The war’s reach stretched deep into Russian territory again as Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in the south and a pumping station hundreds of kilometres from the front, according to Kyiv, with Russian officials also acknowledging attacks in the targeted areas. Now in its fifth year, the war has seen Ukraine intensify its campaign against Russian infrastructure, targeting sites far from the battlefield, including locations near the Urals in recent weeks. Ukraine’s military said the operation hit a "dispatch station of a…

Trust, Iran’s chief negotiator made clear, remains in short supply. Tehran will not sign off on any agreement with Washington, he said, unless it can prove that Iranian rights are fully protected. The comments from Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf came as fresh reports suggested US President Donald Trump had returned a more hardline peace proposal to Iran, highlighting just how much distance still separates the two sides. Any further revisions to the draft risk slowing an already fragile push to formally end the Middle East war and…

From a shared hospital room, survivors pulled from a half-flooded cave in Laos after more than a week underground are now helping drive the next phase of the rescue: guiding teams toward the final two men still believed to be trapped deeper inside. Rescuers, including foreign cave divers, said today they were mapping out a perilous search for the missing pair, drawing on fresh details from the men who made it out alive - including one survivor who described the ordeal as a period of simply "waiting to die" in the darkness. A…

Celebrations over Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League victory over Arsenal spilled into violence across France, where authorities said 780 people were arrested after clashes broke out in several cities. Officials deployed about 22,000 police officers nationwide for the match, including 8,000 in Paris, after disorder also shadowed PSG’s triumph in the competition last year. In the capital, tram services were suspended, several metro stations were closed and some bus routes were halted as officials tried to contain the…

IPI calls on the international community to intensify pressure on the Somali government to ensure accountability for attacks against journalists The International Press Institute’s global network has sounded the alarm over a sharp rise in attacks, arrests, intimidation and harassment targeting journalists across Somalia, with May 2026 standing out as a particularly volatile month. IPI is urging diplomats and international partners to press Somali authorities to make the protection of journalists and…

A dramatic cave rescue in Laos gathered pace this morning as Thai rescuers said four more men had been brought out alive after 10 days trapped in a semi-submerged cavern. The breakthrough came ‌hours ⁠after another man was pulled from the flooded cave last night, though two others are still missing. Lee Kian Lie, a Malaysian rescue diver, said the four were freed after crews pumped water out of the cavern. Video recorded by Mr Lee at the scene showed teams working beneath a makeshift tent as they tended to four people on…

A sharper warning from Washington echoed through Singapore on Saturday as US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth called on Asian allies to spend more on their militaries, arguing that only a stronger regional front can check China’s rising power and stop any slide toward dominance. Addressing the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s leading gathering of defence ministers, military officials and diplomats, Mr Hegseth said the region needs a more capable and more self-reliant network of partners to deter aggression and keep the strategic…

A drone strike reported by Russia at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has revived fears around the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear facility, even as officials said critical equipment was not damaged. Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear energy company, said a Ukrainian drone hit the turbine hall of Power Unit No. 6 and exploded, leaving a hole in the wall but sparing the plant’s main systems. "This afternoon, a Ukrainian kamikaze combat drone struck the turbine hall building of Power Unit No. 6,…

Lebanon’s prime minister has sharply accused Israel of waging a “scorched-earth policy” in the country’s south, pressing for an end to the fighting as Israeli warplanes launched new strikes and the military ordered evacuations across more than a dozen areas. His warning came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli troops had pushed further into Lebanon. Responding in a televised address, Nawaf Salam described the intensifying campaign as a “dangerous” escalation and appealed for “a swift and real…

As Ebola tears through eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the head of the World Health Organization is urging the world not to look away. Arriving in the outbreak’s epicentre, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed for stronger international backing as authorities race to contain a virus spreading through one of the country’s most fragile regions. Speaking to reporters in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, the WHO director general said the international community was already assisting the DRC government in its response to…