World

“Look at this man… he worked for British forces,” shouted one Taliban fighter, as a group of them began to beat Ahmad in front of his screaming wife and children. It was 15 August 2021. The family were at the entrance to Kabul airport, trying to get on to an evacuation flight. They’d been met

A damning new report says the US-led withdrawal from Afghanistan was carried out with no planning, was mired in “chaos and confusion”, and ended in “tragic yet avoidable outcomes”. On the first anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Kabul which led to the sudden mass evacuation of thousands of displaced Afghans, Republicans on the US

With his long black hair flowing beneath a traditional cap and over his masked face, a Taliban guard, machine gun in hand, indicated I should follow the doctor.   I realised then we were to have his company for the duration of our stay. A peculiar development and an unusual experience, but one that was

Sir Salman Rushdie’s suspected attacker has been charged with attempted second degree murder. Hadi Matar, 24, was identified by New York police after the attack on Friday. Police have not established a motive for the stabbing that left the author, 75, seriously injured. He remains on a ventilator in hospital. This is what we know

Author Salman Rushdie will likely lose an eye and has suffered severed nerves in an arm and damage to his liver after he was stabbed, his agent has said. The 75-year-old remains on a ventilator after being airlifted to hospital and undergoing hours of surgery following the attack in New York state. “The news is

Author Sir Salman Rushdie, who has faced death threats for his novel The Satanic Verses, has apparently been stabbed in the neck while on stage at an event in New York state. The Indian-born British author has been taken to hospital by helicopter but his condition is not yet known. The 75-year-old was about to

Russia has reached a new low and is trying to “threaten the whole world” by shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy has said. Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling the facility as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed a demilitarised zone at the Zaporizhzhia plant in the city of

Satellite images appear to show several Russian warplanes at an airbase in Crimea have been damaged or destroyed. Ukraine’s air force said on Wednesday that nine aircraft were demolished in explosions a day before – a claim Russia denied. The images, from the US-based Planet Labs, show several warplanes in pieces and swathes of scorched

China’s ambassador to the UK has been summoned to the Foreign Office over Beijing’s “aggressive and wide-ranging escalation” against Taiwan. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she had ordered officials to call in ambassador Zheng Zeguang to explain his country’s actions in recent days, which have seen missile launches and incursions into Taiwanese waters and air space.

Russian authorities have raided the home of a former state TV journalist who quit after making an on-air protest against the war in Ukraine. Marina Ovsyannikova gained international attention in March after bursting into a studio of Russian state TV, her then employer, to denounce the war in Ukraine. She held a poster that read:

At 4pm last Friday, residents of an apartment building on Al-Shohada Street in Gaza were eating, sleeping or relaxing on their day off. Then, the Israelis struck the complex from above. Their target was man a called Tayseer al Jabari who was visiting relatives on the sixth floor. He was a senior commander in the

The drought scorching much of the European Union is set to be the worst endured since the sixteenth century, a senior scientist at the European Commission’s (EC) drought service has warned. “At the moment… this seems to be the worst” year in 500 years, although a full analysis will need to happen retrospectively, said Andrea

China is extending threatening military exercises around Taiwan that have already disrupted shipping and air traffic, further fuelling concerns about potential conflict in the region. According to Moscow, the exercises include anti-submarine drills, apparently targeting US support for Taiwan in the event of a potential Chinese invasion. The Chinese military has said the exercises involving

A peace of sorts seems to have returned to the fractious, wartorn border that separates Israel and the territory of Gaza. The Egyptians managed to negotiate a temporary truce yesterday as Palestinian militants sent multiple rocket barrages across the frontier – and the Israeli military targeted rocket launching sites run by the militant group Islamic

Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have agreed to a ceasefire following a weekend of fighting. The stoppage has been called for 11.30pm local time (9.30pm BST), Islamic Jihad and the Israeli government said in separate statements. It has been the most serious flare-up on the Gaza frontier in more than a year. In an update

A second senior Islamic Jihad commander has been killed in an Israeli airstrike as a surge of fighting continues in Gaza. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group said the man was Khaled Mansour – their top official for the southern Gaza Strip. The strike in the southern city of Rafah also killed two fellow militants

In the Balkans, Europe is watching as a crisis slowly develops. A familiar problem, in a familiar place, but now with the added prospect of Russian intervention. Thirty years after its horrific war, Bosnia is caught in a complex, volatile dispute that embraces ethnic divisions, religious rivalry, genocide denial, harrowing memories and the nagging suspicion

The war in Ukraine is set to enter a new phase, British military intelligence chiefs have said this morning. Russian forces are “almost certainly” massing in the south in preparation for a counter-offensive from Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) warned on Saturday. Long convoys of military trucks, tanks and towed artillery are moving southwest

China has ramped up its military drills in Taiwan’s waters and announced sanctions against US Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as tensions build between Beijing and Washington. The country’s foreign ministry announced sanctions against Ms Pelosi today following her visit to Taiwan, which marked the first trip from a US House Speaker to the island in 25

Taiwan’s premier has condemned China as the “evil neighbour next door” after its military began live firing drills around the island. Su Tseng-chang told reporters in the capital Taipei he believed China was arbitrarily destroying the Taiwan Strait – the world’s most frequently used waterway – with its military exercises, and its actions were being