The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said the US and Mexico have agreed to “pause” tariffs threatened by Donald Trump for one month after the two leaders held “a good conversation”.

The US president upended US-Mexico ties over the weekend when he announced the 25% levies and accused Sheinbaum’s administration of engaging in an “intolerable alliance” with Mexican crime groups.

Sheinbaum rejected that “slanderous” accusation, but on Monday morning struck a softer note as she announced “a series of agreements” with Trump.

Mexico had agreed to send 10,000 members of its national guard “to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the US, in particular of fentanyl”. In return, the US had agreed to work to prevent high-powered weapons crossing the border into Mexico. The tariffs would be paused for one month as a result, Sheinbaum added.

More to follow …

The EU will stand up for itself if its interests are targeted, Emmanuel Macron has said, as the bloc’s leaders urged talks but a firm response if needed to Donald Trump’s weekend threat to impose punishing tariffs.

“If our commercial interests are attacked, Europe, as a true power, will have to make itself respected and therefore react,” the French president said as he arrived for an informal defence meeting with other leaders in Brussels on Monday.

The latest “choices and statements” by the new US president’s administration were “pushing the EU to be more united and more active to respond to issues of collective security”, he said.

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said the EU was strong enough to react to any US trade levies but “the goal should be that things result in cooperation”. The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said there would be “no winners in a trade war”.

Europe and the US needed each other, she said, while the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said a trade war was “a complete mistake” and everything possible must be done to stop allies fighting “in the face of a Russian threat or Chinese expansion”.

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said Copenhagen would generally “never support fighting allies”, but “[if the Trump administration imposed] tough tariffs on Europe, we need a collective and robust response”.

Trump imposed swingeing tariffs on goods imported from Canada, Mexico and China on Saturday, sparking retaliation from all three countries. He said on Sunday night that new tariffs on the EU would “definitely happen”.

The US president repeated longstanding complaints about the size of the US trade deficit with the bloc and demanded Europe import more American cars and farm products. “It will definitely happen with the EU, I can tell you that,” he said.

Trump said there was no specific timeline for European tariffs but it was “going to be pretty soon”. He told reporters on Friday he would “absolutely, absolutely” impose them. “The European Union has treated us so terribly,” he said.

During his first term Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the EU, which retaliated with trade levies on emblematic US goods from Republican states such as Harley-Davidson motorbikes, bourbon, denim and orange juice.

The European Commission said before Trump’s latest threat that it regretted his decision to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.

“Our trade and investment relationship with the US is the biggest in the world,” a spokesperson said on Sunday. “There is a lot at stake. Tariffs create unnecessary economic disruption … and are hurtful to all sides,” they said, but the EU would “respond firmly to any trading partner that unfairly or arbitrarily imposes tariffs on EU goods”.

Leaders called for more dialogue with Washington. Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, said the EU and US “need to work together constructively” on trade because protectionism would hurt citizens “wherever they reside”.

Finland’s prime minister, Petteri Orpo, also said Europe must negotiate with Trump on trade. “I am not going to start a war, I want to start negotiations,” he said, adding that the biggest threat to Europe was Russia.

Others attending the meeting stressed the need for a firm, united response. Luxembourg’s prime minister, Luc Frieden, said the answer to trade tariffs was to “reply with the same measures”, but tariffs were “always bad”.

Spain’s economy minister, Carlos Cuerpo, told RNE radio the EU was open to trade and in favour of a globalised market, but it should not be naive and would protect its companies to ensure they were in a position to compete on a level playing field.

The French industry minister, Marc Ferracci, told France Info radio on Sunday night that trade talks with Washington must embody “a form of power dynamic”. The bloc must wait for Trump’s final decision, but a response should be prepared now, he said.

To be effective, any response must “focus on products that are important” to the US and be “biting” – meaning it must “have an impact on the American economy to have a credible threat in negotiations”.

Germany’s likely next chancellor, the conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, said Trump would swiftly realise the tariffs he imposes “will not have to be paid by those who import into America … but by consumers in America”.

The governor of France’s central bank, François Villeroy de Galhau, said the tariffs Trump had already imposed were “brutal”. They would increase economic uncertainty and were a worrying development, he said.

