Ukraine has so far thwarted an attempted Russian advance into the north of its Donetsk region, but the city of Sloviansk and other civilian areas there were being heavily shelled, Ukrainian officials said yesterday.

The European Parliament yesterday approved a contentious EU proposal giving a sustainable finance label to investments in gas and nuclear power, sparking claims of “greenwashing” by environmental lobbyists.

The biggest hajj pilgrimage since the Covid pandemic began yesterday, with hundreds of thousands of worshippers at Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia’s Makkah.

Thousands of people on Australia’s east coast fled their homes yesterday as torrential rains tracked north after unleashing floods in Sydney that submerged communities, roads and bridges under mud-brown water.

Ukraine has so far thwarted an attempted Russian advance into the north of its Donetsk region, but the city of Sloviansk and other civilian areas there were being heavily shelled, Ukrainian officials said yesterday.

Twenty-two Malian migrants died in a boat disaster off the Libyan coast, the UN said Tuesday, citing survivors who reported victims drowning and dehydrating with three children reportedly among the dead.

Israeli forces shot dead a wanted Palestinian suspect and arrested two dozen in the occupied West Bank yesterday, the military said, as

Cabinet ministers gathered in Boris Johnson’s official residence yesterday to tell him to quit as British leader after he insisted he would not stand down in the face of a mounting rebellion within his party.

A new confidence vote in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not be brought by his lawmakers until at least next week, after the Conservative Party committee governing the rules agreed to elect a new executive before considering allowing one.

A confidence vote in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson could be triggered as early as tonight, Sky journalist Tom Larkin said on Twitter citing a member of the 1922 Committee which oversees such votes.

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday as he was attempting to flee an army raid, officials on both sides said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Nadhim Zahawi as finance minister on Tuesday, replacing Rishi Sunak who earlier quit in protest at Johnson's leadership.

The man accused of opening fire with a rifle from a rooftop onto a crowd of people watching a July Fourth parade near Chicago, turning the holiday celebration into another national tragedy, was charged on Tuesday with seven counts of first-degree murder.

Police arrested a suspect after a mass shooting left six dead at a US Independence Day parade in a wealthy Chicago suburb. Robert Crimo, 22,

France repatriated 35 children and 16 mothers from camps in Syria holding family members of suspected Islamic State fighters yesterday, in the largest such operation by Paris after pressure from campaigners.

Russia yesterday claimed that some of the weapons the West is sending to Ukraine are spreading across the Middle East and ending up on the black market.

Russia yesterday said it was investigating the torture of Russian soldiers held prisoner in Ukraine and recently released as part of a prisoner swap with Kyiv in late June.

Rain-swollen rivers spilled mud-brown waters across swathes of Sydney yesterday, swamping homes and roads while forcing thousands to flee.

Fighting raged in and around Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region yesterday as Russian troops tried to build on recent battlefield gains, while Nato pressed ahead with Finland and Sweden’s momentous membership bids.

Police in five European countries yesterday launched a cross-border operation against people smuggling and made several arrests, German authorities said.