Three dead in Russian drone strike as Putin grants FSB sweeping new powers

At least three people have died after a Russian drone strike on a warehouse in Ukraine‘s Kharkiv region, according to the Ukrainian emergency services.

The state emergency service said rescuers recovered two more bodies from beneath the rubble during search operations, after the attack a day earlier caused a large fire at a civilian enterprise building.

The attack came as Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law granting Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) sweeping new powers to deny individuals access to the internet.

The new law allows the authorities to order telecommunications providers to disconnect individuals from mobile and internet services, expanding state control over digital communications, and also applies to territories under Russian occupation in Ukraine.

Earlier, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said peace talks in Geneva this week “have not always been easy or reasonable,” but insisted that opportunities to end the war “with dignity” still exist.

He also pushed back on Donald Trump’s demands for Kyiv to make concessions, saying it was “not fair” to ask Ukraine to give up territory to Russia.

Team GB bid for Olympic curling crown as Atkin goes for halfpipe gold

Great Britain will hope to end their 102-year wait for Winter Olympic men’s curling gold as Bruce Mouat’s rink seek revenge against Canada in Cortina.

Team GB’s men slumped to a 9-5 defeat by Canada on Tuesday evening following the controversy that erupted over the weekend with cheating accusations made against the Canadian team, but they hit back in style against the USA on Wednesday afternoon, winning 9-2 after just six ends to remain in the hunt for a medal.

The British quartet then saw off Switzerland 8-5 in the semi-finals to guarantee at least silver – which they won in Beijing four years ago – and now have the chance to write themselves into Olympic folklore.

GB’s Zoe Atkin will also chase glory in the freeski halfpipe as she looks to pip longtime rival and defending champion Eileen Gu of China to gold, entering the final as the top qualifier.

Follow all the action from the Winter Olympics in our live blog below:

Trump says he is ‘considering’ military strike on Iran

President Donald Trump on Friday said he’s “considering” ordering airstrikes on Iran as a way to pressure the Iranian government into reaching a new agreement to curb the nuclear program the president claimed to have “obliterated” with a series of airstrikes last year.

Asked whether he was considering limited strikes from U.S. warplanes as a way to apply more pressure on Tehran amid intermittent negotiations during a breakfast meeting with U.S. governors, Trump replied: “I guess I can say I am considering that.”

The president’s latest comments come just one day after he warned that Tehran must reach an agreement with the United States on curbing its nuclear program or risk “bad things” as he addressed a meeting of his fledgling Board of Peace, at which he touted his efforts in ending Israel’s war in Gaza.

Scores of American warplanes — including F-35, F-22 and F-16 fighter jets plus associated tanker and command-and-control aircraft — have assembled at bases in countries within reach of Iran’s borders, and a a pair of U.S. Navy aircraft carrier groups led by U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford to the region (plus each carrier’s embarked air wings that can number as high as 180 planes between the two ships) are on station in the area as well.

During prepared remarks Thursday, he laid out what appeared to be a new 10-day deadline for Tehran to avoid military action and said talks between American and Iranian officials have been “good.”

“Good talks are being had. It’s proven to be, over the years, not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran. We have to make a meaningful deal, otherwise bad things happen,” Trump said, adding that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon” and stressing that military action could come “over the next, probably 10 days” in the absence of an agreement.

Iran, Trump continued, “cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region, and they must make a deal.”

“Or if that doesn’t happen, I maybe can understand if it doesn’t happen … but bad things will happen if it doesn’t,” he said.

His continued threats against the Iranian government are taking place against the backdrop of start-and-stop talks between Iranian representatives and U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

Face-to-face negotiations in Geneva last week ended without any sort of breakthrough, and Trump has ordered a massive military buildup in the Middle East region with the aim of adding more pressure ahead of further talks.

The U.S. last carried out strikes on Iran last summer, when B-2 bombers flying from an air base in Missouri dropped bunker-busting weapons onto a trio of Iranian nuclear facilities.

Trump has claimed that the strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, but he has nonetheless continued to claim that Tehran poses a nuclear threat and has demanded that the Iranian government abandon the nuclear program he claims to have destroyed.

According to reports, the assembled forces could be ready to strike Iran as early as Saturday.

Everything the Blair documentary got wrong about the man I know

In the early years of the course on the Blair Years that I have been teaching with Professor Jon Davis since 2008, students wanted to understand more about Tony Blair’s decision to join the American invasion of Iraq.

Like Michael Waldman, the maker of this week’s Channel 4 documentary about Blair, they seemed obsessed with how Blair came to do something that was so obviously wrong, and why he would not accept, in hindsight, that he had made a mistake.

In recent years, though, students have been much more interested in how he was such a good prime minister. They want to know how he improved public services, how he communicated optimism, and how he won elections and kept winning them.

Yet Waldman succeeded, I think, because he painted a fuller portrait than most have done. This was despite his subject resisting the probing of his inner life more bluntly than I have seen before.

