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

China’s determination to take control of Taiwan is often cited as one of the likeliest causes of World War Three – a conflict which, it is widely accepted, could even end human civilisation altogether. Chinese President Xi Jinping warned in advance that the Speaker of the US House of Representatives was “playing with fire” with

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

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is set to arrive in Taiwan later today amid escalating tensions in Beijing over the impending visit. While there has been no official announcement, local media in Taiwan has reported that Ms Pelosi will arrive in Taipei on Tuesday. The US airforce jet that Ms Pelosi flew on to Malaysia

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 $25 million 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

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

In this rural part of Kentucky, it’s easy to see how so much rain in such a short time could be so devastating. The topography is perfect for flash floods. Steep hillsides, narrow valleys. And some of America’s poorest communities living in this stunning part of the central United States. From the air, Kentucky’s governor,

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

Footage which appears to show Russian soldiers pinning a Ukrainian prisoner of war to the ground before cutting off his genitals has sparked outrage in Ukraine. Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun tweeted to say she was banned by Twitter after posting the clip on the social media platform. Once she had regained access to her account,

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

It’s been four months since Sasha Skochilenko, a 32-year-old artist from St Petersburg, printed off some supermarket price tags with scathing descriptions of her army’s actions in Ukraine and placed them on the shelves of a local supermarket. “She couldn’t stay silent,” says her partner Sonya Subbotino. “Sasha had friends in Kyiv. She taught children

A British-Iranian wildlife conservationist charged with security offences has been granted bail from an Iranian prison, his lawyer has said. Morad Tahbaz “was released on bail and with an electronic bracelet,” his lawyer Hojat Kermani was quoted as saying by the semi-official ILNA news agency on Wednesday. It came a day after the European Union’s

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,

Russia has said it will withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024 to focus on building its own orbital outpost. Yuri Borisov, who was appointed to lead the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos earlier this month, said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that Russia would fulfil its obligations to other partners before