Europe punished Russian billionaires over the war in Ukraine. It should do the same to those abetting an ecocidal regime

The ecological disasters of the US-Israel war with Iran are already bad enough. The noxious smoke from bombed oil facilities, spills in the Gulf’s waters, the contamination of farmland and groundwater with toxic chemicals unleashed by explosions and their debris, the millions of additional tons of CO₂ spewed into the atmosphere. But as bad as it is, the Iran war hides another conflict: the ecological war that Donald Trump’s US is waging against the rest of the world.

When the EU and UK imposed individual sanctions, travel bans and asset seizures on Russian oligarchs, it wasn’t because most of them were individually responsible for Vladimir Putin’s colonial war of aggression against Ukraine. They were targeted because, as a class, they were viewed by many as inextricable from the apparatus of corruption and levers of power of the Russian state threatening global stability.

Alexander Hurst writes for Guardian Europe from Paris. His memoir Generation Desperation is out now

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From the pier built for a former quarantine island to the sculpture made from 1.3 tonnes of hotel bedlinen, the British-Algerian’s coin-operated show feels like it has sprung from The Floating City itself

Lydia Ourahmane has been living in Venice this year, in an apartment on the Giudecca with gorgeous views over the lapping, flickering water to the main Venetian island. The British-Algerian artist has been making an exhibition that will open to coincide with the Venice Biennale, the art world’s biggest global gathering. For months, artists and curators from every corner of the planet have been shipping and installing thousands of artworks on the little archipelago. Then, in November, when it’s all over, they will disperse again. There is something both amazing and dreadful about this vast circulation of stuff.

This is not, however, what Ourahmane, 33, has been doing. Instead, it is from Venice itself that her show has sprung. Itinerant by habit – she lives in Barcelona and Algiers, and spent her childhood “ping-ponging” between the UK and north Africa – she is a conceptual artist, in the proper sense, an artist of ideas. She tells me that she needs her art to follow the grain of the world, to be part of it. “Before I even make something, I have to be able to see a way for it to be reabsorbed into the world,” she says. That’s why previous artworks have involved, for example, a gold dental implant set among her own teeth, and a pair of Ghislaine Maxwell’s old curtains. This year it has involved, among other things, building a pier.

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The funniest comedy on British TV is back. Its stars talk about scruffiness, mortifying encounters with the public and why they’ve loved each other for two decades

In a north London TV studio, there’s a sense of unpredictability in the air. A gaggle of singing teenagers are on set; there’s a dog traipsing around; and – just down the hall in the canteen – Joanna Lumley has paused our interview to very politely ask a catering lady not to pack up her tangerine for her. “Darling, I literally cry with gratitude but I don’t need it in a box this time, it can travel on its own,” she purrs. She’s as poised as you might imagine – even if she looks ready for an arctic expedition, wrapped in a big mustard puffer jacket against the December cold. “Sorry, I’ve gone off on a tangent.”

We’re talking about Amandaland, the funniest and biggest comedy on British TV. Masterminded by the crack team of Sharon Horgan, Barunka O’Shaughnessy, Helen Serafinowicz, Laurence Rickard and Holly Walsh, this spin-off of the Bafta-winning Motherland has shifted the focus from perma-stressed Julia (Anna Maxwell Martin) to pretentious side character Amanda (Lucy Punch) and her mother, Felicity, played by Lumley. The show has been an undeniable hit, with the Christmas special – an Absolutely Fabulous reunion set at Aunt Joan’s (Jennifer Saunders) decrepit country pile – the most-watched comedy over 2025’s festive season, with 7.4 million viewers.

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In this age of crisis, technology is pulling us apart. At its best, journalism can bring us together again, writes Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner

I have a confession to make. It has taken me years to write this article.

For a long time, I have felt that something was missing in the public conversation about human connection and community and how they are being eroded. And yet I haven’t been able to articulate it. Thinking and writing have become harder. It’s as if the neurons in my brain don’t connect with each other in quite the same way. I go to check a fact and get instantly diverted by a hundred other distractions on my phone. I find myself unable to devote time to thinking and writing like I used to.

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Shoppers concerned about effect of Middle East conflict, as UK retailers say government running out of time to cut costs

Four in five people are worried that the Iran war will make food more expensive, according to a new poll, as businesses warned the “window is closing” for ministers to cut energy costs for UK retailers.

Research by Opinium found that 80% of people are worried about the rising price of groceries, which would come from retailers passing on cost increases to consumers, while 73% expect the conflict to push up prices of other products.

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Bij vrouwen die onbedoeld zwanger raken, speelt schaamte vaak een grote rol. Er wordt „gehamerd op de eigen verantwoordelijkheid van de vrouw, alsof ze het gemakkelijk had kunnen voorkomen.”

Katten die in weides bivakkeren halen drie kwart van hun dieet uit het wild. Bijvoorbeeld gruttokuikens. In Friesland brengen ecologen kattengedrag in kaart. Hun baasjes zijn „vaak verbaasd hoe ver hun kat loopt”.

De ‘goede migrant’ spreekt Nederlands, werkt hard, doet gewoon mee – en kan niet bestaan zonder de ‘slechte migrant’. Zo blijft het frame van buitenstaander intact, al ben je hier geboren. In een steeds rechtser politiek klimaat voelt dat bedreigend.

Het weer ziet er vandaag niet verkeerd uit in onze regio. De dag begint bewolkt, maar het blijft droog. In de loop van de dag breekt de zon wat vaker door. De middagtemperatuur komt uit op ongeveer 15 graden, wat aan de koele kant is voor de tijd van het jaar.

Greg Adams Photography posted a photo:

Packard Factory, Detroit, 2018