In the headlines
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov will hold talks in Geneva today, amid growing fears that Russia will invade Ukraine. President Biden has threatened Russia with severe economic sanctions if it does invade, but former Kremlin adviser Sergei Karaganov told the Today programme that Moscow has “countermeasures which could devastate his country and the countries of his allies”. Tory rebels say they may release a secretly recorded conversation to back up their claims that party whips tried to blackmail them. At least five MPs have been threatened with funding cuts for their constituencies or the printing of damaging stories about them, says the Guardian. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has pledged to stop the “endless torrent” of unnecessary announcements on trains. He calls it a “bonfire of the banalities”.