pursue her sporting dreams. Yesterday Hashima – who left her home for Italy after the Taliban returned to power in 2021 - won an Asian Games silver medal, and said she hoped her success would inspire other young women. “I was born inside a country where the women who dream are getting attacked, and I’m really happy that I have fought against that,” she said. “I hope that the next generation will come here and represent their country without any fear.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has voiced her country’s “consistent support” for the international criminal court (ICC), after Donald Trump urged member states to abandon the body, calling it “out of control”. In her speech to the UN general assembly in New York on Tuesday, Takaichi said postwar Japan had “emphasised the rule of law in the resolution of all conflicts” – a commitment she said was reflected in its support for multilateral organisations such as the ICC. Japan’s leader had faced pressure at home to publicly support the ICC, whose president, Tomoko Akane, is Japanese, after failing to come to its defence in response to Trump’s announcement in August that the US would impose sanctions targeting the entire organisation. On Tuesday, Trump intensified his criticism of the ICC in his speech to the general assembly. “The United States is equally opposed to the out-of-control institution known as the international criminal court,” he said. “I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately.” The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has called for the ICC to be dismantled “brick by brick”, describing it as an “intolerable threat to US sovereignty”. Takaichi avoided direct criticism of the US administration in her UN speech as she seeks to keep Washington on side amid rising tensions in the Asia-Pacific, including a commitment to support democratic Taiwan and address Chinese military activity in the South and East China Seas. Officials in Tokyo are reportedly concerned that Trump could use Taiwan as leverage when he discusses trade with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, in Washington on Thursday. Washington is legally obliged to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Beijing regards the self-governing island as a province and has vowed to “annex” it, including by force if it can’t convince or coerce Taiwan into accepting what it calls “reunification”. Takaichi’s most recent comments on the ICC come after a cross-party group of MPs in Japan urged her to demand that Trump withdraw the sanctions, announced in response to its decision to issue a warrant for the arrest of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and an ongoing investigation into alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan. One of the Japanese lawmakers, former defence minister Gen Nakatani, said the UN general assembly was “a place where a country should make its case to the world”, adding: “We want Japan to protect the ICC through the [prime minister’s] address and contacts with other countries.” Takaichi said on Tuesday that she and Trump had a “candid exchange” about the ICC during discussions on the sidelines of the general assembly. In the past, Takaichi had drawn criticism for her lukewarm defence of the ICC, having initially described US sanctions as “very unfortunate”. She later said the measures were “incompatible” with Japan’s stance on the work of the court. Akane, who has led the ICC since 2024, said she would not be intimidated by the threat of sanctions. Speaking soon after the measures were announced in August, she told reporters: “The ICC will never be defeated. Justice will and should prevail, and we will stay true to that belief.”
When schoolchildren in Shiroishi were enlisted to plant rice seedlings in June, Shinto priests blessed the land and asked the deities for a bountiful crop. Judging by the fields behind farmer Haruki Kawasaki, their prayers have been answered. The 63-year-old is preparing to harvest this year’s crop of hinatamaru, a variety of rice whose plump grains have thrived despite exposure to another hot and dry summer, conditions that typically punish rice yields. Hinatamaru is one of growing number of heat-resistant rice varieties that are giving fresh hope to farmers across Japan that they can overcome a climate emergency that is threatening the country’s staple crop. Kawasaki and his team once spent the entire day in the fields, but the heat has made that impossible. “Now we start early in the morning and work until around noon,” he says. “It’s way too hot in the afternoon … although the mornings are not what you would call cool.” Kawasaki and other farmers in Saga are at the centre of the boom as Japan finds ways to cope with a warmer future. The long process of developing heat-tolerant strains involves cross-breeding existing varieties, cultivation in controlled environments and, finally, real-world trials. Japan’s ageing farmers have toiled through record-breaking heat and below-average rainfall over the last three summers. After heat records were broken again this year, the meteorological agency added a new category – “cruelly hot days” – when the mercury exceeds 40C. El Niño is expected to bring even more extreme weather. Those conditions create havoc with crops of Japan’s staple cereal, producing chalky, anaemic grains that are susceptible to cracking when polished for commercial sale. When the temperature stays abnormally high for prolonged periods after rice plants have flowered, what should be translucent, starchy seeds end up as immature grains that can’t be sold as grade 1 polished rice on the open market. In a report published this month, Greenpeace Japan warned that four of the country’s “iconic” autumn crops, including rice and sweet potatoes, were at risk because of exposure to long periods of high temperatures. “Over 50 years of