Unorthodox campaign is challenging the ruling party’s 12-year reign with a bold democratic experiment
On a cool autumn evening, a team of Serbian student volunteers went canvassing in the housing estates of Krnjača, a Belgrade suburb. They were equipped with lanyards emblazoned with the word “victory”, a stock list of questions and a mobile app that mapped visited homes and the level of support in each.
The volunteers were part of a mass student movement, Student List, that has rocked Serbia with two years of constant protests. On Sunday, the group will represent the most serious challenge Aleksandar Vučić has faced in his 12 increasingly authoritarian years in power, by putting forward their own candidates in parliamentary elections.
Serbia’s authoritarian president personally intervened to remove the protection of a historic landmark – then came protests and prosecutions. Tom Burgis on the murky tale of Trump Tower Belgrade
In the heart of Belgrade, near the banks of the Danube, stands the General Staff building. Built in the 1960s, it embodies the difficult history of Serbia. It was designed to resemble a canyon of the Sutjeska River, where one of the most significant battles of the second world war was fought.
Then suddenly, in November 2024, it was announced that the building was no longer protected from development. Instead, a tower with Donald Trump’s name on it would go up in its place.
Talks in Oslo made ‘meaningful progress’ toward engaging Russia, a US official said. What we know on day 1,701
US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday after what a US official called “constructive” talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Norway. The US official said Ukraine brought forward new ideas and proposals to the Oslo talks, which also involved the leaders of Norway and Finland and European and Nato representatives, and that participants made “meaningful progress” toward a coordinated approach to engaging Russia.
The official, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said the talks covered “key elements of a comprehensive peace framework”, including security guarantees for Ukraine, a postwar economic plan and a broader European security architecture. Witkoff would aim to “create a pathway toward direct trilateral and broader multilateral negotiations”, the official said. US president Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Ukraine to make a deal to settle the war with Russia. “Ukraine has to want to settle this war,” Trump told reporters.
Zelenskyy travelled to Oslo seeking to repair relations with Washington, which have sunk to new lows. Trump’s recent gestures toward Moscow, including a deal to buy Russian diesel and a waiver of new sanctions, have sparked bipartisan pushback in the US Congress and worry in European capitals. Zelenskyy said he had discussed “Article 5-like” security guarantees, referring to the Nato stipulation that an attack on one ally is an attack on all. “I am thankful to the American side that they underlined again that it will be strong,” he said.
Elon Musk last week ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service that Ukraine relies on, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter. Musk, SpaceX and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Ukraine uses the service – known as Starshield – for battlefield communications and drone operations. Restricting the satellite service hampered the country’s attack and air defence drone missions against Russia.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth meanwhile insisted Tuesday that the Pentagon had not directed any changes to Starshield, saying: “We haven’t pulled anything back.” “Nothing’s changed from our view. We haven’t made any directives or anything like that,” he said. On Friday, Trump said he did not request any curbs to Starshield. “It wasn’t me. And I don’t think it was Elon,” Trump said. Musk previously said that “any limits on speed or usage” of Starshield systems were “decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”
Nato said Tuesday it was deploying additional planes, drones and radar systems to the Black Sea after a string of attacks on ships near Romania and Bulgaria in the latest spillover from Russia’s war on Ukraine. “Allies have or will send additional maritime patrol aircraft, radar systems, explosive exploitation teams, intelligence personnel, drones, and more to the Black Sea,” said Col Martin O’Donnell, a Nato spokesperson. “The most important thing we can do, however, is to increase our situational awareness in the region through increased sensors and data sharing,” he added.
The Russian military struck three cargo vessels in Ukraine’s port of Reni and two other cargo vessels en route to Odesa, Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday. Russian forces also hit two logistics hubs in the Volyn region and in the city of Khmelnitskiy, it said, adding that the vessels and hubs were all being used for military purposes. Russia also unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least nine people, officials said.
