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Russia blames Ukraine for attempted assassination of top general – Europe live

US vice-president JD Vance and US secretary of state Marco Rubio have met with the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, just hours before the opening ceremony of Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan. In a pretty funny exchange, after delivering a media statement in Italian, Meloni turned to Vance and said that “I know you didn’t know what I was talking about,” with the US VP joking that he “has actually learned Italian since the last time” they met. Meloni then summarised her opening statement, saying she said “nothing particular” and just repeated some of the usual pleasantries. She then said that the last time met during the inaugural mass of Pope Leo in Rome, and now they meet at the Olympics, and so Vance gets to experience the values important to Italy and the west. Vance praised the hosts, saying the city of Milan looks beautiful and that he and his wife had been looking forward to attending the games “pretty much since I became the vice-president.” They didn’t take any questions, which presumably would touch upon some of the controversies surrounding the US security presence at the games (11:48).

Iran’s foreign minister says talks with US were ‘ a very good start’ but are ‘over for now’ – live

We’re getting more comments from the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi, through the newswires. He has said: Further talks are on the cards at a time and date yet to be determined. Talks with the US are solely about Iran’s nuclear programme and no other issues will be discussed. Officials from both sides will return home for consultations and “the wall of mistrust” should be overcome. “It was a good start to the negotiations. And there is an understanding on continuing the talks. Coordination on how to proceed will be decided in the capitals,” he was quoted as saying.

Calls to postpone presidential election as Storm Leonardo lashes Portugal and Spain

Heavy rains and strong winds continued to batter parts of Spain and Portugal on Friday, causing at least one death, forcing the evacuation of more than 7,000 people and prompting calls to postpone the second-round of Portugal’s presidential election. Storm Leonardo, which has lashed the Iberian peninsula this week, has led the Portuguese government to extend the current state of calamity in 69 municipalities until the middle of February. The storm has killed one man in Portugal, while a young girl is missing in the southern Spanish region of Andalucía. It is the latest in a series of deadly storms to have hit Portugal and Spain in recent weeks, killing several people. Authorities in Andalucía, where more than 7,000 people have been forced to leave their homes, evacuated residential areas near the Guadalquivir River in Córdoba overnight because the dramatic rise in water levels. About 1,500 residents have been ordered to leave their homes in Grazalema, a mountain village popular with hikers, as water seeped through the walls of houses and cascaded along steep cobbled streets. Andalucía’s regional president, Juan Manuel Moreno, told Cadena Ser radio that aquifers in the Grazalema mountains were full and could provoke landslides owing to pent-up pressure. “This could cause large holes or ditches. If this happens under a house or street, the result could be dramatic,” Moreno said. He added geologists were assessing the situation in Grazalema to determine when residents would be able to return to their homes. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was due to visit the hardest-hit areas of Andalucía later on Friday. The heavy rains are also affecting the olive harvest. Francisco Elvira, who leads the Coag farmers’ association in Jaén province, put losses so far at €200m (£174m). Spain’s state meteorological office, Aemet, issued orange weather alerts on Friday for coastal areas of the north-western region of Galicia and yellow alerts for other parts of the northern coast, and for southern and eastern coastal areas, as well as for the Balearic islands. Rubén del Campo, an Aemet spokesperson, said more heavy rain would fall on Saturday. “Following a slight letup on Friday, Storm Marta will arrive, bringing heavy rain and very strong winds on Saturday to areas that have already been very adversely affected by the heavy rains of recent days,” he said. “Once Storm Marta moves off on Sunday, further weather fronts will arrive bringing less intense, but still significant, rainfall to most parts of the peninsula apart from Mediterranean areas.” In Portugal’s second-biggest city, Porto, the River Douro