World

A Russian judge has convicted and sentenced American basketball player Brittney Griner to nine years in prison for drug possession and smuggling. President Joe Biden described the jail term as “unacceptable” and called for her immediate release. Judge Anna Sotnikova said the time Griner has served in custody since her arrest in February would count

China has begun another series of military exercises around Taiwan as tensions continue to rise following a 24-hour visit to the island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Chinese state media is reporting the drills are underway hours after suspected drones flew over Taiwan’s territory on Wednesday and hackers targeted the defence ministry’s website. Taiwan

The roads leading south are empty of cars. Fighting is intensifying here along this front as Ukraine tries to recapture the city of Kherson. We travelled with a military escort through checkpoints, along desolate highways, to reach the slowly shifting frontlines. The villages have all been heavily shelled – and it’s getting worse. The roofs

Chinese military exercises near Taiwan have encroached on the island’s territory and amount to a blockade of its sea and air space, the defence ministry has said. The exercises by the Chinese navy and air force are seen as a direct response to the visit to Taiwan of top US politician Nancy Pelosi, the most

China has warned the United States it is performing a “highly dangerous trick” over Taiwan and “those playing with fire will get burned”. Beijing’s ambassador to London – one of his country’s most senior diplomats – made the comments in a press conference, hastily convened, to respond to the arrival of top US politician Nancy

A key force behind the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, Ayman al-Zawahiri spent much of the past two decades with a $25m bounty on his head. The bespectacled Egyptian doctor was leader of al Qaeda for the second half of that period. But he is perhaps better known for his previous role

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, and former prime minister David Cameron are among the latest UK figures who have been added to Russia’s sanctions list. The foreign ministry says the 39 prominent Britons have been banned from entering Russia. It said it was acting in response to UK sanctions against

A ship loaded with grain has left the port of Odesa for the first time since the war began, the Ukrainian infrastructure minister has said. “The first grain ship since Russian aggression has left port,” Oleksandr Kubrakov wrote on Twitter. “Thanks to the support of all our partner countries & UN we were able to

Vladimir Putin’s annual Navy Day parade looks impressive from the banks of St Petersburg’s Neva river; it looks even better on state TV. No expense spared when it comes to showing the people of Russia quite how big and shiny their navy and armed forces are. Think back to April though and the loss of

Russia has invited the United Nations and the Red Cross to investigate the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war. The prisoners were being held by Moscow-backed separatists at a jail in the town of Olenivka, in eastern Donetsk, when it was hit by rockets early on Friday. Russia’s defence ministry said 50 prisoners

Ukraine’s president has announced a mandatory evacuation of people in the Donetsk region, amid fierce fighting with Russia. In his nightly address, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region also needed to leave. Mr Zelenskyy said the sooner people leave “the fewer people the Russian

Spain has reported Europe’s first monkeypox-related death of the current outbreak – and the second outside of Africa. The country’s health ministry confirmed the death on Friday, but did not release further details about the person. Brazil reported the first monkeypox-related death outside the African continent in the current outbreak, earlier on Friday. In its

At least 23 people, including six children, have been killed after flash flooding in Kentucky following a series of storms. Torrential rains have devastated the area, with its governor Andy Beshear declaring a state of emergency in six counties. Trapped homeowners have been forced to swim to safety and others were rescued by boat as

It’s been a hard couple of months for Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian state TV journalist who burst onto an evening newscast in March holding up a banner against her nation’s actions in Ukraine, telling the channel’s millions of viewers that state TV was lying to them. She has no job, she is living off the

Ukraine says it is launching a counter-offensive in the south but as this gruesome war enters its sixth month people living on the frontline in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine fear the shelling will never end. And they worry they’ve been forgotten about and left behind in the face of a slowly advancing Russian

North Korea is ready to mobilise its nuclear war deterrent “accurately and promptly”, leader Kim Jong Un has claimed. He said the country was ready for any potential military conflicts with the United States as well as South Korea, criticising it’s new president Yoon Suk-yeol for the first time and warning Seoul was pushing towards

Russia’s foreign minister has denied his country is responsible for the worldwide surge in food prices following its invasion of Ukraine as shipping companies continue to avoid the war-torn nation. Speaking during his visit to several African nations, Sergei Lavrov dismissed the “so-called food crisis” and accused the US and Europe of causing prices to

The US has accused China of increased “provocations” in the South China Sea, saying it is only a matter of time before the country’s “aggressive and irresponsible behaviour” leads to a major incident or accident. China claims most of the sea as its own, but the US and surrounding countries – Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines,

European Union members have agreed a plan for dramatic cuts in their use of natural gas in the event that Russia halts its supply to the continent. Under the deal agreed by the energy ministers in Brussels, member states will reduce their consumption by 15%. However, the deal has been done on a voluntary basis,

It’s five months since Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine and four since Russia published any kind of casualty count. 1,351 Russian servicemen killed, they said then, with no update since. No word on the missing either. “The families aren’t told where they’ve gone missing or the circumstances,” says Valentina Melnikova, who runs the Committee