accelerating heatwaves have pushed Japan’s most iconic agricultural hubs past their thermal limits, placing both crop viability and supermarket prices on the line,” Ikumi Toyota, from Greenpeace Japan, said in a statement. “While farmers are showing incredible ingenuity to adapt, single operations cannot outrun systemic climate disruption. When the people who feed us run out of options, national food security becomes everyone’s crisis.” Embracing heat-loving crops The climate crisis has made growing traditional rice varieties a calculated risk that fewer farmers are willing to take. In Saga prefecture, located on the coast of the Ariake Sea in Kyushu – a large island in Japan’s south-west – growing numbers are instead taking a chance on something new. According to the agriculture ministry, Saga now leads the county in the adoption of new strains that can withstand the stifling, bone dry summers that have become the norm. Heat-tolerant varieties account for almost 67% of Saga’s rice acreage. Neighbouring Nagasaki follows with just under 50% and Shimane, on the Japan Sea coast, with 47%. However, uptake in regions in the north-east, where farmers are traditionally more accustomed to battling cold weather, is still very low. Heat records have tumbled in Japan in recent years. Record-breaking heat in 2023 was partly to blame for the “Reiwa rice crisis” the following year, when the government was forced to take the unprecedented step of releasing emergency stockpiles to ease severe shortages and price hikes. Farmers in Saga raised the alarm a decade ago, when low yields of poor quality rice sent prices plummeting. “They were determined to grow delicious rice that could withstand the heat,” says Kazuhiro Matsumoto, a senior official in the crop department of the Saga Prefecture Agricultural Testing and Research Centre. The solution came in the form of hinatamaru – the product of 12 years of research that is now spreading quickly after successful trials in 2024 – propelling Saga prefecture to the forefront of agriculture’s rearguard action against climate change. Kawasaki’s crop of hinatamaru is this year is expected to total a modest 600kg but the outlook is promising. And other regions in Japan are following suit. The use of heat-tolerant rice has expanded to all but three of Japan’s 47 prefectures as agriculture officials rush to combat declines in quality and yield. They covered 248,000 hectares last year – a record 18% of the overall rice crop – according to the agriculture ministry, a dramatic increase from the 42,000 hectares the previous year. The climate emergency is also changing the way Japan’s farmers work. Fruit and vegetable farmers in some regions have taken to inspecting their crops at night, to avoid higher temperatures, while others are switching to heat-loving crops such as avocado, bitter melon and okra. Kawasaki, who has been growing rice for more than three decades, says the day could come when farmers across Japan are all growing new heat-resistant varieties. “The priority is that it has to taste good.” As he prepares to harvest this season’s crop – some of which will be included in an annual ritual at the imperial palace in Tokyo – Kawasaki also notes that the spread of heat-tolerant grains as a race against time. Almost 70% of Japan’s agricultural workers are 65 or older. “Lots of farmers around here are in their 70s, and I’m in my 60s,” he says. “So as a farmer, I’m just grateful that we have found something that works. And it tastes great.”
King Charles has referred a landmark slavery reparations petition from Jamaica to a high-level UK appeals court for legal advice, Jamaica’s culture minister announced in parliament on Tuesday. Referring to the move as a “really big deal”, Olivia Grange told Jamaica’s MPs the monarch had confirmed that their legal questions have been passed on to the London-based privy council – the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth countries. The petition seeks guidance on three questions: whether the forced transport of Africans to Jamaica was lawful; whether it constituted a crime against humanity; and whether Britain is under an obligation to provide restitution for slavery and its enduring consequences. “Indeed we went fearless and boldly into this chapter when we petitioned the king on Monday, September 7, 2026 – one day after the 245th anniversary of the commemoration of the Zong massacre, an event that captures the barbarity of chattel enslavement,” Grange said in parliament. “The king could have ignored us. The king could have delayed responding to us. The king could have made a decision not to refer the questions to the privy council, or he could make a decision to refer the questions,” she said, before adding “King Charles has referred the petition filed on the 7th of September, 2026, on behalf of the people of Jamaica to the Judicial Committee of the privy council.” Jamaica had activated a rarely used mechanism in the Judicial Committee Act 1833, which allows the king to refer questions of “legal or constitutional nature” to the privy council when they cannot be resolved through ordinary courts, according to the country’s legal counsels. The minister said that taking the matter to the International Court of Justice, was not an option for Jamaica. “The United Kingdom has placed specific reservations on the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ which prevent the Court from adjudicating on disputes between the United Kingdom and the government of any other country which is or has been a Member of the Commonwealth”. A privy council opinion would not compel the UK government to pay reparations, but Jamaican officials believe it could shape negotiations and legal options and set a precedent for other Commonwealth nations seeking reparations. Earlier this month, Grange led a Jamaican delegation to London to officially lodge