overflowed in the early hours on Friday, causing minor flooding at riverside cafe terraces. In the country’s south, large parts of the town of Alcácer do Sal, by the River Sado, remained semi-submerged for a third day. The commander of Portugal’s ANEPC civil protection service, Mario Silvestre, said six rivers, including the Tagus, were at risk of significant flooding, adding that Portugal was facing the worst flood threat along the Tagus in nearly three decades. The damage and uncertainty brought by the storm has given rise to calls to postpone Sunday’s second round of the presidential election. André Ventura, the leader of the far-right Chega party, said the vote should be delayed by a week as the poll was “a matter of equality among all Portuguese”. But the national electoral authority said the vote would go ahead as scheduled. “A state of emergency, weather alerts or overall unfavourable situations are not in themselves a sufficient reason to postpone voting in a town or region,” it said. Scientists say human-driven climate breakdown is increasing the length, intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as the floods and heatwaves that have struck both countries in recent years. Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Russian general Vladimir Alekseyev in critical condition after Moscow shooting

A top Russian military official who plays a major role in the country’s intelligence services has been taken to hospital after being shot in Moscow, state media has reported. Lt Gen Vladimir Alekseyev was shot several times on the stairwell of his apartment on Friday by an unknown gunman in the north-west of the city and remains in critical condition, according to early reports. Alekseyev is a deputy director of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, a unit in the defence ministry known for organising covert operations abroad, including assassinations, sabotage and espionage. He was one of the top officers providing Vladimir Putin with intelligence for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He has also been widely described as a major figure overseeing the country’s private military companies and was among the senior officials dispatched to negotiate with Yevgeny Prigozhin during the Wagner group’s brief mutiny in the summer of 2023. After Prigozhin’s revolt, Alekseyev was widely believed to have fallen out of favour in Moscow and was reported to have been briefly detained over his links to Wagner, yet he ultimately retained his post. Alekseyev is under sanctions from Washington for his alleged involvement in efforts to interfere in the 2020 US presidential election. The UK also placed sanctions on him over the deadly 2018 novichok nerve agent attack in Salisbury. No party has claimed responsibility for shooting Alekseyev, but suspicion in Moscow is likely to fall on Kyiv. Ukrainian intelligence agencies have targeted dozens of Russian military officers and Russian-installed officials since the start of the war, accusing them of involvement in war crimes. The timing of the shooting is striking. It came a day after Russian and Ukrainian delegations – including Alekseyev’s direct superior, Igor Kostyukov – met in Abu Dhabi, where both sides spoke of apparent progress in the peace talks. Some in Moscow swiftly blamed Ukraine, alleging without evidence that Kyiv was attempting to derail the talks. “This terrorist attack once again confirmed the Zelenskyy regime’s focus on constant provocations, aimed in turn at derailing the negotiation process,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said in Moscow. Previous peace efforts have broken down over Russia’s maximalist territorial demands on Ukraine, with Moscow repeatedly rejecting Kyiv’s calls for an immediate ceasefire. Ukraine has targeted at least three Russian generals in the Moscow region over the past year, though such operations have typically involved explosives. Little is publicly known about the clandestine networks believed to be behind assassinations and attacks on military infrastructure inside Russia and in Russian-controlled territories. Alekseyev’s shooting will be seen as the latest failure of Russia’s security services to protect senior military personnel deep inside the country. While details of who carried out the attack and how it was organised remain unclear, Russian military bloggers have criticised apparent security lapses, questioning how a gunman was able to enter the apartment building undetected. Andrei Soldatov, an independent expert on Russia’s security services, called the attack “incredible sloppiness”. “One would have expected them to scale up protection for top military brass,” he wrote on social media.

