Russia has denounced France's seizure of an oil tanker in the Atlantic, calling the operation "illegal" and likening it to "piracy" after Paris said the ship was breaching sanctions. "We view these actions as illegal; they verge on international piracy," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that "Russia is taking measures to ensure the safety of its cargo." French prosecutors said the tanker's Russian captain refused to obey orders from the French navy, leaving authorities with no choice but to board and take control…

Rwanda has lost its bid to force the UK to hand over more than £100m (€115m) tied to the collapsed migrant deportation pact, after an international court found Britain did not owe the outstanding money. Judges at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague ruled that the UK was not liable for two years of unpaid costs linked to the scheme, which was abandoned in 2024. The agreement was struck in 2022, when former UK prime minister Boris Johnson signed a deal with Kigali to send to Rwanda migrants who arrived in…

What should have been a jubilant procession through north London also tested emergency crews, with about 75 people rescued from height and 16 arrests made during Arsenal’s parade yesterday, officials said. Thousands of Arsenal supporters packed the streets around the Emirates Stadium to watch the team take part in their Premier League trophy parade. As clouds of red smoke drifted through the area, some fans scrambled up trees, rooftops and traffic lights in a bid to catch a glimpse of the players aboard the team bus. London…

Deep mistrust, shifting signals from Washington and Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon are slowing efforts to bring the US-Iran war to a close, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, describing diplomacy as bogged down in suspicion. "Negotiations are underway in an atmosphere of profound suspicion and mistrust, and messages are being exchanged within that climate," Mr Baghaei said. "The other side keeps altering its position and raising new or contradictory demands (...) it is only natural that this…

In the 1970s, 'The Six Million Dollar Man' became one of television’s defining sci-fi hits. The series followed astronaut Steve Austin, who survives a catastrophic test-flight crash only to be rebuilt — at immense expense — with "bionic" limbs that let him pull off superhuman feats. He goes on to work as a spy, dispatching the standard parade of villains along the way. The role turned Lee Majors into a household name, delivering 99 episodes and six TV movies. It also helped cement his celebrity status — Farrah Fawcett became…

A birthday celebration for America’s 250th anniversary has become a political flashpoint after US President Donald Trump urged organizers to scrap a planned concert series and replace it with a rally led by him. "We should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain," Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, adding: "Cancel it." The call came after several performers withdrew soon after…

Colombia’s presidential race is headed for a high-stakes runoff, with right-wing outsider Abelardo De La Espriella poised to face leftist Ivan Cepeda after first-round results showed a razor-thin margin between the two men, while Mr Cepeda and his allies said they would hold off on accepting the outcome until the count is formally confirmed. Less than two percentage points separated the candidates, according to data from the country’s national registry office, in an election shaped by anxieties over security, a struggling…

Fears that central Africa’s Ebola outbreak could ripple beyond the region sharpened after Brazilian health officials said they are tracking two possible cases in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In Sao Paulo, authorities said a 37-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — the center of the current outbreak — "exhibited symptoms such as fever, meeting the definition of a suspected case" of Ebola, according to a state government statement issued yesterday. Although initial tests did not detect the Ebola…

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…