The Washington DC headquarters of the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) was reportedly closed on Monday, and workers were told to remain at home as Donald Trump’s second presidential administration took further steps towards its likely closure.

Agency staff received late-night emails on Sunday telling them not to come to work in the morning, according to Devex, a media platform for the global development community, which first reported the move.

It came less than 24 hours after two top security officials at USAid, the world’s largest single donor of foreign aid, were suspended after they tried to stop representatives of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) from gaining access to restricted parts of the building.

In a related development on Monday morning, Musk, tasked by Trump with shrinking the federal government, posted to X that the president agreed with his proposal to close down the agency, which manages almost $43bn in food, humanitarian and other aid to about 130 countries.

Musk, the billionaire who has repeatedly called USAid a “criminal organization” that is “beyond repair”, said he had discussed with Trump in detail his plan for closing it – and that the president had agreed.

“I actually checked with him a few times [and] said, ‘Are you sure?’ And so we’re shutting it down,” Musk said, reported by the Washington Post.

USAid is the world’s largest single donor. In fiscal year 2023, the US disbursed $72bn of assistance worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/Aids treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.

Trump has ordered a global freeze on most US foreign aid as part of his “America first” policy that is already sending shock waves around the world. Field hospitals in Thai refugee camps, landmine clearance in war zones, and drugs to treat millions suffering from diseases such as HIV are among the programs at risk of elimination.

Democrats and other critics have condemned the targeting of USAid by Musk and the Trump administration. That has been part of a wider, determined push by Trump to wrest control of and remake large chunks of the federal apparatus during his second presidency.

Workers for Doge, an unofficial government department with no congressionally approved mandate, have also gained access to the US treasury’s highly sensitive database and federal payments system, it was reported on Sunday.

According to Wired magazine, the Doge team is being led by a group of six “young and inexperienced” engineers aged 19 to 24, one of whom is still in college. The decision by the new treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to allow Doge “full access” to the personal data of millions of Americans as well as details of public contractors who compete directly with Musk’s own businesses has raised conflict of interest concerns.

“No one elected Elon Musk. As Donald Trump allows Musk to access people’s personal information and shut down government funding, Republicans in Washington will also own the consequences,” the Democratic Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren wrote on X.

“We must do everything in our power to push back and protect people from harm.”

Devex obtained a copy of the email sent to USAid employees working at its headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington DC. It purported to come from “senior leadership”, and came one day after the agency’s website went offline and hours after its director of security, John Voorhees, and a deputy were placed on “administrative leave” after they physically blocked the Doge team from restricted areas.

Doge subsequently gained control of the building’s access system, which allowed them to lock out employees and read emails. The department also sought personnel files and turnstile data, sources said.

“Agency personnel normally assigned to work at USAid headquarters will work remotely tomorrow, with the exception of personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions individually contacted by senior leadership,” the Sunday night email said.

Sources familiar with proposals for the agency’s future told Reuters on Friday that Trump and Musk were moving to merge USAid and its current $42.8bn budget for global humanitarian operations into the state department.

There was no immediate comment from Trump or the White House on Monday. The president was flying back to Washington DC from Florida as a US trade war with Canada, China and Mexico over tariffs heated up.

Earthquake fears have prompted people to flee Santorini, as Greece’s most popular island destination continues to be hit by what scientists described as a “barrage” of tremors.

With authorities on heightened alert amid mounting concerns of an impending natural disaster, residents, tourists and workers are scrambling to leave the island on ferries and planes.

By midday on Monday, Aegean airlines, the national carrier, had announced it was doubling the number of flights from Athens to Santorini for the next two days, as travel agents said the new flights were sold out “within seconds”.

“We’re monitoring the situation very closely and, following discussions with the ministry of civil protection, will act accordingly,” an airline spokesperson told the Guardian. Ferry companies said they would also put on extra services as the uptake for passenger tickets on boats soared.

More than 200 undersea tremors shook the island over the weekend – most in waters between Santorini and Amorgos, the Cyclades’ easternmost isle – with scores of fresh overnight earthquakes prompting people to sleep outside or in their cars.

“I cried all night because I was very afraid and didn’t know what to do,” a Mexican tourist on a two-day visit to Santorini was quoted as telling the Greek daily Protothema. “We felt that the ground wasn’t at all stable … We were all saying we should stay calm but how can you be calm when the ground is shaking again and again?”

