G7 countries yesterday agreed to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from their reserves over four months, leaders said, agreeing to “refrain from export restrictions on energy” and urging others to do the same.

Russian attacks on key infrastructure were “tearing Kyiv apart”, the city’s mayor said yesterday, as strikes on a bridge linking the capital’s east and west brought traffic to a standstill.

Russian daytime strikes on Kyiv killed five people yesterday, local authorities said, the latest in a wave of intensifying attacks on the war-torn capital.

Pope Leo yesterday said that the United Nations and other multilateral groups were in crisis, warning in a speech at the Paris headquarters of the UN culture and education body, UNESCO, that international dialogue risked becoming a “charade”.

Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party won a record supermajority in the Duma, authorities announced Monday after a tightly controlled three-day election without parties critical of the Kremlin or the war in Ukraine.

Poland is seeking to host 15,000 US troops on its territory, its deputy defence minister said yesterday, as Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine enters a fifth winter.

Italy is preparing to ban face coverings in schools and to cap the number of foreign students per class, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said yesterday as she played up her right-wing credentials at a youth event organised by her party.

The EU’s climate monitor said yesterday that August was the hottest single month ever recorded globally, with ocean temperatures also reaching unprecedented highs as western Europe capped its warmest summer.

Brent oil, the international benchmark, jumped above $100 a barrel yesterday for the first time since the end of July on a fresh flare-up in the Middle East war, adding to concerns over high inflation.

Britain yesterday announced a trade ban on goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in coordination with France and Canada, the latest sanctions to target Israel as it faces growing diplomatic isolation.

The Eiffel Tower yesterday reopened after staff walked out over the removal of women colleagues during a visit by a Hindu religious group which later apologised.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held more than three hours of “highly useful” talks on Saturday evening with two US envoys seeking a deal to end the Ukraine war, a Kremlin aide said, but he gave no indication of any breakthrough.

Italy's first leader will have been in charge of the same administration for 1,413 days -- one more than billionaire media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi

Italy yesterday said it would extend by 15 days border checks with Spain put in place on August 1 after tens of thousands of migrants entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

Yiannopoulos was a vocal supporter ​of Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign

More than half of the world’s soils are in poor condition, threatening global food supplies and biodiversity, while proven measures to improve soil health are not being implemented, said a UN report released yesterday.

This year’s El Nino weather pattern will be the biggest in over a century, warming sea surface temperatures to an “unheard-of” level, Britain’s national weather agency predicted yesterday.

From a fishing trawler in the Adriatic, Italian scientists gently release thousands of tiny octopuses in the hope of fighting an invasive crab species that has devastated local fisheries.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham yesterday called for “reflection” after the death of Cambridge academic Jason Arday as his family denounced what they called years of harassment amid accusations of plagiarism.

A powerful explosion rocked an ammunition factory near Rome but no injuries were reported, emergency services and the factory owner said.