World
Oscar Lopez in Mexico City
More than 130,000 people considered missing or disappeared in Mexico as drug cartels expand
Luke Harding in Kyiv and Pjotr Sauer
Hopes of success remain low after Trump points finger at Zelenskyy and as Russia keeps up hardline demands
Deborah Cole
Foreign minister puts pressure on Emmanuel Macron amid doubts over US’s commitment to European defence
Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo
Rock structure which served as backdrop to countless proposals disappears into the Adriatic after violent storm
Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo
Much of Messina’s cultural memory was destroyed in a 1908 earthquake, but the Italian government has secured a masterpiece by the port city’s greatest son
Jason Burke, and Seham Tantesh in Gaza
Fresh fruit and other items now available but at high prices in territory where unemployment is estimated at 80%
Aamna Mohdin
In today’s newsletter: A landmark ruling stated that Labour’s proscription of the protest group was unlawful and landed another blow to a party in crisis
Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor
Exclusive: Figures said to reflect increased Russian military targeting of cities and infrastructure
Ashifa Kassam European community affairs correspondent
Crackdown on undocumented people could lead to home raids, surveillance and racial profiling, 75 organisations say
Guardian staff and agencies
Leader vows to repay the ‘young martyrs’ who died as North Korea intensifies propaganda glorifying troops deployed to fight for Russia
Guardian staff and agencies
Facilities damaged at Taman port while power and water disrupted in Odesa as new round of trilateral talks to begin on Tuesday. What we know on day 1,454
Jonathan Yerushalmy
Gathering of world leaders in Germany has disbanded for another year, but many of the issues remain unresolved
Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent
Year of the horse signals optimism and opportunity, with authorities keen that the extra day of holiday this year provides an economic boost
US News
Stephanie Kirchgaessner
Files show convicted sex abuser messaged with Ken Starr and others about Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford
Hannah Harris Green
Experts say discounts on IVF procedures an attempt to fulfil campaign promise but savings only a fraction of total cost
Nicola Slawson
Figures said to reflect increased Russian military targeting of cities and infrastructure. Plus, the week the Cuban crisis got real
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
American politicians break rank at Munich Security Conference to hit out at ‘destructive’ president and urge Europe to stand up to Trump
Maya Yang
Former US president clarifies ‘they’re real’ answer that he gave during quick-fire interview round
Guardian staff
Kaja Kallas rejects ‘fashionable euro-bashing’ by US leaders and says other countries ‘look up to us’ – key US politics stories from 15 February at a glance
Australia
Tory Shepherd
Gus went missing on 27 September from Oak Park Station, where South Australia police have begun a two-day search for evidence
William Christou and Ben Doherty
The group of 34 – families of dead or jailed extremists – could return to Australia after being held since 2019
Krishani Dhanji
Angus Taylor says the hardline policy document designed under Sussan Ley has ‘no validity’ but hints he will toughen policy
Benita Kolovos Victorian state correspondent
Exclusive: Victorian executive fast-tracks Mornington Peninsula mayor as former deputy opposition leader’s successor in byelection
Kris Swales
Migrants from specific regions of 13 countries would be banned according to the policy designed before Sussan Ley was ousted as party leader on Friday
Andrew Messenger
Institute of Public Affairs latest to raise free speech concerns over bill facing criticism from across the political divide
Ben Smee
Police decided there was ‘no tangible benefit’ to conducting disciplinary action against the officer and opted not to investigate
Business
Michael Sainato
Workers decried John Paulson’s plan after billionaire painted himself as advocate for domestic manufacturing
Tom Knowles
Consumer confidence at its lowest level in two years, as young people in particular face money pressures
Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent
CEO Charlie Nunn tells employees that issue ‘created some concern’ but insisted ‘we definitely have listened to it’
Lauren Almeida
Strain on service means rounds are missed on a daily basis and parcels are prioritised over letters, says report
Rob Davies
About 220,000 people could be left empty-handed if a deal prioritises the company’s private equity backer
Catie McLeod Consumer affairs reporter
ACCC alleges the supermarket breached the law by offering ‘illusory’ discounts on many products
Heather Stewart Economics editor
Union analysis finds consumers lag behind international peers as some rate-setters remain anxious about inflation
Opinion
Kenneth Roth
A study says IHL is at ‘critical breaking point’ amid horrendous violations in Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere. But to declare its demise would be premature
Nadia Khomami
Packed cinemas testify to the allure of Emily Brontë’s tale, even if this latest retelling is not to everyone’s taste, says Guardian arts and culture correspondent Nadia Khomami
Emma Beddington
Bristol’s newest sit-down spot has been mocked for facing a brick wall – and there are plenty in my own town of York facing unlovely aspects. But sometimes we all just need a rest, writes Emma Beddington
Sidney Blumenthal
Maga is a recapitulation of the dark side of American history that cohered into nativist nationalism a century ago
Nathalie Tocci
After JD Vance’s frontal attack in Munich last year, the secretary of state’s tone seemed almost soothing. That’s just a new Maga trap, says Guardian Europe columnist Nathalie Tocci
Jon Butterworth
If plans by the UK’s science funding body go ahead, we won’t be able to benefit from Britain’s membership of Cern and other large international projects, says Jon Butterworth, professor of physics at University College London
Phil Mongredien
In what other field is a couple of hours’ work taking the credit for somebody else’s brilliance so venerated, says Guardian Opinion joint production editor Phil Mongredien
Nesrine Malik