On Monday, an earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale, the most powerful yet, was registered at 2.17 PM local time. Land and rockslides were also recorded.

“All scenarios are open,” Dr Gerassimos Papadopoulos, a prominent seismologist, wrote in an online post. “The number of tremors has increased, magnitudes have risen, and epicentres have shifted north-east … The risk level has escalated.”

Later in the day, as speculation of a volcanic eruption also grew, he emphasised that the earthquakes were “tectonic, not volcanic”.

By order of Greece’s civil protection ministry, schools in Santorini and the surrounding islands of Ios, Anafi and Amorgos are to remain shut until Friday, while people were advised as a precautionary measure to avoid derelict buildings and gathering in large numbers in enclosed spaces.

Warnings were also issued to avoid the shoreline and certain ports in case a quake triggered a tsunami. “It appears a seismic fault line has been activated and could cause an earthquake above six [on the Richter scale],” another seismologist, Prof Manolis Skordylis, said on public radio. “We haven’t had the main earthquake yet.”

Emergency medical crews continued to arrive on the island on Monday joining special forces, rescue teams and drone handlers who had already been dispatched. Officials have not ruled out the army being sent in. In the event of a tsunami inhabitants have been told to head to elevated areas inland, where rescue workers have established a staging area, pitching tents in a basketball court close to the island’s main hospital.

“We are dealing with a very intense geological phenomenon,” the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, told reporters in Brussels where he was attending an informal EU leaders’ meeting. “I ask that islanders remain calm and listen to the guidance of the civil protection ministry.”

Greece sits on multiple fault lines and is often rattled by earthquakes. Research has shown the crust under the seas around Santorini to be a highly active seismic zone.

Memories are still vivid of the powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Amorgos and Santorini in 1956, triggering a tsunami that resulted in the deaths of 53 people, mass injuries and unprecedented damage.

In the intervening years the crescent-shaped island of white chalk houses has become one of Europe’s top destinations, attracting an estimated 3.5 million tourists last year.

The Spanish footballer Jenni Hermoso has told a court that “one of the happiest moments” of her life was ruined when the then president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, grabbed her and kissed her on the lips after Spain’s World Cup win in August 2023.

Rubiales, 47, is accused of sexual assault as well as coercion over allegations that he tried to pressure Hermoso into declaring that the kiss, which took place shortly after Spain’s women’s team triumphed in Sydney, was consensual. He has maintained that he sought her permission for the kiss.

If convicted, Rubiales – who resigned as the federation president a month after the incident – could face two and a half years in prison: one year for sexual assault over the forced kiss, and 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso to downplay what happened.

Giving evidence on the first day of the trial before the national court in San Fernando de Henares, near Madrid, Hermoso said she had never consented to being kissed by Rubiales, adding that he had not sought her permission to do so.

“I didn’t hear or understand any of it at the time,” the 34-year-old player told the court. “The next thing was that he put his hands over my ears and kissed me on the mouth.”

Hermoso told people she kissed people on the lips only “when I decide to”, adding that she had been shocked by Rubiales’s actions.

“I felt it was totally out of place and I then realised my boss was kissing me, and this shouldn’t happen in any social or workplace setting,” she said. “I felt disrespected. One of the happiest days of my life was tarnished and I think it’s very important for me to say that I never sought, much less expected, that this would happen. I think personally that it was a lack of respect.”

Hermoso, who plays for Tigres in Mexico, said she had been called off the bus to the airport after the match and shown a statement that had been drafted on her behalf by the federation, and which was issued in her name later the same day.

“I skimmed it and I didn’t want to know exactly what it said,” she told the court. “I knew that I hadn’t written a word of the statement because nobody had asked me about it. It was a statement from me that I’d apparently written in my own words. It said that Luis Rubiales and I were good friends and that it had all happened in the excitement of the moment and that was all there was to it.”

The player said the statement made her feel “that I was participating in something I hadn’t done and in which I didn’t want to participate”. She added: “I’ll say it again: never, at any moment, did I look for any of this to happen.”

Hermoso said she had not wanted what had happened to overshadow her team’s victory, and that some of them had joked about the kiss until another player told them it was a serious matter.

