The spiralling cost of living has been an increasingly urgent problem in the UK. But for many people, huge rises in energy bills are about to turn a difficult situation into an impossible one.
Six months of hell in Ukraine. Plus: recession stalks Europe.
The troop buildups, the belligerent speeches, the excruciatingly staged Kremlin policy meetings … for months, the signs had been there in plain sight. Nonetheless, the order in the early hours of 24 February from Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine came as a lightning bolt, one that would change Europe for years to come.
Joe Biden’s political capital is riding high after a key plank of his legislative programme came to fruition. But the US president has greeted this “hot streak” in his usual quiet fashion. For his predecessor, it was a decidedly rough week after his home was raided by the FBI, looking for official documents that Donald Trump had held on to after his presidential term had ended. The reaction was a typical explosion of rage and accusation. David Smith, our Washington bureau chief, follows this compare-and-contrast theme to see which of the two men, who at this juncture still look likely to face each other again in the 2024 presidential election, came out on top.
The spectre of war loomed over Europe this week as western allies began evacuating diplomats and citizens from Ukraine in the face of the massed Russian troops on its borders. Andrew Roth, Simon Tisdall and Julian Borger report for our big story this week, as the world waited anxiously to find out how far Vladimir Putin is prepared to go to achieve his goals.
When the Taliban took over Afghanistan last year, many feared the worst for the educational prospects of girls and women under an ultra-hardline Islamist regime. Yet remarkably, as Emma Graham-Harrison and Jordan Bryon report, some brave women have fought successfully for their right to continue to study.
In Opinion, the Observer’s Will Hutton argues against the decision to lift all Covid restrictions in England (and find out what scientists around the world think in Spotlight). Guardian Australia columnist Van Badham exposes the fakery of the global “freedom movement”, while Arthur Turrell celebrates what could be a breakthrough moment for nuclear fusion and energy production.
Boomers Daily 