The Kremlin said Tuesday that work was under way to ease the humanitarian situation in the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky in southern where residents have reported a worsening food crisis. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin had discussed the situation in Oleshky with Trump and told him that Russia’s human rights commissioner was engaged on the issue.
Advance warnings of missile attacks were seemingly suspended last week by the White House, but Ukraine’s president says: ‘Now it works’
The US has resumed sharing intelligence with Kyiv about Russian missile strikes, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday after a meeting with the US envoy Steve Witkoff in Norway.
He said Ukraine was again receiving advance warnings of ballistic missile attacks, which were seemingly suspended last week by the White House. “Now it works. It’s great,” he said, adding that the US move would save lives.
Mounting anxiety as Russia’s war on Ukraine reaches Nato’s borders with targeting of vessels transporting agricultural cargo
Nato is deploying additional military assets to the Black Sea amid the recent deadly escalation of Russian attacks on merchant shipping, as five more vessels were attacked on Tuesday.
Russia’s military said it struck three cargo vessels in Ukraine’s port of Reni and two other cargo vessels en route to Odesa.
A handful of Republicans have spoken out against Donald Trump’s softening stance on Russia, threatening to pull financial support for his agenda over his “embarrassing” handling of the Ukraine war.
Don Bacon, an outgoing congressman in Nebraska, condemned Trump’s actions – which include a stunning agreement to buy Russian diesel and the pausing of sanctions on Moscow – as “absolutely disgraceful” and accused the US president of cozying up to a “war criminal” in Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart.
Officers are instruments of state whose job is to repress, rather than manage, public dissent
Familiar images of teargas clouds drifting across Paris squares, police baton charges against masked protesters and terrified teenagers floored – and worse – by stun grenades have once again focused the world’s attention on France’s policing methods.
While most of its western European neighbours generally favour police tactics that prioritise crowd containment and de-escalation, France has long responded to social movements that take to the streets with, at times, shocking physical force.
Students and demonstrators gather in Tirana for an eighth day of protests, calling for the prime minister's resignation over corruption, job shortages and poor education standards
As SpaceX impacts Ukraine and AI-generated music divides artists and fans, critics are asking what happens when technology has too much control over our lives
This was originally published in TechScape, a newsletter about how technology shapes our lives. Sign up to receive it here
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you while sitting in front of Roy Lichtenstein’s monumental Drowning Girl, on view in New York City. Today in tech, we’re discussing the perils of Elon Musk’s one-man global infrastructure, AI-generated music and a Guardian AI conference in Paris.
Conflict in Middle East is pushing jet fuel costs higher and many carriers are not hedged against such increases, Michael O’Leary says
Ryanair’s chief executive has predicted a record increase in European air fares next year, as airlines grapple with fuel bills pushed higher by the Middle East conflict.
Many carriers are not hedged against rising jet fuel costs, Michael O’Leary said, which he predicted would lead to airline bankruptcies and takeovers. He forecast these pressures would result in the price of plane tickets rising by as much as 20%.
Olivia Colman goes vulpine, Rupert Grint’s newborn is a monster and Joko Anwar makes a warmhearted violent ghost story set in an Indonesian prison
If I’d ever wanted children, the films showing at the 59th edition of the International Fantastic film festival of Catalonia in the coastal town of Sitges, south of Barcelona, would have soon set me straight. This year’s recurring themes were explosive parturition, chewed-up nipples and the fruit of the womb turning out to be at best sociopathic, at worst inhuman.
The theme was celebrated in an evil-kiddy exhibition at the Miramar Cultural Centre, marking the 50th anniversary of Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s “fantaterror” classic Who Can Kill a Child?, some of which was filmed in Sitges itself. The expo traced the subgenre from 1956’s The Bad Seed, via Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, to this year’s Nightborn, in which poor Rupert Grint, as the hapless husband, is no match for the developing folk-horror bond between his depressed wife, their newborn “child”, and the spooky forest surrounding their house. Finnish director Hanna Bergholm, in her introduction, confessed it was inspired by her experiences of motherhood. Only up to a point, one hopes.