She also said she had wanted to celebrate the triumph, despite what had happened, and had been drinking in the dressing room and on the bus.

“I was acting according to my heart at the time; I was enjoying it and I wanted to enjoy it,” she said. “I’d just become a world champion and it was a moment to enjoy it and to eat and drink and to get drunk like any footballer would when they’ve won the World Cup.”

The footballer was asked by a prosecutor whether anyone from the federation had come to check on her on the flight home or to apologise for what had happened.

“No one,” she replied. “No one came over to me to see how I was doing … No one asked how I was or what was going through my head. I felt totally unprotected by the federation because this should have been my safe place. I was a footballer from their country and their national team and no one asked what had happened or if I needed anything. No one came to say anything to me.”

Hermoso told the court her life had changed forever when she arrived back in Madrid and found herself and her family hounded by the media. She also received death threats.

“Obviously, even today, I say that my life changed at that moment,” she said. “I’d spent years fighting to win titles for my team, like the World Cup, but all that’s happened to me means that I just haven’t been able to enjoy any of it from the moment I set foot back in Madrid. I’m a world champion but it seems that, even to this day, my life has been on stand-by. I honestly haven’t been able to live freely.”

Rubiales, who denies the charges, has vowed to clear his name. “I believe in the truth and I will do everything in my power to make sure it prevails,” he said when he stepped down as head of the federation.

He said that although his family and those close to him had been made to suffer “the effects of an excessive persecution” and “many lies”, he felt the public knew the truth.

Also on trial for their suspected roles in putting pressure on Hermoso are the former head coach of the women’s national team Jorge Vilda, the former Spanish football federation sporting director Albert Luque and the federation’s former marketing chief Rubén Rivera. All three deny the charges against them.

The trial, which is scheduled to last three weeks, continues.

The exponential rise in microplastic pollution over the past 50 years may be reflected in increasing contamination in human brains, according to a new study.

It found a rising trend in micro- and nanoplastics in brain tissue from dozens of postmortems carried out between 1997 and 2024. The researchers also found the tiny particles in liver and kidney samples.

The human body is widely contaminated by microplastics. They have also been found in blood, semen, breast milk, placentas and bone marrow. The impact on human health is largely unknown, but they have been linked to strokes and heart attacks.

The scientists also found that the concentration of microplastics was about six times higher in brain samples from people who had dementia. However, the damage dementia causes in the brain would be expected to increase concentrations, the researchers said, meaning no causal link should be assumed.

“Given the exponentially rising environmental presence of micro- and nanoplastics, this data compels a much larger effort to understand whether they have a role in neurological disorders or other human health effects,” said the researchers, who were led by Prof Matthew Campen at the University of New Mexico in the US.

Microplastics are broken down from plastic waste and have polluted the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People consume the tiny particles via food, water and by breathing them in.

A study published on Thursday found tiny plastic pollution to be significantly higher in placentas from premature births. Another recent analysis found that microplastics can block blood vessels in the brains of mice, causing neurological damage, but noted that human capillaries are much larger.

The new research, published in the journal Nature Medicine, analysed samples of brain, liver and kidney tissues from 28 people who died in 2016 and 24 who died in 2024 in New Mexico. Microplastic concentration was much higher in the brain tissue. It was also higher in brain and liver samples from 2024, compared with those from 2016.

The scientists extended the analysis with brain tissue samples from people who had died between 1997 and 2013 on the US east coast. The data showed an increasing trend in microplastic contamination of brains from 1997 to 2024.

The most common plastic found was polyethylene, which is used in plastic bags and food and drink packaging. It made up 75% of the total plastic on average. The particles in the brain were mostly nanoscale shards and flakes of plastic. The plastic concentrations in the organs were not influenced by the age of the person at death, or the cause of death, their sex or their ethnicity.

The scientists noted that only one sample from each organ was analysed, meaning the variability within the organs remains unknown, and that some variation in the brain samples could be due to geographic differences between New Mexico and the US east coast.

“These results highlight a critical need to better understand the routes of exposure, uptake and clearance pathways and potential health consequences of plastics in human tissues, particularly in the brain,” said the researchers.