Blair told Waldman, “It’s very important to understand about me that I’m not into psychoanalysis. There’s far too much of it and people spend far too long constantly analysing why they do what they do. I know why I do what I do, because I believe in it. If people don’t accept that, I’ll just get on with doing it.”

Others can speculate, however, about the influence of his father, Leo, adopted by working-class parents in Glasgow, who became a barrister and law lecturer, was active in politics and wanted to become an MP. Leo was a Conservative, having renounced the Communism of his youth and becoming a proto-Thatcherite in the early 1960s.

When his ambition was thwarted by a stroke, it may have been taken up by Tony, aged 11, although he both rebelled against his father, adopting a politics of the compassionate left, and wanted to succeed on his behalf. The other thing his father gave him, though, was an instinctive understanding of the “stand on your own two feet” mantra of Margaret Thatcher, when she laid waste to the Labour Party in the 1980s.

By chance, Charles Moore, Thatcher’s biographer, came to talk to our students at King’s yesterday, and said that she was just as resistant as Blair to questions about her early life and motivations – although she deflected them in a different way. When he asked her about her mother, with whom she had an emotionally distant relationship, Thatcher said she did wonderful voluntary work: “And that’s the thing about the women of Britain. They do marvellous voluntary work, not like the French women.” Moore said: “And off she went into a generalisation which she was happier with, rather than the particular about herself.”

Waldman’s questions about what Blair thought about “in the middle of the night” were met with a more knowing deflection. When Blair said he wouldn’t answer that question, Waldman protested: “Why not, you’re no longer a politician?” Blair said, “You’re always a politician.”

And it is true in his case that he is still active in politics in the broader sense. This week, he attended the first meeting of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to try to find a way forward for Gaza. As his daughter Kathryn says in the documentary: “He’s just not finished.”

It is the first time that Kathryn has been interviewed about her father, and the footage of her, brothers Euan and Leo and mother Cherie is the most valuable part of the film. They confirm that the Blair family was not just a public relations exercise, with Blair the first prime minister of the TV age to have young children in Downing Street. They are a real family.

Once, when I was having an off-the-record conversation with Blair in his No 10 office, the prime minister’s great thoughts were interrupted by Leo, aged four, coming to say goodnight. Two decades later, Leo is now being interviewed on TV about what it was like growing up in Downing Street for the first seven years of his life. He said, “I remember being very sad” when the family had to move out in 2007.

Nor is Cherie yet reconciled to the family’s departure. Her hostility to Gordon Brown remains undimmed by the passage of time. What did she say when Tony thought about standing down before the 2005 election? “No. Don’t do it.” Did she think Tony made a mistake in handing over to Brown two years later? “I do.”

I remember a discussion with Cherie about the children’s privacy, I think, after they appeared at the door of No 10 after the 2001 election. She rejected the idea that they should be hidden away. “They want to be part of it too,” she said. And they still do.

Euan revealed some of the family dynamic as his father became more unpopular after Iraq: “There was this mutual understanding. We would never let him see it affecting us too much. He would never let us see it affecting him too much.”

I thought the film provided a valuable corrective to Blair’s tendency to present himself as a man of destiny, removed from the world. It rooted him in the family he grew up in and in the family he and Cherie created.

The responses to the documentary were telling. Blair’s “lack of introspection is baffling”, said one reviewer. Others could not understand how he still defends the toppling of Saddam Hussein, and found his “history goes on a long time” line annoying.

But the more interesting responses were more obvious. Every year, it becomes easier to explain Blair’s strengths as a prime minister to students, as each of his successors in one way or another demonstrates them by their contrasting weaknesses. “The right needs its own Tony Blair,” said one Conservative reviewer. So does the left.

WIN: a £2,500 Crystal Ski Holidays voucher

Fancy hitting the slopes with £2,500 to spend on your next winter escape? We’ve teamed up with Crystal Ski Holidays to give one lucky reader the chance to win a £2,500 voucher – perfect for powering an unforgettable mountain adventure!

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Enter your details below to be in with a chance of winning – your next snowy getaway could be closer than you think!

To enter, simply fill in your details on the form below:

Prize Draw T&Cs

18+. UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man residents only. Promotion closes at 23:59 GMT on 31st March 2026. Winner will be drawn at random from all entries received by the closing date. The prize is non-transferable and no cash alternative is available. Standard Comps & Offers rules apply, see here.

The prize is for one Crystal Ski Holidays voucher of two thousand and five hundred pounds (£2500). The voucher can be redeemed against any package holiday featured in the Crystal W2026/27 programme which departs from the UK between 01 December 2026 and 30 April 2027.

