-
2 weeks ago | 
theguardian.com | Jonathan Yerushalmy |Tom Bryant |Vicky Graham |Amy Sedghi |Hayden Vernon |Maya Yang | +9 more
Key eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureAccording to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the UN security council emergency meeting on Friday over Israel’s strikes on Iran will take place at 7pm GMT (8pm in the UK, which is currently on BST). The newly appointed commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, Mohammad Pakpour, threatened to open “the gates of hell” in retaliation for Israel’s attacks that killed his predecessor Hossein Salami.
-
2 weeks ago | 
theguardian.com | Eleni Courea |Jennifer Rankin |Sam Jones
The UK and Spain have struck a deal over Gibraltar’s future, ending four years of on-off negotiations. The two sides have agreed measures to ensure that people can move freely across the land border between Gibraltar and Spain with no checks, and to introduce Eurostar-style dual border checks at the airport. The agreement does not affect sovereignty over Gibraltar, which remains a British overseas territory.
-
2 weeks ago | 
theguardian.com | Eleni Courea |Sam Jones
The UK and Gibraltar are on the brink of an agreement which would see Eurostar-style dual border controls implemented at the territory’s airport. David Lammy, the foreign secretary, and Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar’s chief minister, are meeting EU and Spanish negotiators in Brussels today in a bid to get the deal over the line. The UK and Spain have been engaged in on-off negotiations for four years over Gibraltar’s land border with Spain.
-
1 month ago | 
theguardian.com | Jessica Elgot |Sam Jones |Kiran Stacey
British tourists will have to endure passport-stamping queues in the EU until at least October and possibly well into 2026 despite a high profile e-gates agreement unveiled at Monday’s EU-UK summit in London, it has emerged. According to the detailed text of the agreement, both the UK and the EU agree there will be “no legal barriers to e-gate use for British nationals travelling to and from EU member states after the introduction of the EU entry/sxit system (EES)”.
-
1 month ago | 
theguardian.com | Yohannes Lowe |Jennifer Rankin |Sam Jones
UN warns 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in next 48 hours without aidThe UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, has been speaking to the BBC’s Radio 4’s Today’s programme about the dismal amount of aid Israel is letting into Gaza. International pressure over a looming famine forced Benjamin Netanyahu to announce on Sunday night that he would ease the devastating 11-week aid blockade to prevent a “starvation crisis” in Gaza – but only to a minimum level.
-
1 month ago | 
theguardian.com | Sam Jones |Jon Henley |Jakub Krupa
Millions of voters in Romania, Poland and Portugal will cast their ballots this weekend in an electoral “super Sunday” that will determine the course of their democracies at a time of heightened political, commercial and economic tensions. In Romania, the far-right candidate is the frontrunner in a presidential runoff, while the first-round vote in a deeply polarised Poland will see liberal, conservative and far-right hopefuls vying to become president.
-
1 month ago | 
theguardian.com | Harriet Sherwood |Sam Jones
Predicting the outcome of the highly secretive papal conclave is near impossible as cardinals’ positions shift over successive votes and some try to game the system to influence the chances of their favoured – or least-favoured – candidates. In the last conclave in 2013, few predicted that Jorge Mario Bergoglio would be elected as Pope Francis.
-
2 months ago | 
theguardian.com | Lorenzo Tondo |Harriet Sherwood |Sam Jones
Pope Francis announced his pastoral intentions from the very beginning of his papacy, saying he preferred a church that was “bruised, hurting and dirty” from being on the streets to one that was cautious and complacent. Although he never strayed from doctrine – to the annoyance of many optimistic liberals – his 12 years as pope were marked by a deliberate embrace of those historically on the margins of the church and society.
-
2 months ago | 
theguardian.com | Jennifer Rankin |Sam Jones
The EU has suspended its retaliatory 25% tariffs on US goods for 90 days after Donald Trump’s dramatic climbdown in his trade war. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU would put on hold for 90 days the countermeasures – 25% tariffs on €21bn (£18bn) of US goods – that it had agreed on Wednesday. “We want to give negotiations a chance,” she said.
-
Mar 26, 2025 | 
theguardian.com | Jakub Krupa |Sam Jones |Andrew Roth
'Unconditional withdrawal' of Russian troops one of main preconditions for lifting sanctions, EU saysEuropean Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Photograph: Yves Herman/ReutersThe European Commission responded to reports of Russia seeking sanctions relief as part of a maritime ceasefire in Ukraine, saying today that one of its main precondition would be to see “the unconditional withdrawal of all Russian military forces” from Ukraine.