Prof Tamara Galloway at the University of Exeter in the UK, who was not part of the study team, said the 50% increase in levels of brain microplastics over the past eight years mirrored the increasing production and use of plastics and was significant. “It suggests that if we were to reduce environmental contamination with microplastics, the levels of human exposure would also decrease, offering a strong incentive to focus on innovations that reduce exposure,” Galloway said.

Prof Oliver Jones, at RMIT University in Australia, said the new research was interesting, but the low number of samples and the difficulty of analysing tiny plastic particles without contamination meant care should be taken when interpreting the results.

The exponential rise in microplastic pollution over the past 50 years may be reflected in increasing contamination in human brains, according to a new study.

It found a rising trend in micro- and nanoplastics in brain tissue from dozens of postmortems carried out between 1997 and 2024. The researchers also found the tiny particles in liver and kidney samples.

The human body is widely contaminated by microplastics. They have also been found in blood, semen, breast milk, placentas and bone marrow. The impact on human health is largely unknown, but they have been linked to strokes and heart attacks.

The scientists also found that the concentration of microplastics was about six times higher in brain samples from people who had dementia. However, the damage dementia causes in the brain would be expected to increase concentrations, the researchers said, meaning no causal link should be assumed.

“Given the exponentially rising environmental presence of micro- and nanoplastics, this data compels a much larger effort to understand whether they have a role in neurological disorders or other human health effects,” said the researchers, who were led by Prof Matthew Campen at the University of New Mexico in the US.

Microplastics are broken down from plastic waste and have polluted the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People consume the tiny particles via food, water and by breathing them in.

A study published on Thursday found tiny plastic pollution to be significantly higher in placentas from premature births. Another recent analysis found that microplastics can block blood vessels in the brains of mice, causing neurological damage, but noted that human capillaries are much larger.

The new research, published in the journal Nature Medicine, analysed samples of brain, liver and kidney tissues from 28 people who died in 2016 and 24 who died in 2024 in New Mexico. Microplastic concentration was much higher in the brain tissue. It was also higher in brain and liver samples from 2024, compared with those from 2016.

The scientists extended the analysis with brain tissue samples from people who had died between 1997 and 2013 on the US east coast. The data showed an increasing trend in microplastic contamination of brains from 1997 to 2024.

The most common plastic found was polyethylene, which is used in plastic bags and food and drink packaging. It made up 75% of the total plastic on average. The particles in the brain were mostly nanoscale shards and flakes of plastic. The plastic concentrations in the organs were not influenced by the age of the person at death, or the cause of death, their sex or their ethnicity.

The scientists noted that only one sample from each organ was analysed, meaning the variability within the organs remains unknown, and that some variation in the brain samples could be due to geographic differences between New Mexico and the US east coast.

“These results highlight a critical need to better understand the routes of exposure, uptake and clearance pathways and potential health consequences of plastics in human tissues, particularly in the brain,” said the researchers.

Prof Tamara Galloway at the University of Exeter in the UK, who was not part of the study team, said the 50% increase in levels of brain microplastics over the past eight years mirrored the increasing production and use of plastics and was significant. “It suggests that if we were to reduce environmental contamination with microplastics, the levels of human exposure would also decrease, offering a strong incentive to focus on innovations that reduce exposure,” Galloway said.

Prof Oliver Jones, at RMIT University in Australia, said the new research was interesting, but the low number of samples and the difficulty of analysing tiny plastic particles without contamination meant care should be taken when interpreting the results.

A man who participated in several Qur’an burnings in Stockholm that contributed to a diplomatic crisis between Sweden and the Muslim world has been convicted of incitement against an ethnic group.

Stockholm district court gave Salwan Najem a suspended sentence and a fine on Monday morning, saying his actions and behaviour in summer 2023 exceeded what could be described as engaging in objective debate and criticism of religion.

Najem was charged over statements he made in connection with four incidents of Qur’an burning in Stockholm with Salwan Momika, who was shot dead last Wednesday during a TikTok broadcast.

Najem, who came to Sweden from Iraq in 1998 and has been a Swedish citizen since June 2005, said his actions were legitimate criticisms of religion protected by Sweden’s freedom of expression laws. But Göran Lundahl, the judge in the case, said freedom of expression did not constitute a “free pass to do or say anything”.