Details of available holidays can be found at www.crystalski.co.uk. All holidays are subject to availability. The prize must be redeemed by 31 December 2026. The voucher will be in the form of a unique code which will be e-mailed to the winner once the prize has been accepted and this can be redeemed either online, through a Crystal Hub or via phone direct with a Crystal holiday Advisor. The Promoter reserves the right to substitute prizes of equal or greater value. The prize is not transferable, is not redeemable for cash and no alternative will be offered. The code must be treated as cash and the balance cannot be refunded if the code is lost, stolen or destroyed. The prize is valid on new bookings only, cannot be combined with any promotional offers and can only be used against one package holiday including ski essentials. The winner will be required to pay any remaining balance exceeding the prize value of £2500. It is the winner’s responsibility to check all visa and passport requirements are fulfilled prior to making any booking. Booking terms and conditions apply to any holiday purchased in part or full using the code. Booking terms and conditions apply to the holiday; see https://www.crystalski.co.uk/ for details.

Why do all the Beckham girlfriends look like Victoria?

At Cruz Beckham’s 21st birthday party at The MAINE in Mayfair, London, last weekend, one thing stood out – and it wasn’t Brooklyn’s absence.

As his parents, David and Victoria, posed against a red velvet curtain with their brood at the party, Cruz’s girlfriend, Jackie Apostel, 31, and Romeo’s partner, Kim Turnbull, 24, looked like mini-me Victoria Beckhams. And when Victoria, 51, sister Harper, 14, and Apostel took to the stage during the lavish evening to give a moving birthday speech, Victoria and Apostel looked uncannily like twins.

And in every photo I look at of Nicola Peltz – Brooklyn’s 31-year-old wife –it’s clear he married his mother. She, too, is a Victoria Beckham lookalike.

When she posed with her mother-in-law in February 2024 at the premiere of her directorial debut, Lola, before she and Brooklyn cut all ties with his famous family, it was more than channeling Victoria by donning a white corset and low-slung trousers from her Victoria Beckham brand. They looked almost indistinguishable from each other – despite the age gap.

And the same year, Peltz was so desperate to emulate her mother-in-law that she stepped out hand-in-hand with husband Brooklyn, wearing the same black Dolce & Gabbana biker jacket with diagonal white and cerulean blue slashed stripes, memorably worn by Victoria back in 2001 to attend the Manchester United team parade, alongside a two-year-old Brooklyn. All of them copy her style – even her “iconic” Posh Spice looks.

By just scrolling through their Instagram feeds, you can overdose on the lookalike photos of the Beckham girlfriends. They are clones of Victoria, with their dark hair, snatched-like appearances, and natural makeup look with signature pouts.

It’s no coincidence, however, that the boys have chosen these women, just as I did when choosing men like my dad.

For the Beckham’s, it’s likely tied in with “Brand Beckham”, which, according to Brooklyn, is all the Beckham family cares about with performative social media posts. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, however, and dating similar-looking women is a safe way to “belong” and keep in Victoria’s good books.

Of course, people often date individuals who look like their parents because it is familiar and comforting – and it feels safe. This subconscious drive, often stemming from childhood, makes similar personality traits, emotional patterns, or even physical appearances feel like a magnetic pull.

The belief that a boy’s first love is his mum – or a girl’s is her dad – rings true. And choosing a partner who looks like your parent speaks volumes about that parental bond – good or bad. In the Beckham’s cases, their partners have to be comfortable with seeing life as if it’s a runway – so they need to look polished – or they would be outcasts. And having a unified look strengthens the brand – even if they don’t actively seek it. But it runs far deeper.

It took me years of therapy and rehab to understand why I chose partners that were the mirror image of my dad. I’d always gone for men who not only looked like my dad – dark, handsome with brown eyes – but who had my dad’s personality traits: charismatic, prone to addiction, funny, and workaholic.

Partly, for me, it was about buying into my parents’ great love story – the “love at first sight” scenario I grew up hearing about – and I wanted the same happy ending.

But it wasn’t until later, in my early twenties, that I realised it was a cycle that needed breaking – and healing from. It was about my constant need to gain my dad’s approval and love.

I’d pick men, who like my dad, loved me, but were also often emotionally unavailable – and try to change them. I’d become needy and push them away, which strengthened my belief that I was not lovable.

I was the love child of my parents – and the youngest – and my dad felt guilty about breaking up his first marriage and leaving his three children. His sense of guilt meant he couldn’t fully give his love to me. He also threw himself into work – and left my mum to do the emotional caregiving. As a child, I didn’t understand this – and felt unloved – and internalised his emotional unavailability as if it was a marker of my self-worth. I went on to try to fix that issue with other men.

It’s a healthy psychological process when a young person separates their identity from their parents to establish autonomy – but one that took me years to deal with. Choosing romantic partners who are carbon copies of a parent makes it so much harder to get off the merry-go-round of family dysfunction.

The Beckhams are clearly in the midst of a messy family estrangement – but one thing remains strong: the Beckham men all have the same taste in women. The trouble is that having lookalike partners to a parent isn’t the way forward – as I discovered. It just shows how entrenched they are in a co-dependent family, where nobody really knows who they are outside of the family role-playing and pretence of a “perfect family”, and even if the girlfriends do, they can only survive by being moulded into Victoria’s being.