the petition. While in the UK, the group, lawyers and members of the country’s national council on reparation met diaspora communities, MPs, church leaders and cultural institutions – among them the British Museum, from which Jamaica is seeking the return of artefacts taken during colonial rule. Tuesday’s announcement follows the Caricom Regional Conference on Reparations, which took place in Barbados last week. Officials at the conference said that Caribbean nations are drawing up a multi-pronged “action plan” with legal options to push the UK into negotiating a decades-long slavery reparations deal. Leaders in the region are hoping the UK would agree to targeted and constructive negotiation talks at upcoming Commonwealth and UN summits, but they are ready to take the matter to international courts if Britain continues to resist diplomatic options. Speaking at the conference, Prof Sir Hilary Beckles, the chair of the Caricom Reparations Commission, said reparations was a matter of justice, adding that countries in the region were forced to create viable democracies “out of the mess” of colonialism, which was still having an impact today. He said: “When Jamaica took its petition to the UK, we had to surround that petition with the fact that when Jamaica became independent in 1962, 80% of the black people in Jamaica could not read or write. After 300 years of British colonisation, they moved into independence with 80% illiteracy. How do you build a modern nation, not even a competitive economy, with 80% illiteracy?” Earlier this month, a spokesperson for Andy Burnham reiterated the British government’s long‑held position that “the UK does not and will not pay reparations”. Grange told parliament that the country is “awaiting directions from the Judicial Committee of the privy council as to the next steps to be taken in the case. And the attorney general is preparing to deal with the case”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed with Donald Trump on Tuesday efforts to end the 4-year-old war with Russia, including a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy-related targets. “We are ready for any kind of format of energy ceasefire” if Russia agrees to “not attack our energy system,” Zelenskyy told journalists after meeting with Trump at the UN headquarters in New York. The Ukrainian leader expressed hope the “American side will find a way … to bring them to any kind of negotiations.” Zelenskyy said that he also was ready to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, at a trilateral meeting with Trump. Trump insisted he was working with both sides to end the war, despite little evidence of Putin being open to any settlement. “It’s going to happen, I think, more quickly than people understand,” Trump said in his UN speech. Efforts led by Washington to broker a deal to end the hostilities, which have raged since Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, have stalled in recent months as the US has shifted focus to its war against Iran. Zelenskyy claimed the war with Russia would end if Trump applied more pressure on Putin, and if China and India stop buying oil from Russia. “It’s enough to stop them, they will not have enough money,” Zelenskyy told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Zelenskyy said Russia’s energy sales to China, India and Turkey were propping up Russia’s economy. During the same interview, Zelenskyy said that Trump on Tuesday did not ask him to stop bombing Russian oil refineries. However, he acknowledged the issue has been raised before by American partners over concerns of rising energy prices. Zelenskyy also met with the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, in New York, who said he lobbied Trump to press for a Ukraine-Russia energy ceasefire in his meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart. Burnham promised further financial support to Kyiv for infrastructure. Putin is becoming “increasingly cavalier, dangerous and risk accepting,” as his war in Ukraine drags on and as he seeks to divide western allies, Nato’s deputy commander in Europe said Tuesday. Air Chief Marshal Sir John Stringer spoke to The Associated Press at a security conference in Estonia amid warnings from some European leaders that Moscow is planning to test Nato’s collective defence pact with bolder attacks that have already included sabotage and espionage. Stringer warned that Nato members need to be aware of the “febrile environment” and be careful in their response because Putin would like to provoke the alliance into an “overreaction”. Officials in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which border Russia, have been more cautious about the prospect of a serious escalation. “Ukraine is fighting. Russia is absorbed in Ukraine. We do not observe any buildup near our borders. And from that part, I think that most would agree that the perspective of direct military attack is not correct,” Latvian president Edgars Rinkevics told reporters on the sidelines of the UN meeting. European countries have already faced multiple incursions of Russian drones – and several missiles – as well as a campaign of covert Russian disruption which began after the war. Ukraine has continued to press the US for more Patriot interceptors to defend against Russia’s ballistic missiles, but is yet to get any confirmation, Zelenskyy told reporters. “They are positive to help us, but I didn’t get the very concrete answer,” he said. Defence experts say the US has been experiencing a global shortage of Patriot interceptors because many have been expended to defend against Iranian attacks on US and allied bases in Middle East. Zelenskyy spoke of the urgency of needing the weapons, which can shoot down Russia’s more advanced ballistic missiles. The shortage in Ukraine has left Kyiv and other cities increasingly exposed to devastating attacks.