Iran and US hold high-stakes talks in Oman as confrontation looms

Oman has mediated high-stakes, indirect talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme, seen as one of the last chances to prevent a new US attack. Envoys for the two countries arrived for separate meetings with the sultanate’s top diplomat, Badr al-Busaidi. The negotiations are the first since the US struck Iranian nuclear targets in June, joining in the final stages of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign. Washington wanted to expand the talks to cover Iran’s ballistic missiles, support for armed groups in the region and “treatment of their own people” – as the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Wednesday. But, after days of speculation, Iranian negotiators were satisfied that only the nuclear dispute would be discussed, at least initially. Oman’s foreign ministry published a statement saying al-Busaidi separately met the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and then the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. “The consultations focused on preparing the appropriate circumstances for resuming the diplomatic and technical negotiations by ensuring the importance of these negotiations, in light of the parties’ determination to ensure their success in achieving sustainable security and stability,” the Omani announcement said. It was not immediately clear if that was the end of the talks for the day, though Omani officials left the palace immediately after the US delegation. The talks are being held against the backdrop of repeated warnings by Trump that he will strike Iran militarily from the US carrier strike group Abraham Lincoln if no progress is made. The US has been building up its naval presence in the region after a bloody Iranian government crackdown on nationwide protests last month, heightening tensions between Washington and Tehran. Iran is seeking assurances that the US is not using the talks as a smokescreen to impose regime change. The last set of talks between the two sides were brought to a halt in June when Israel launched its surprise attack, which ended with at least 1,000 Iranians dead and three of its nuclear sites destroyed. Before the talks, Tehran said the US had to drop its request for the negotiations to be held in Turkey in the presence of foreign ministers from Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The planned attendance by the Muslim foreign ministers underlined the extent to which they fear their national security is wrapped up in agreement between the US and Iran. Tehran has said it will not hesitate to attack Israel or US military bases in the region if it is attacked. Iran says its right to enrich uranium on Iranian soil – a right it was granted in the now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by Barack Obama – is not negotiable. The best source of compromise is that Iran agrees to suspend plans to enrich uranium for a fixed number of years, and a regional consortium is formed that enriches uranium, taking the region closer to an integrated civil nuclear programme. Iran is also seeking sanctions relief in return for a new inspections regime at its nuclear sites. The value of the rial against the dollar has halved since the Israeli attacks in June, and Iran’s plummeting standard of living, made worse by runaway food inflation close to more than 100%, was the spark for the demonstrations that broke out in late December. The security services responded with a brutal crackdown. Trump at one point encouraged the protestrs, promising “help is on its way”, but the US held back from attacking Iran partly because Israel and the US military did not feel they were fully prepared to withstand the likely Iranian reprisals.

Only seven new petrol-powered cars sold in Norway in January

Just seven new petrol cars were sold in Norway last month, data shows. The country, which is the frontrunner in the uptake of electric vehicles, shifted a record low number of new fossil-fuel cars in January, information from the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV) reveals. Only seven petrol, 29 hybrid and 98 diesel cars were registered, while more than 2,000 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were sold. Car sales were low across the board – customers had rushed to buy cars in December to avoid January tax rises – but the snub to petrol cars comes as Norway races closer to fully phasing out the sale of internal combustion engines that heat the planet and make extreme weather more violent. “The January figures are not a sign that demand has stopped, but a result of the extraordinary final rush before the new year,” the OFV’s director, Geir Inge Stokke, said. “We expect registrations to pick up again as the market stabilises.” BEVs made up 95.9% of new-car sales in Norway last year. Analysts say the oil-rich country’s electric vehicle boom is the result of high carbon taxes, generous EV subsidies and the lack of a powerful lobby to oppose the transition. The secretary general of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, Christina Bu, said the data for 2025 “certainly doesn’t mean the job is over”. “Two out of three people still drive fossil-fuel cars,” she told the Norwegian public broadcaster, NRK. “If they are to have the opportunity to choose electric cars, we must be just as ambitious in 2026.” There are signs that the shift away from vehicles that burn fossil fuels has also trickled into Norway’s secondhand car market. Sales of used electric cars increased by 22.7% compared with January last year, according to the OFV, with electric vehicles making up one in four cars on the used-car market. “Electrification is now clearly taking hold in the used car market as well,” said Stokke. “This makes the electric car a more accessible alternative for far more buyers than before.” Norway has long led the uptake of electric vehicles, but other countries are gaining pace. Denmark has witnessed explosive growth, with BEV sales soaring from 2% to 68% in the last decade. BEV market share has also surpassed 33% in the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium and Sweden. Small and wealthy northern nations have led Europe’s transition to cleaner transport, but they are being joined by populous emerging markets such as China and India. Data published last month shows that Turkey has also caught up with the EU in its adoption rate for BEVs, and in absolute terms its electric market is bigger than Norway’s. China’s sales of electric cars, including hybrids, have surpassed those of internal combustion engine cars.