Helicopters rescued people stranded on rooftops as torrential rain swept across eastern Spain on Monday. Floods and storms killed at least four people, and shelter-in-place orders remained in force for more than 80,000 people. The downpour from Storm Adam cut off several towns along the Mediterranean coast as rivers overflowed their banks and streets turned into rivers. More than 2,000 people were evacuated, mainly in Oliva, and authorities carried out nearly 496 rescues in Valencia and Alicante, the Civil Guard police said
Violent demonstrations have rocked Europe as protesters call for action over poor university conditions, high tuition fees, corruption, housing costs and the high cost of living
Little-known photographer John Baer captured everyday life before putting down his camera in 1954. His son discovered the images decades later after his death, and John Baer: The Extraordinary Ordinary / A Memoir in Photographs, 1945–1954 marks their first public release
The far-right leader’s promise to restore order will appeal to many ahead of next year’s presidential elections – the stakes are suddenly much higher
There is only one clear winner so far from France’s chaos: Marine Le Pen. The violence and rioting that engulfed towns and cities across the country over the weekend, six months before a pivotal presidential election, is a godsend for the hard-right, Eurosceptical, anti-immigration candidate. As buildings burned, shops were looted and police attacked, the rioting largely drowned out peaceful mass protests over the dilapidated state of schools , fuel prices and the cost of living.
Across France and the rest of Europe, people are in shock at scenes of arson and pillage in city centres, the wrecking of symbols of the republic such as the 19th-century town hall in peaceful provincial Limoges and the bust of Marianne in Marseille’s city hall, and the looting of more than 2,000 shops.
Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre
These yachts are highly popular with the ‘super-bourgeoisie’ – and getting bigger. Can anything be done to stop them destroying our seas?
Who knew? Apparently everyone did, apart from me: you don’t wear shoes on a superyacht. Now, about to step on to my first teak deck at the Monaco Yacht Show, I’ve got to take my trainers off, and I’m having a sock panic. Have they got holes? Do they even match? Do they smell?
To be honest, I’ve come dressed all wrong for Europe’s big annual superyacht trade exhibition. The code for men seems to be crisp and tucked in, blazers and chinos, navy and white, sculpted hair and designer sunnies. (I went colourful, loose, casual). For women, it’s something like Riviera elegance. Everyone – whether they’re Italian, French, English, German, American, exhibitors, buyers, brokers, charterers – seems to know each other. The international superyacht community seems to be a close-knit one, and I’m not part of it. Yet.
Apparent attempt to hack Rade Bajić’s iPhone comes amid efforts to undermine landmark criminal case
A Serbian prosecutor who investigated the authorities’ allegedly illegal scheme to help the Trumps build a tower in Belgrade has been targeted with advanced spyware, expert analysis indicates.
The finding suggests a disturbing new element in the authoritarian Serbian regime’s campaign to undermine what is believed to be the first criminal case related to global moneymaking drive of the US president’s family, which critics describe as a “pay to play” scheme trading the Trump administration’s favour for business opportunities.
The Ukrainian leadersays talks with US envoys covered security guarantees and he hopes to hear Russia’s response tomorrow
Nordic correspondent
As well as Steve Witkoff, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also meet the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre and the Finnish president Alexander Stubb and Norway’s new King Haakon during his visit to Oslo.
Subject to Change: A Dance for David Bowie will explore how the musician ‘practised a form of artistic reincarnation’, says choreographer Marcos Morau
‘Let’s dance,” sang David Bowie in 1983, commanding: “Put on your red shoes and dance the blues.” That call is to be answered – with footwear TBC – by an international dance production featuring new choral arrangements of songs from throughout his career.
Subject to Change: A Dance for David Bowie will be staged at Sadler’s Wells in London in autumn 2028 after a world premiere in Luxembourg. It will visit Tokyo in 2029. The show will explore how Bowie “practised a form of artistic reincarnation” according to Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau who is taking inspiration from the superstar’s transformations into personas such as Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke.
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