After the verdict was delivered, Lundahl said: “There is a great deal of scope within the framework of freedom of expression to be critical of a religion in a factual and valid debate. At the same time, expressing one’s opinion about religion does not give one a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.”

Momika, who was also an Iraqi refugee, was indicted alongside Najem. The charges against him were dropped after he was killed on his balcony in Södertälje, near Stockholm, where he reportedly lived at a secret address. Five people were arrested and detained on the night of the murder but on Friday the prosecution authority said they would all be released.

Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, told reporters there were fears the killing could have been linked to another country. “I can assure you that the security services are deeply involved because there is obviously a risk that there is a connection to a foreign power,” he said.

Momika’s former lawyer, Anna Roth, said on Friday her client had not been protected despite having testified that there was a price on his head.

On Monday she said Najem’s sentencing was a “fundamentally important judgment”. She added: “Unfortunately it has been overshadowed by the fatal shooting of Salwan Momika. I hope that the police can investigate and find the perpetrator or perpetrators to clarify what was behind the deadly shooting.”

As well as intensifying a global diplomatic row between Sweden and Muslim countries around the world, the string of protests during which copies of the Qur’an were burned or otherwise damaged prompted an impassioned domestic debate about the limits of the Scandinavian country’s exceptionally liberal freedom of expression laws.

The prosecution in Najem’s case said that the aim of the Qur’an burnings had been to express contempt for Muslims because of their religion, and therefore could be considered incitement against an ethnic group.

At the time of the burnings, Kristersson accused outsiders of exploiting the country’s freedom of expression laws to spread hate and of “dragging Sweden into international conflicts”. He also said his government would consider changes that would allow police to stop Qur’an burnings if they posed a threat to national security.

At the time, Sweden was not yet a part of Nato and was concerned that the controversy could derail its membership. It became a member of the military alliance last March.

The government is reportedly no longer planning to present a bill in parliament this spring to ban Qur’an burnings. A spokesperson for the justice department said it was preparing its response, adding: “The government will come back in the future about the way forward.”

A senior Taliban minister who expressed support for reversing the ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan appears to have been forced to flee the country.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony in Khost province, near the Afghan-Pakistani border, on 20 January, Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, criticised the government’s ban on girls attending secondary schools and higher education.

“There is no excuse for this – not now and not in the future,” Stanikzai said. “We are being unjust to 20 million people.

“During the time of the prophet Muhammad, the doors of knowledge were open for both men and women,” he said. “There were such remarkable women that if I were to elaborate on their contributions, it would take a considerable amount of time.”

After this speech, and reports of Stanikzai criticising him, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, allegedly ordered the minister’s arrest and issued a travel ban, which pushed Stanikzai to leave Afghanistan for the United Arab Emirates.

Stanikzai confirmed to local media he had left for Dubai but claimed it was for health reasons. The Taliban were contacted for comment but did not respond.

Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, the rights of women and girls to education, work, travel and appearing in public have been severely curtailed.

Last month, the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for the Taliban’s supreme leader and Afghanistan’s chief justice on the grounds that their persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan is a crime against humanity.

A bomb exploded in the lobby of a luxury apartment block in Moscow, killing a pro-Russia paramilitary leader from eastern Ukraine alongside his bodyguard.

The bomb detonated just as a man with bodyguards entered the lobby of the Scarlet Sails residential complex on the banks of the Moscow River on Monday, Russian media reported.

Russia’s Tass news agency, citing security services, reported that the blast was an attack on Armen Sarkisyan, the head of the boxing federation in Russian-occupied Donetsk and the founder of a battalion fighting against Ukraine. Sarkisyan, who is wanted in Ukraine, has a long history of aiding pro-Russia forces in Ukraine.

Sarkisyan was taken to hospital in critical condition and he later succumbed to his injuries, while his bodyguard was killed instantly, Tass said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, which Russian security services described as a targeted assassination.

Ukraine has targeted dozens of Russian military officers and Russian-installed officials whom Kyiv has accused of committing war crimes in the country. Little is known, however, about the clandestine Ukrainian resistance cells involved in assassinations and attacks on military infrastructure in Russia and Russian-controlled areas.

News agencies published footage from the lobby of the building in north-west Moscow, showing a heavily damaged hall, a blown-out door and broken glass.