Who is his constituency now? Not the left or the right – and not the centre any more. That’s why there’s been a nosedive in the polls, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik
Film
Leslie Felperin
Mico Montes’s perplexing horror portmanteau relies more on atmosphere than its actors for effect
Peter Bradshaw
Austrian director Markus Schleinzer’s captivating film follows a woman passing herself off a man in 17th-century rural Germany
Ben Child
With audiences fatigued by endlessly interconnected mashups, studios are reverting to movies with one storyline that ends in a natural conclusion – what a radical idea
Adrian Horton
The maximalist adaptation of the gothic romance shows great interest in production design but very little in character
Phuong Le
Takeshi Koike’s latest take on Monkey Punch’s vintage manga thief is beautifully animated, but the gossamer-thin plot and characterisation mean it’s one for superfans only
Miriam Balanescu
The latest in our ongoing series of writers picking their comfort watches is an appreciation of Doris Day’s rule-defying heroine
Mark Sweney
Board considering whether to re-engage in move that could prompt a second bidding war with Netflix
Phuong Le
Jessica Sarah Rinland’s documentary examines how humans and animals interact in the confines of captivity, but leaves some questions unexplored
Philip Oltermann
A rare lymphoma diagnosis meant Giorgi Gagoshidze had to abandon a film project on the economic factors behind the USSR’s collapse – until he found new meaning in medical terminology
Phil Hoad
Canadian experimentalist Isiah Medina’s latest flits between radical and grandiloquent, but deserves close reading and exasperated sighs in equal measure
Phil Hoad
The Shepherd and the Bear is part of a new breed of films with a sympathy for country matters that has moved on from othering folk-horror
Sian Cain and agencies
Emerald Fennell’s divisive film is the year’s biggest opening so far, having recouped its entire estimated production budget over the opening weekend
TV & Radio
Elle Hunt
This three-part documentary has remarkable access to people involved with this 00s TV hit. It’s an awful tale of body-shaming, humiliation and toxic treatment
Hannah J Davies and Alexi Duggins
As Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation hits the screens, the historian Dominic Sandbrook takes a deep-dive into the novel’s dark themes. Plus, how to battle phone addiction
Hollie Richardson, Phil Harrison, Ali Catterall and Graeme Virtue
What happens when a woman is murdered during curfew hours? Plus, it’s the final curtain for the vampires of What We Do in the Shadows. Here’s what to watch this evening
Reading Recommendations
Sidney Blumenthal
Opinion · 1651 words
Donald Trump’s posting of a video depicting former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes was the most overtly racist act of a president since Woodrow Wilson segregated the federal civil service – or since Trump’s previous racist gesture. The racist imagery Trump posted was so egregious that the video’s misogyny representing Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as animals was overlooked. Trump’s denigration of women is implicitly assumed as business-as-usual and not newsworthy: “Quiet, piggy!” And down the memory hole are the 3m…
Aamna Mohdin
World · 2020 words
Good morning. Thousands of people across the UK have been arrested for holding a placard with a simple statement: ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.’ Those arrests, as well as the charges against more than 500 demonstrators under terrorism legislation, may now be unlawful In a landmark judgment, the high court ruled on Friday that Labour’s decision to proscribe the direct action protest group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation last year was not legal. The proscription of Palestine Action, which placed it alongside groups such as Islamic State, was the first time a…
Kenneth Roth
Opinion · 1296 words
Is international humanitarian law (IHL), the law designed to spare civilians as much as possible the hazards of warfare, at risk of imploding? That is the conclusion of a new compendious study of current armed conflicts around the world, citing the killing of civilians and other atrocities in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and elsewhere. “While the threat to IHL is not yet existential,” it warns, “it is at a critical breaking point.” There is no doubt that the disregard for civilian life in these conflicts has been horrendous. In Gaza and Sudan, it has risen to the level of genocide. But do these…
James Meadway
Environment · 1481 words
The announcement by the US vice-president, JD Vance, that the country is seeking to create a new critical minerals “trading bloc” is a final, exotic, nail in the coffin of the old global trading system. The era of mass abundance, as supplied by unfettered free trade and global markets – “neoliberalism” – is over. We live in a new world of strategic competition between states over scarce but essential resources, with shocks to supplies from human activity and natural disasters an ever-present risk. This means recalibrating how we think about our economy: the new economic fundamentals today are…
Robyn Vinter
UK News · 1104 words
Retirees making up some of the nearly 3,000 people arrested for supporting Palestine Action since the organisation was proscribed have said they feel “vindicated” by the high court’s decision to overturn the ban this week. However, uncertainty remains over whether their trials under terror laws may still go ahead after the government revealed it plans to appeal against the judgment made on Friday by three of the UK’s most senior judges. A former army colonel and ex-military attache, Chris Romberg, who was yet to enter a plea after his Palestine Action arrest last August, said he was “pleased…
Nicola Slawson
US News · 1084 words
Good morning. Civilian casualties in Ukraine caused by Russian strikes surged by 26% in 2025, reflecting increased Russian targeting of cities and infrastructure in the country, according to a global conflict monitoring group. Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said 2,248 civilians were reported killed and 12,493 injured by explosives violence in Ukraine, according to English-language reports – with the number of casualties in each attack rising significantly. An average of 4.8 civilians were reported killed or injured in each strike, 33% more than in 2024, with the worst attack taking place in…