Divisive new Speaker Kevin McCarthy passed the first test of his ability to lead the chaotic US House of Representatives Monday as lawmakers approved a rules package determining how his Republicans will govern.

Ukrainian forces are facing waves of assaults by Russian forces on the small salt-mining town of Soledar, Kyiv officials said yesterday, as Moscow strives to make its first breakthrough in the east in months.

The US Navy said yesterday it had seized more than 2,000 assault rifles smuggled on a fishing boat along a maritime route from Iran to Yemen.

The ozone layer that shields life on Earth from deadly solar radiation is on track to recover within decades, but controversial geoengineering schemes to blunt global warming could reverse that progress, a major scientific assessment warned Monday.

Iran is weaponising the death penalty to frighten the public and crush dissent, and its execution of protesters without due process amounts to state-sanctioned killing, the UN said yesterday.

The last eight years were the warmest on record even with the cooling influence of a La Nina weather pattern since 2020, the European Union’s climate monitoring service said yesterday.

Iran has sentenced another man to death in connection with the protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, the judiciary said Tuesday.

An attempt to launch the first rocket into orbit from UK soil ended in failure on Tuesday, with scientists reporting an "anomaly" as it neared its goal.

The floodwaters caused by a powerful storm in California swept away a 5-year-old boy on Monday.

The US Supreme Court on Monday let Meta Platforms Inc's WhatsApp pursue a lawsuit accusing Israel's NSO Group of exploiting a bug in the WhatsApp messaging app to install spy software allowing the surveillance of 1,400 people, including journalists, human rights activists and dissidents.

The ozone layer that shields life on Earth from deadly solar radiation is on track to recover within decades, but controversial geoengineering schemes to blunt global warming could reverse that progress, a major scientific assessment warned Monday.

A regional migration and drug smuggling crisis was expected to dominate talks between US President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador yesterday.

Worldwide acts of piracy fell to their lowest level last year since statistics were first established in 2008, a maritime security body said yesterday.

Iran has sentenced to death three more people accused of killing members of the security forces during protests triggered by Mahsa Amini’s death, the judiciary said yesterday. The Islamic republic has been rocked by civil unrest since September 16 death in custody of Amini, 22, following her arrest for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women. The latest sentences bring to 17 the total number of people condemned to death in connection with four months of protests.

Prince Harry said he decided to publish his memoirs to defend himself against years of tabloid spin, as British television aired his first interview on the book’s explosive revelations.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh yesterday described a raft of Israeli measures as a “new war” against the Palestinian Authority aimed at pushing it “to the brink”.

The Kremlin yesterday said moves by France and other Western countries to supply Ukraine with weapons -- including light tanks -- would only make life more difficult for Ukrainians.

Brazilian security forces locked down the area around Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court yesterday, a day after supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the seat of power in riots that triggered an international outcry.

Brazil's Supreme Court removed the governor of Brasilia from office for 90 days over security failings that it said allowed thousands of backers of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro to ransack government buildings in the capital.

Iran has sentenced to death three people accused of killing three members of the security forces during the protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, the judiciary said Monday.