‘It’s not very French to change stuff’: how Claire Tabouret’s stained-glass windows cast Notre Dame in new light

Claire Tabouret can draw a clear line between before and after Notre Dame. Before she was chosen from more than 100 artists to design six new stained-glass windows for the cathedral – reopened in 2024, five years after it almost burned to the ground – Tabouret had a select group of admirers (one of them the French tycoon and art collector François Pinault), but she was hardly a household name. That has changed – for better and for worse. At the end of last month, the first major solo retrospective of her work opened at the Museum Voorlinden outside The Hague. In Paris, Tabouret’s window designs are on display at the Grand Palais, before being installed at Notre Dame later this year at an estimated cost of €4m (£3.3m). The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Paris’s archbishop have been enthusiastic in their support, but the plan to integrate a modern artist into a historic landmark has also provoked protests, petitions and claims of cultural and spiritual vandalism. Tabouret refuses to take the critics’ complaints personally. “These are people who hate the project, no matter what,” she says when we meet in the library at the Voorlinden, amid sweeping glass and 40,000 books ranged on wooden shelves. “They didn’t even really look at the designs. They go on their computers to spread hate, but you can see from the messages they write that they don’t really know what it’s about. And I’m also receiving a lot of love, which is very nice.” The retrospective at the Voorlinden, Weaving waters, Weaving Gestures, is a testament to the versatility of her art, and an exploration of identity and human relationships with paintings on canvas, faux fur and Plexiglas, bronzes and ceramics, and works reproduced on tapestries and rugs. In almost every work, the colours are intense and overwhelmingly vibrant. From the 50 or more diverse works on display at the museum, it is easy to see why Tabouret caught the Notre Dame jury’s attention. Visitors enter to a series of self-portraits in which she depicts herself variously as a vampire with a blood-stained mouth, a Joan of Arc figure in armour, and casually wearing a hoodie. In reflecting herself, Tabouret says, she is also holding a mirror to the viewer. “The human face is like the surface of water, always in motion, always elusive, never still,” she says. The centrepiece of one gallery is a bronze sculpture of swimmers, surrounded by paintings of larger groups of children in bathing suits; another features a series of Sèvres porcelain vases, each with the face of a weeping woman, called The Mourners. The technique of removing colour from the painted porcelain background while also adding new paint was one she later applied on Plexiglas to produce the images for the Notre Dame windows. Tabouret did not immediately consider applying to design the Notre Dame windows after learning the competition was looking for a contemporary artist. After the fire in April 2019, Macron promised the cathedral would be rebuilt within five years with a “contemporary gesture”, a suggestion that inspired all manner of madcap ideas: a glass spire; a 300ft carbon-fibre flame; a swimming pool on the roof; a covered garden. When it was announced, the notion of creating something new, which meant replacing the undamaged windows in six chapels on the medieval cathedral’s southern aisle, caused a furore. The existing seven-metre high monochrome windows are often described as “original”; in fact, they were installed when the building underwent a renovation in the mid-19th century. Experts say their value is more historic than aesthetic, but a committee of the culture ministry opposed the plan to replace them, as did the influential Académie des Beaux-Arts. Activists have unsuccessfully appealed to the courts