Guardian Digest

Yes, there are big differences between the war of aggression that Russia has now been waging against Ukraine for four years and the war the US and Israel launched against Iran. The biggest difference: the US is still a democracy. Even a president who considers himself all-powerful is not. From scathing press coverage to anger over high oil prices, fear of the midterm elections and – the capitalist form of democracy – falling stock prices, what people think makes a difference. That is why the US president is occasionally forced to change his mind. That is not the case in Russia. Vladimir Putin…

The US is poised to deploy airborne troops to the Middle East as strikes intensified across the region on Tuesday and Donald Trump claimed the US was in “very good” talks with Iran to end the war. Early on Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had launched a new wave of attacks against locations in Israel including Tel Aviv and Kiryat Shmona, as well as US bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. Drones hit a fuel tank and sparked a fire at Kuwait international airport, the Gulf state’s civil aviation authority said. In Lebanon, state media reported Israeli strikes had killed at least…

Israel has not prosecuted its citizens for killing Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since the start of this decade, , a Guardian analysis of legal data and public records show, creating impunity for a campaign of violence. Attacks have spurred former prime minister Ehud Olmert to call for an intervention by the international criminal court (ICC), to “save the Palestinians and us [Israelis]” from state-backed settler violence, carried out with the complicity and sometimes participation of the police and military. “I have decided not only to not remain silent, but to draw the…

The US-Israel war on Iran has caused a surge in fossil fuel prices – again. A similar thing happened after Russia invaded Ukraine. Then it was gas, now it’s petrol and diesel. The war has triggered a fuel crisis, and led to a surge in people considering buying electric cars. Meanwhile, a recent report found Australian federal and state governments will pay or forgo A$16.3bn in fossil fuel subsidies this financial year. Adam Morton, Guardian Australia’s climate and environment editor, has written recently on the case for winding back the biggest fossil fuel subsidy – fuel tax credits – and for…

Hot cross buns, the Easter treat traditionally eaten on Good Friday, now appear in our shops as early as January. And it’s not just the spiced ones packed with dried fruit that you’ll find on supermarket shelves: it seems that any enriched-dough creation can be described as a hot cross bun, so long as a flour cross has been slapped on top. Step into a Marks & Spencer food hall and you will be greeted with displays full of garish pink “red velvet” hot cross buns, while Tesco has more than 10 varieties available this year, as well as a tear-and-share brioche. Purists may turn up their noses,…

Donald Trump declared victory in his war on Iran on Tuesday amid reports that the US is in the process of deploying about 1,000 more soldiers to the region as the president touts “very good” talks with Iran are ongoing. Iranian officials continue to deny that. Iranian barrages targeted Israel, Gulf Arab states and northern Iraq on Tuesday, while Israeli and US warplanes continued to carry out strikes across Tehran and on other targets in the Islamic Republic. Israel indicated that it planned to occupy control over swaths of southern Lebanon in what one Hezbollah official told Reuters was an…