World

A national strike is taking place in France after President Emmanuel Macron’s circumvention of parliament to pass the divisive pension bill which would raise the retirement age by two years. The co-ordinated strikes are expected to cause widespread national chaos, as well as travel disruption to and from France. French airports will be hit, with

World Athletics has decided to exclude transgender women who have gone through male puberty from female events. The body’s president, Lord Coe, said “decisive action” had been taken to “protect the female category in our sport”. Lord Coe told a news conference in Monaco: “The council has agreed to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes, who have

Data from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic has provided crucial information on the outbreak’s origins, according to researchers. The virus was first identified in Wuhan in December 2019, with the Huanan live animal market widely suspected to be the source, before it rapidly spread around the world and killed nearly seven million people.

Vladimir Putin has welcomed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to Moscow, just days after a warrant was issued for the Russian president’s arrest over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. The two leaders, who called each other “dear friend” and exchanged compliments during the meeting at the Kremlin, were locked in talks for more than four

Vladimir Putin has said Russia and China are fighting “common threats” as he welcomes President Xi Jinping for a three-day trip to Moscow. Writing in an article in the People’s Daily Newspaper, the Russian president described Mr Xi‘s visit as a “landmark event” that “reaffirms the special nature of the Russia-China partnership”. The outlet is

For months, rising food and energy costs have brought protesters on to Moldova’s streets but while the cost-of-living crisis is biting, the government claims outside forces are fuelling the unrest. The pro-Western leaders have accused Russia of deliberately stoking the anger by reducing gas supplies to push up prices, spreading propaganda and backing a plot

Police in Pakistan have filed terrorism and other charges against former prime minister Imran Khan, as well as 17 of his aides and scores of his supporters. The move on Sunday came after the ousted premier’s followers clashed with security forces in the country’s capital of Islamabad a day before. Mr Khan‘s followers came to

Vladimir Putin has visited the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, according to Russian media reports. The president made what state media described as a “working trip” to the port city, which he annexed in September last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr Putin, who arrived in a helicopter, travelled around several districts of the

Putin ‘unruffled and unapologetic’, despite war crimes charge John Sparks International correspondent @sparkomat The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is now liable to arrest in 123 countries – but he knows that no one is going to detain him in Crimea. The peninsula was seized from Ukraine in 2014 and Russia’s long-time leader has returned to

An arrest warrant issued against Russian President Vladimir Putin is the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) “first shot” in what could be a substantial indictment against him, Ukraine’s leading lawyer has said. The intergovernmental group – based at The Hague – has accused Mr Putin of being responsible for the abduction of children from Ukraine. An

Donald Trump says he expects to be arrested over a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The former US president said “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan district attorney’s office indicated he will be arrested on Tuesday. Making the claim on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump provided no evidence he had

Russia has hit back after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, which accuses him of war crimes for his alleged involvement in child abductions from Ukraine. The ICC said the president is allegedly responsible for the “unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of children from the territory of Ukraine

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of abducting children from Ukraine. It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children, on similar allegations of war crimes. The Kremlin said Russia found the very questions raised by the

COVID-19 will be over as a public health emergency this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has predicted. During a briefing on Friday, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world is “certainly in a much better position now than we have been at any time during the pandemic”. He said it is “pleasing to see”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of abducting children from Ukraine. It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia‘s commissioner for children, on similar allegations of war crimes. The Kremlin said Russia found the questions raised by the ICC

Police in Paris pepper sprayed young protesters near the Sorbonne University as two motions of no confidence were tabled against French President Emmanuel Macron. One motion of no confidence came from Marine Le Pen’s party Rassemblement National and was signed by 88 cross-party MPs. Another group of independent politicians put forward a second motion which

We’re racing across town in battle-torn eastern Ukraine, trying to keep up with a battered BMW driven by an 18-year-old with his 21-year-old mate urging him on; but they aren’t joyriding youngsters. They’re soldiers in the military and part of a special unit, and they’re taking us to their headquarters. We had met an hour

Poland is to send Ukraine four MiG-29 fighter jets in the coming days, it has been announced, with more to follow later. “Firstly, literally within the next few days, we will hand over, as far as I remember, four aircraft to Ukraine in full working order,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday. “The rest

The battle of the AI chatbots has stepped up a notch after Chinese search giant Baidu unveiled its much-anticipated rival to ChatGPT. The company showed off Ernie (short for “enhanced representation through knowledge integration”), which analysts believe could be Beijing’s strongest competitor in a crowded field dominated by US firms. ChatGPT is made by the

Banking stocks are enduring fresh, steep losses on Wednesday as concern over the health of US banks crosses the Atlantic. Credit Suisse shares plunged to new record lows following comments by its largest investor that it could not provide the Swiss bank with more financial assistance. Switzerland’s second-largest bank, no stranger to crisis over the