In the headlines
Volodymyr Zelensky says peace talks with Russia are starting to “sound more realistic”. The Ukrainian president has made the key concession that his country will not join Nato – the alliance’s refusal to rule out Ukrainian membership was one of Russia’s pretexts for invading. Boris Johnson is in the Middle East today asking the leaders of Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia to ramp up oil production, in a bid to bring down global fuel prices. “Going cap in hand from dictator to dictator,” says Keir Starmer, “is not an energy strategy.” Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is on her way home from Iran after nearly six years in jail. It’s unclear why the 43-year-old British-Iranian has been freed now. She was arrested in 2016 on trumped-up charges of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.