and to heritage authorities to prevent their removal. “I was intrigued,” says Tabouret, who was living in the US at the time. “It’s not very French to change stuff so I thought that interesting as well as brave and fresh. They specifically wanted figurative painting, which also isn’t very French. France really loves abstract projects in public spaces so this was very different.” In the end, she submitted her application 15 minutes before the deadline. After reaching a shortlist of eight artists, Tabouret flew to Paris to present her designs to a jury. The specified theme was the Pentecost, the biblical moment when the Holy Spirit descends upon the apostles in Jerusalem 50 days after Easter, marking the beginning of the church. “We were supposed to make six sketches … I did 60. I got obsessed. You couldn’t pull me out of this. I was deep-diving into the Pentecost and my studio was just Pentecost everywhere!” Tabouret recalls. She adds: “I was not brought up with religion, but I come from a place of love and respect and interest for the Catholic church. When I read about the Pentecost I was arrested by the beauty and poetry of the text.” In western ecclesiastical art, Pentecost is traditionally illustrated with the Virgin Mary seated among the disciples, whose crowns are topped with flames. The four principal symbols are fire, wind, a dove and the breath of God. Tabouret’s designs do not break with this tradition. They trace the narrative with groups of people and vivid landscapes, including a turbulent sea and wind-lashed trees in a palette of vibrant blues, reds, greens and purples. “I think the jury wanted the images to be understood by everyone, which is absolutely how I paint. I’m not trying to create any traps or mysteries.” Her windows are being made at the Atelier Simon-Marq, a nearly 400-year-old glass workshop founded in Reims that has previously worked with artists such as Marc Chagall and Joan Miró. Each window is made up of about 50 pieces of stained glass. The Grand Palais exhibition D’un seul souffle (With one breath) follows the process of designing the full-scale models. This involved Tabouret painting the image in reverse on transparent Plexiglas, using stencils and then monotype to print each on thick paper. Other than being asked not to disturb the cathedral’s inner “white light”, she says she was given “complete artistic freedom” by the church authorities. “When you live in a country with so much history, so much architecture and heritage you cannot just freeze time,” she says. “The question is, how do we create a harmonious dialogue between new layers in buildings like Notre Dame that are made of layers? If you stop those layers it makes no sense in my opinion.” Tabouret, 44, left the US last year and moved back to France. She now lives 90 minutes south of Paris with her American husband, Nathan Thelen, who designs wooden furniture, their two- and three-year-old daughters – and a menagerie of chickens, rabbits and a dog. While she is generous with her explanations and answers, there is a sense she would much rather be back in her studio. One of the exhibits features paint-spattered trousers, boots and a sweater, her workwear. “I’d rather be wearing these than what I’m in now,” she says. Family legend has it that she decided to be a painter aged four when her parents, who are music teachers, took her to see Monet’s Water Lilies in Paris. “I remember the moment and I know the feeling, because I still get it when I see the Water Lilies or a painting I love; I feel an urgency to paint,” she says. “I didn’t know the artist or his paintings, I just knew I wanted to paint. My mum tells people I went to see the person sitting in the gallery and said: ‘I need paint right now’, it was that urgent.” • Claire Tabouret: Weaving Waters, Weaving Gestures is at Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar until 25 May.

