World

A mayor in Mexico has married a female alligator-like animal in a traditional ceremony which is believed to bring good fortune to his people. Victor Hugo Sosa wed the caiman reptile called Alicia Adriana as he re-enacted an ancestral ritual. Local lore, or tradition, calls the creature the “princess girl” and the mayor said the

Dissatisfaction over Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, underlined by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed mutiny, has created a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity for the US to recruit spies, the director of the CIA has said. William Burns said the aborted mutiny was a challenge to the Russian state that showed the corrosive effect of Mr Putin’s war

Australia has become the first country to allow psychiatrists to prescribe psychedelics to patients with depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). From Saturday, Australian physicians can prescribe doses of MDMA, also known as ecstasy, for PTSD. Psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in so called “magic” mushrooms, can also be given to people who have hard-to-treat depression.

Elon Musk has joked about Twitter’s temporary daily reading limits after users vented their fury over the site’s new limitations. “Oh the irony of hitting view limits due to complaining about view limits,” the billionaire tweeted. Earlier Musk had said Twitter applied the limits to address “extreme levels” of data scraping and system manipulation. He

President Emmanuel Macron has postponed a state visit to Germany due to the ongoing protests and riots across France. More than 1,300 people have been arrested after a fourth night of violent protests throughout the country following the death of 17-year-old boy Nahel Merzouk, who was shot by police during a traffic stop in a

A young man who was in the car with the 17-year-old shot and killed by a police officer in France, sparking unrest across the country, has shared his story to “establish the truth”. The killing of Nahel Merzouk ignited long-simmering tensions between police and young people in France’s housing projects, who struggle with poverty and

France will suspend all bus and tram services amid ongoing riots over a police shooting. Violent protests are spreading throughout France after a 17-year-old was shot by police during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday. In the aftermath, people have taken to the streets on three consecutive nights to protest,

President Putin is directing a major “damage limitation” exercise in Russia to re-impose his authority and purge those responsible for the potential coup attempt, following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s abortive “march for justice” towards the Russian capital last weekend. But what of Prigozhin? Is he a dead man walking, or is his exile to Belarus simply an

Ukraine has charged a Russian politician and two collaborators with war crimes over the alleged deportation of a dozen orphans. Prosecutors have alleged the orphans, some as young as one, were deported from the formerly-occupied southern city of Kherson. Officials said they are the first suspects to be charged by Ukraine, which says more than

The number of Russian personnel at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is gradually being reduced, according to Ukraine. Its military intelligence agency announced the apparent drawdown on Telegram, but Russia has so far not commented. There have been ongoing fears about a potential disaster at the facility in southern Ukraine since the Russians took it

France’s president Emmanuel Macron is facing a backlash after being photographed meeting Elton John at a Paris gig, despite his country being in the grip of riots. Violent protests are spreading throughout France after a 17-year-old was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday. In

There are the three things that have come to illuminate the night sky in Nanterre – blue lights, orange flames and the starburst of fireworks. For the first couple of nights, it was the fireworks and flames that seemed to dominate here. The police, already wildly unpopular among many in the district, were outnumbered, pelted

France is set to deploy 40,000 officers on Thursday evening amid fears of a third night of rioting in the capital triggered by the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old boy. Bus and tram services are also set to shut down early so they are not “targets for thugs and vandals”, a Paris region official

Protests and riots over the fatal police shooting of a teenager in Paris have continued for a second night – and spread to other cities in France. The suburb of Nanterre, where the 17-year-old delivery driver was killed following a traffic stop, saw another night of violence on Wednesday as police fired tear gas and protesters

At least eight people have been killed – including three children – and 56 injured after a Russian missile struck a pizza restaurant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region. A second missile hit a village on the fringes of the city, injuring five people. “I ran here after the explosion

Ukrainian forces have “highly likely” recaptured an area of territory occupied by Russia since 2014, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said. In a new intelligence update, British officials said small advances have been made east from Krasnohorivka near Donetsk, which sits on the old Line of Control. “Recent multiple concurrent Ukrainian assaults throughout the

A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool may be capable of identifying sperm in infertile men in just seconds, a study has suggested. The research was conducted to test if AI could speed up the treatment process for men, who do not have sperm in their semen. Currently, some patients go through a treatment called Intracytoplasmic

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said the long-standing tensions between the Russian army and Wagner mercenary group, which staged a 24-hour mutiny at the weekend, had been mismanaged. In his first public remarks since he brokered a deal between the Kremlin and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, which halted the group’s advance on Moscow, Mr Lukashenko

Vladimir Putin has thanked the Russian army for stopping “a civil war” from breaking out after the Wagner Group’s 24-hour mutiny at the weekend. Speaking at the Kremlin, the Russian president told up to 2,500 members of the military, the security forces, and the National Guard that they had saved the country from chaos. The

The Wagner Group is responsible for a raft of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Central African Republic (CAR), according to a new investigative report. The group had been spearheading Russian attacks in parts of Ukraine before appearing to turn on the Kremlin after falling out with the Russian military over the conduct