According to Ukrainian media, Kyiv issued an international arrest warrant for Sarkissian in 2014 over violence against pro-EU protesters during the Maidan uprising,

Ukrainian security services describe Sarkisyan as a “criminal authority” with connections to former president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in 2014.

He gained further attention in Russia as the founder of the “Arbat” battalion, one of many irregular Russian military units that have fought alongside the Russian army since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Ukraine’s security services say the Arbat paramilitary group has fought in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s Kursk region.

If claimed by Kyiv, the attack would mark the latest operation by Ukraine’s SBU security service deep behind enemy lines – one aimed at sowing panic and fear among senior Kremlin and military figures.

“Ukraine carried out a terrorist attack in the super-elite complex Alye Parusa [Scarlet Sails]. This is how Ukraine’s terrorist attacks are getting closer to the Russian elite,” Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The blast would also represent the latest embarrassment for Russia’s FSB, which has struggled to stop Kyiv’s ongoing assassination campaign.

In December, Ukraine said it was behind the assassination of Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, the head of the military’s chemical, biological and radiological weapons unit, who was killed along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off as the two men left a building in a residential area in south-east Moscow.

Daniel Khalife, a former soldier, has been sentenced to more than 14 years in custody and condemned as a “dangerous fool” for spying for Iran and escaping from prison.

In September 2023, Khalife, 23, sparked a high-profile manhunt when he broke out of HMP Wandsworth by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck. At the time he was being held on remand for spying charges.

Last November, a jury at Woolwich crown court found him guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act and the Terrorism Act by passing on information to Iran while he was serving in the army. During his trial he also admitted escaping from prison before his capture on a canal towpath by a plainclothes detective. He was cleared of carrying out a bomb hoax.

On Monday, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb sentenced him to 14 years and three months at Woolwich crown court.

The sentence involved six years each for breaking the Official Secrets Act and the Terrorism Act, and a further two years and three months for escaping from prison. The sentences will run consecutively, the judge said. An older man committing these offences would have had a noticeably longer sentence, she added.

In her sentencing remarks, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: “Deterring others from similar behaviour must be the primary aim of this sentence.” The judge said Khalife was motivated by a “selfish desire to show off”.

The trial heard how Khalife had “exposed military personnel to serious harm” by collecting sensitive information and passing it on to Iranian agents for cash.

The judge said Khalife had exploited a security flaw in the army personnel computer system to screenshot the names of soldiers, including seven in the special forces. She said this was a “very serious example” of a breach of anti-terror laws.

Prosecutors said Khalife played “a cynical game”, claiming he wanted a career as a double agent to help the British intelligence services, when in fact he gathered “a very large body of restricted and classified material”.

Mr Justice Cheema-Grubb said:“Having taken an oath of allegiance, you were motivated by a personal grievance to betray your colleagues and superiors. Your conduct was premeditated and continued for over two years.

“You were aware that the Iranians had technology which could access your mobile phone and track where you, and by direct inference, your colleagues were serving. Although it may be that some of your early material was bogus and of no direct importance, you did not stop when you realised that the domestic security services were not going to respond to your overtures.”

She added: “The mere fact that you started on this dangerous and fantastical plan demonstrates your immaturity and lack of wisdom. That you thought it was appropriate to insert yourself – an unauthorised, unqualified and uninformed junior soldier into communication with an enemy state – is perhaps the clearest indication of the degree of folly and your failure to understand at the most obvious level the risk you posed.”

Defending, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC said Khalife’s spying activity was amateurish, describing it as more “Scooby Doo than 007”. Some documents Khalife forged to pass to the Iranians were “laughably fake”, Hussain told the court.

He told the judge: “What Daniel Khalife clearly chose to do was not born of malice, was not born of greed, religious fervour or ideological conviction. His intentions were neither sinister nor cynical.”

After asking the defendant to stand up in the dock, the judge said: “Daniel Khalife. When you joined the army as a young man you had the makings of an exemplary soldier. However, through the repeated violation of your oath of service, you showed yourself to be, instead, a dangerous fool.

“The only sentence open to me is one of immediate custody. Anyone who is prepared to betray his country and subject serving soldiers to an increased risk of harm must be punished in respect of deterrence.”