Friday briefing: Why a growing number of experts say Israel is practising apartheid

Good morning. The Rafah crossing, a fragile lifeline for Gaza, has reopened. But movement in and out of Gaza remains tightly controlled, with Israel determining who is permitted to leave or return. Of the roughly 4,000 patients with official referrals for medical treatment abroad, only a small fraction have been allowed to cross. Fewer still have been allowed back. Meanwhile, airstrikes continue, and more than 556 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire was signed last October. In the West Bank, mass displacement of Palestinians is gathering pace, and the UN, along with Israeli soldiers and activists, warn that the Israeli army is increasingly entangled with settler violence, with reserve units drawn from settlements accused of operating as vigilante militias. These are the day to day realities of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, now in its 58th year. Last week, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s “security control” from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean would remain indefinitely. For a growing number of legal experts, that amounts to apartheid. To understand that argument, I spoke to Jerusalem-based journalist Nathan Thrall, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning A Day in the Life of Abed Salama. That’s after the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Downing Street has defied calls to remove Keir Starmer’s most senior aide, insisting Morgan McSweeney retains the prime minister’s confidence, as frustration grows over a wait for documents on Peter Mandelson. Business | Bank of England keeps interest rates at 3.75% as inflation concerns persist. US news | The US military on Thursday said it killed two alleged drug traffickers in a strike on a boat in the eastern Pacific, bringing the death toll from Washington’s campaign to at least 128. Ukraine | Ukraine and Russia agreed to a reciprocal prisoner exchange but there were no major breakthroughs on day two of the peace talks in Abu Dhabi. Neurodiversity | People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety and autism will be prevented from using fast-lane disability queueing passes at Alton Towers during a trial over the February half-term holidays. In depth: ‘This not stopping, it’s accelerating. It’s going on at the fastest pace ever’ When Israel declared statehood in 1948, it did so without formally defining its borders. After the 1967 war, Israel took control of more territory, occupying East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Across the world, these occupied territories are treated as the basis of a future Palestinian state, with Israel understood to exist within its pre-1967 borders. But for the past 15 years, Nathan Thrall has sought to puncture what he sees as the central fiction produced by that framework: that Israel exists separately from East Jerusalem, Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Thrall’s arguments have drawn sharp criticism from the Israeli right, which accuses him of misrepresenting Israel’s security needs and delegitimising the state. In 2023, an Israeli diplomat sought to persuade Bard College, where Thrall has taught, to cancel a course examining whether Israel practices apartheid in the Palestinian territories. The college declined. But Thrall, who previously spent a decade at the International Crisis Group, as director of the Arab-Israeli Project says: “There is one sovereign state, it’s the state of Israel.” And that state, he argues, is practising apartheid. *** What is apartheid? Before we get into the system behind the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, it’s worth spelling out exactly what the term apartheid means. Apartheid in international law refers to a system in which one racial group seeks to maintain dominance over another through systematic oppression and inhumane practices. Racial apartheid became a crime under international law in 1973, in response to South Africa’s regime of enforced racial separation, under which a white minority ruled over and restricted the rights of the Black majority from 1948 until the early 1990s. “That definition of apartheid is clearly met in the case of Israeli Jewish domination over Palestinians,” Thrall argues. Between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean live roughly 7.5 million Jewish Israelis, who enjoy full rights wherever they live, and 7.5 million Palestinians, who Thrall says, are subjected to varying degrees of discrimination. The difference in who gets to pass freely through the territories, and what treatment they are subject to, is central to his argument. Thrall says the apartheid charge is now widely accepted across international human rights and legal communities. Human rights organisations B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch made the accusation in 2021, with Amnesty International following suit in 2022. Successive Israeli governments have strongly rejected that label, arguing it is antisemitic and long warned that it could encourage boycotts against the country or open the door to legal action under international law. Those who reject the apartheid label say that the situation is a