City damaged during occupation by Islamic State group reopens 850-year-old mosque in time for Ramadan as reconstruction gathers pace

In the small courtyard of Sara’s grandmother’s house, children are running and playing as if time had never passed. “The house kept our memories,” Sara says, sitting on the sofa of the courtyard. “It seems like we never left. On the contrary, when we came back, we felt we belonged to this house.”

Located in the old Iraqi city of Mosul, right behind the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, their home is part of the local cultural heritage. It was heavily damaged during the occupation by Islamic State (IS) and the battle to reclaim the city by Iraqi armed forces, backed by US coalition airstrikes. Sara and her family were forcibly displaced during the fighting in 2017 and for many years feared they would never see their home intact again.

Playing music that is as smart as it is successful, Brit winners made articulate calls for artist development – while host Jack Whitehall was brilliantly risky

The Brits has long been in the business of underlining success; upsets and shock wins aren’t really the point. If they seemed moderately more exciting in 2025 than in years past, that’s partly because Jack Whitehall is a better, riskier, funnier host than anyone else offered the job in recent years – he mocked Stormzy for his promotion of McDonald’s, made a joke about amyl nitrate and called Coldplay “the musical missionary position” – and because 2024 was a vintage year for mainstream pop, dominated by music that was characterful and hugely successful.

If Charli xcx – and producer AG Cook – hadn’t been lavishly rewarded for her agenda-setting album Brat, you would have wondered what had gone wrong: likewise Chappell Roan, whose ardent emotion both in and out of the recording studio makes her one of pop’s most cheering recent developments: she responded to her two awards with acceptance speeches that called upon the music industry to offer more long-term development support to artists – a theme also picked up on by Myles Smith, winner of the rising star award – and shouted out the trans community and sex workers.

European heads of government and leaders of Canada and Turkey will attend talks aimed at presenting a united front on Ukraine crisis. What we know on day 1,103

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is willing to “restore dialogue” with the US, French president Emmanuel Macron has said after speaking with the Ukrainian leader following the disastrous White House exchange with US president Donald Trump on Friday. Macron said the dialogue would include a deal that would give US access to revenues from Ukraine’s natural resources. Macron also spoke to Trump but did not reveal any details about the call. The White House had no immediate comment.

Macron’s comments come as Zelenskyy arrived in London ahead of a summit of European leaders on Sunday that the Ukrainian president will attend to discuss a peace plan for the Russia-Ukraine war. UK prime minister Keir Starmer will host European heads of government and the leaders of Canada and Turkey at the special defence summit aimed at presenting a united front on Ukraine.

Prior to the summit, Starmer told Zelenskyy he had “full backing across the United Kingdom” and that “we stand with you and Ukraine for as long as it may take”. Zelenskyy said Kyiv would use a new £2.26bn ($2.84bn) loan from the UK to manufacture weapons in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy is also due to meet King Charles on Sunday. The ­official audience is to be held at the British monarch’s Sandringham estate in eastern England. Zelenskyy told Starmer he was “very happy” the king had agreed to the meeting.

Turkey’s foreign minister will reiterate at Sunday’s meeting of European leaders an offer from Ankara to host peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, a Turkish diplomatic source said.

Russian strikes around Ukraine killed one person and wounded 19, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday. In the southern Odesa region, one died and three were injured, Ukrainian prosecutors said. The regional governor said a Russian missile struck port facilities in the city of Odesa, injuring two port workers and damaging infrastructure and a vessel. Oleh Kiper said on Telegram that the strike damaged a Panamanian-flagged vessel belonging to a European company.

Moscow claims to have seized two more villages in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces captured Sudne and Burlatske in the south of the eastern Donetsk region, the defence ministry said on Saturday. The villages are near the town of Velyka Novosilka, which was seized by the Russian army at the end of January.

A new monitoring mission from the UN nuclear watchdog arrived at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Saturday for the first time through Russian territory, the Moscow-installed head of the plant said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rotation came after weeks of delay caused by military activity around the site with each side blaming the other for violating rules to ensure the team’s safe passage to the plant. Yuri Chernichuk, the head of the plant in south-eastern Ukraine, said on Telegram the arrival of three inspectors was ensured by Russia’s defence ministry and national guard and followed “intense” consultations between the heads of Russia’s state nuclear power company Rosatom and the IAEA. The report could not be independently verified.

Russia said on Saturday it had shot down three Ukrainian drones targeting a major gas pipeline carrying Russian supplies to Europe via Turkey, in the second such incident this year. The attack was aimed at the Russkaya gas compressor station in the southern Krasnodar region, an element of the TurkStream pipeline network, according to Moscow. Kyiv has not commented on the claim. Russia alleged Ukraine attempted to hit the same compressor station on 11 January.

Hundreds of people marched through central Berlin on Saturday alongside Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, to demand an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Navalnaya was at the head of the march alongside Russian opposition figures Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza. Alongside slogans denouncing Russian president Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, some protesters also carried signs criticising Donald Trump.

Case is seen as early test of scope of presidential authority as Trump seeks to rein in federal agencies’ independence

A US judge on Saturday declared president Donald Trump’s firing of the head of a federal watchdog agency illegal in an early test of the scope of presidential power likely to be decided at the US supreme court.

US district judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington had previously ruled that Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel who is responsible for protecting whistleblowers, could remain in his post pending a ruling.

• Updates from the rugby league at Allegiant Stadium
• Panthers defeat Sharks 28-22; Australia thrash England 90-4
• Canberra Raiders beat New Zealand Warriors 30-8

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart has taken inspiration from the poker tables at his hotel and reshuffled his pack for today’s game against the Warriors. Josh Papalii will start, and Morgan Smithies revert to the bench. Smart move to unleash big Papa from the get-go. Vegas won’t know what hit it…

Ethan Strange and Jamal Fogarty will run the side from the halves. Corey Horsburgh and Joseph Tapine will bring muscle up the middle. There are a couple of fresh faces in the lime green line-up. Owen Pattie will debut from the bench and Savelio Tamale plays his second NRL game on the wing.

Directive allows government organisations that receive federal funding to choose whether to continue to offer services in languages other than English

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States.

The order on Saturday allows government agencies and organisations that receive federal funding to choose whether to continue to offer documents and services in languages other than English.