World

A further £1.3bn in military support will be provide by the UK to Ukrainian forces as they fight against Russia’s invasion. The escalation of British assistance for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces is the highest rate of UK military spending on a conflict since the height of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. The £1.3bn, drawn from

North Korea has test-fired a suspected submarine-launched ballistic missile just days before South Korea inaugurates a new leader who has vowed to take a hard line against Pyongyang. Seoul said the rocket was launched early on Saturday from near the eastern port city of Sinpo, where the North has a submarine base. Japan also confirmed

A war zone is no place for the vulnerable, no place for the sick. We’re visiting the cancer ward of a Ukrainian children’s hospital, where doctors know this and are planning an evacuation operation that is as delicate as it is tough. They hope to organise a medical convoy that will take some of the

Not many Eurovision acts can say that instead of rehearsing for the biggest performance of their life, they have grabbed an AK47 to fight off Russian aggressors on the streets. But that’s exactly what Ukraine’s act, Kalush Orchestra, have done ahead of their appearance at the contest. The glitzy arena in the Italian city of

More than 500kg of cocaine has been discovered in a shipment of coffee beans sent to a Nespresso factory, according to Swiss police. The authorities were alerted after staff at the plant in Romont found a white powder while unloading the sacks, which had just arrived from Brazil. Analysis confirmed the powder was cocaine, with

The Pope approved a secret €1m operation to free a Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali, a disgraced cardinal has claimed. Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez was seized by the Macina Liberation Front, an al Qaeda-linked group, in February 2017 and released last year. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who is one of ten defendants on trial accused of

A woman detained after her Ryanair flight was forced to land in Belarus last May has been jailed for six years. Sophia Sapega and her activist boyfriend were flying from Greece to Lithuania when the plane was flanked by a fighter jet and forced down over an alleged bomb threat. Western countries said the actions

At least eight people have died and dozens are injured after a powerful explosion at a five-star hotel in the downtown area of Cuba’s capital Havana, officials have said. The blast at the Hotel Saratoga, a 19th-century structure in Old Havana, was apparently due to a gas leak, according to the Twitter account of the

A German woman has been found guilty of sexual assault after poking holes in her partner’s condoms in an attempt to get pregnant, according to reports. The woman, 39, was in a “friends with benefits” relationship with the man when she deliberately damaged the condoms without his knowledge. The case made legal history, according to

Fifty-three people are confirmed to have died after the rear of a six-storey building suddenly collapsed in China. The residential and commercial building caved in on 29 April and it was initially thought that five people had died. But the number of casualties was updated in the early hours of Friday by the Associated Press,

The Russian assault on the last defenders at Mariupol’s steelworks will continue to hold back its plans to control the Donbas region, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. It is estimated around 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are underneath the Azovstal plant – the last pocket of resistance in a city almost completely destroyed. A few

New satellite images of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol show how the site has been the target of extensive shelling over the course of the war. The images, which were released by satellite imaging company Planet, show what the site looked like on eight separate dates, beginning on 10 March. One of the images appears

Russia is attempting to “empty” the Donbas of people and peace talks are in danger of collapsing, Ukraine’s president has claimed. Speaking in his nightly address, Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of carrying out “constant brutal bombardments” on buildings and residential areas of the eastern region of his country. He compared the barrage of attacks as

Two British aid workers who have reportedly been captured by Russian forces in Ukraine have been named. UK non-profit organisation Presidium Network said Paul Urey and Dylan Healey were captured on Monday. They are understood to have been captured at a checkpoint south of the city of Zaporizhzhia in south-eastern Ukraine. Mr Urey has been

A British army veteran has been killed and a second British man is missing after they were believed to have travelled to Ukraine to fight against Russia’s forces. Scott Sibley, 36, is the first British national confirmed to have died in the war. A friend described him as the bravest person he knew. Another said

A British man has been killed in Ukraine and a second Briton is missing. Scott Sibley has been named as the Briton who died. It is thought the pair had been fighting against Russian forces as volunteers in support of Ukraine‘s military, although this has not been confirmed. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)