temporary, security-driven military occupation arising from a national conflict, not a system of racial domination. They point to the existence of Palestinian citizens within Israel proper with civil rights as evidence. But a growing number of Israelis disagree, including former head of the Mossad Tamir Pardo. He joins the former speaker of the Israeli parliament Avraham Burg and historian Benny Morris. Even Benjamin Pogrund, a South African anti-apartheid activist who previously defended Israel against the label for the Guardian in 2012 and again in 2015, made a dramatic shift in 2023 when he described the charge as accurate, citing the actions of Netanyahu’s government. And in July 2024, the International Court of Justice delivered a landmark advisory opinion, declaring Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) unlawful. The historic, albeit non-binding, opinion found multiple breaches of international law by Israel, including activities that amounted to apartheid. *** The permit system One of the clearest expressions of what Thrall and other critics calls an apartheid system, is the permit regime governing Palestinian movement. Leaving Gaza, studying elsewhere in the occupied territories, receiving medical care, praying in Jerusalem or working inside Israel all require permits that are rarely granted. It is also embedded in the legal system. In the West Bank, Thrall adds, Palestinians can discover they are banned from travel without warning, sometimes when they arrive at a border crossing. Hundreds of thousands are thought to be affected by such bans. “It’s two entirely different legal systems for Israeli Jews and Palestinians living in the same piece of land,” Thrall says. “You could literally have an Israeli Jew commit the very same crime at the same location on the same date as a Palestinian, and the Israeli Jew will be prosecuted in an Israeli normal civilian court with all the protections of Israeli civil law. The Palestinian would be sent to an Israeli military court where there is a 99% conviction rate.” The separation is also embedded in physical infrastructure. “There is a segregated road system,” Thrall says. Settlers travel on new, multi-lane highways that cut directly through Palestinian land, while Palestinians are often barred from accessing those same roads. Palestinians are instead diverted on to long, indirect routes that are mostly single-lane, congested, and poorly maintained, often passing under or around settler highways. Israeli authorities refer to these routes as “fabric of life” roads, Thrall explains, while the highways above them are designated for settlers. It is worth watching this video by the Guardian Middle East correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison on the new road project described by critics as an “apartheid road”. When I asked Thrall what he says to those citing the 7 October massacre to justify the continued occupation, he stresses the attacks are horrific. He also views the attacks as part of a cycle of violence in the region, linked to the ongoing occupation and restrictions on Palestinians. *** The future is now On the ground in Israel, Thrall sees little reason to believe change will come from within. “When you walk around Tel Aviv or in West Jerusalem, you see the total normalcy, the total ease with which the voters of this country can live with that situation.” At the same time, the reality for Palestinians is moving in the opposite direction, he adds. Settlement expansion, displacement, and home demolitions continue apace, he says, adding that entire communities are disappearing. Recent reporting by the Guardian’s Graham-Harrison shows the extent of the ethnic cleansing taking place in the West Bank. “Not only is this not stopping, it’s accelerating. It’s going on at the fastest pace that’s ever happened before,” he says. Thrall argues that outside pressure is essential. “We in the west have the power to change their perceptions and to change their priorities. And we can do it with very simple things like suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement and halting arms sales to Israel. “Imagine a future in which there are two states, or there is one state with equal rights. How will historians describe this period now? It would be a period of apartheid.” What else we’ve been reading Andy Bull shares his tips of 10 things to look out for at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, which has its opening ceremony tonight. Martin I fell into sumo last year and never climbed out. Justin McCurry’s interview with a Ukrainian refugee who is close to becoming Japan’s first grand champion is moving, whether you love sumo or not. Aamna The Epstein files have dominated headlines all week – including this newsletter. Jim Waterson had this different angle, looking at the convicted child sexual abuse offender’s property ambitions in London. Martin The Grand Egyptian Museum opened last November with a lavish ceremony. But behind the spectacle, Neal Spencer writes for the London Review of Books, is a space stripped of human thought and experience. Aamna Catherine Anne Davies, who records as the Anchoress, writes on the increasingly unsustainable costs for musicians of not just touring but also recording. Martin Sport Rugby union | France launched the defence of their Six Nations title in emphatic fashion, sweeping Ireland aside 36-14 at the Stade de France. Football | The EFL are set to rebuff any attempt by Manchester City to clear Marc Guéhi to play in the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal. Winter Olympics | “Penis injection” doping claims in Winter Olympics ski jumping investigated by Wada. Something for the weekend Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now Film Hamlet | ★★★★☆ The setting of this adaptation is modern London’s world of shady family business and family dysfunction, wedding parties, blandly scheming associates and SUVs speeding through the night-time streets. Hamlet (played by Riz Ahmed) looks here like no one as much as Kendall Roy from Succession. Overall, this is an intelligent and focused account and one which, at least at first, allows you to ask the question: what if Claudius, however unscrupulous and predatory, is in fact innocent of murdering the prince’s father? What if the ghost and his accusation is Hamlet’s hallucinatory delusion, a psychosexual projection of his own disgust? There’s a rigorous chill to this Hamlet. Peter Bradshaw TV Michael Jackson: The Trial | ★★★★☆ Over four episodes, the series charts the events leading up to and surrounding Jackson’s 2005 trial, at which he was accused of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo (he was later found not guilty on all 10 counts). The Trial leans hard on discussion of and archive footage from Leaving Neverland in its conclusion – perhaps to justify its own existence, or perhaps to salute that documentary for having the impact it did. Really, though, this series makes its own points, and makes them well. “I don’t know why I get so protective,” videographer Christian Robinson says towards the end, as he continues to defend his former employer, before turning the question back to the faceless interviewer, and – by extension – us at home. “Do you think he’s innocent, after everything you’ve seen?” Hannah J Davies Music Mandy, Indiana: Urgh | ★★★★★ This Manchester and Berlin-based band’s distinctiveness comes from their limber rhythms. Powered by drummer Alex Macdougall’s incredible versatility and vocalist Valentine Caulfield’s staccato delivery, many of their songs are alive with an addictively free, bodily lope, which is often stalled by squalling winds and thrashing noise: threat lurking around every corner. Urgh has a few obvious differences from their debut album, but the main evolution is into a harder, thicker sound, a contrast of extreme physicality and hyper-detailing that feels like getting dragged under by a strong wave and marvelling at the flotsam caught up in its swell. Laura Snapes Book The Colour of Home by Sajid Javid This portrait of the former home secretary feels less like a nostalgic political origin story and more like an urgent warning about the Britain that comes next. Javid, cheerfully now in the “Big House”, can at times sound like an Uncle Tom: his narrative minimises structural barriers and suggests minorities simply need to work harder in order to succeed. His decision to concentrate on his early years and write little about his rise through the Tory party represents a serious omission. Surely he has much to tell about the inner workings of the now imploded Conservatives. But perhaps he’s saving that for another volume. It would be fun to read if he can be as honest about that as he is about his childhood. Hanif Kureishi The front pages “Starmer in appeal to Labour MPs as pressure grows for No 10 reset” is top story at the Guardian. The Mirror sees it as “Keir and present danger”, the i paper says “Labour ‘women in grey suits’ may be sent to No 10 to tell PM to resign” and the Times has “PM labelled ‘gullible and weak’ over Mandelson”. The Mail splashes on “Rayner: I’m ready to go”, in reference to potential No 10 moves, while the Telegraph leads on “Rayner tilt at No 10 hit by tax inquiry”. The FT says “Starmer apologises to Epstein victims as crisis over Mandleson ties deepens”. Over at the Sun, it’s “On me red, son”, with a story about Wayne Rooney’s son being offered a deal at Manchester United. Today in Focus Bad Bunny goes to the Super Bowl The journalist Jen Ortiz charts the rise of Bad Bunny – the Puerto Rican superstar musician and ICE critic – before his performance at the Super Bowl on Sunday. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad In Ramsgate, “hope and relief” filled the air after the seaside town’s last youth centre was saved from closure. The charity Pie Factory Music has been based there for 13 years, offering counselling, employment advice, life-skills and creative projects for 8- to 25-year-olds. Thanks to a £535,000 grant from the Pride in Place strategy, Pie has been able to buy the freehold of the building. “Knowing our future in the building is secure fills us with hope and relief,” said its chief executive, Zoë Carassik. “We should never have had to campaign to save Ramsgate youth centre. Youth provision should not depend on charities like us alone.” Brian Horton, interim chair of the Ramsgate Neighbourhood Board, said: “We are committed to providing safe, positive spaces for the next generations to thrive.” 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