WORLD

After Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taiwan, China announced it would commence live fire drills around the island, beginning on Thursday. Since then, Taiwanese officials have put missile systems on alert. China’s live fire drills, carried out by the Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), are to

Moscow claimed it had inflicted heavy losses in the area, although Kyiv said they had retaken two villages. President Zelensky described his forces in the Donbas region as being in “Hell”, with a lot of fighting around the town of Avdiivka and the fortified village of Pisky. He was also forced to admit that Putin’s

Jang Song-thaek was killed and fed to the animals, who had been starved for three days beforehand, in 2013, the state-run newspaper claimed. The former Minister of the State Security Department fell out of favour, and was once described by the state as “despicable human scum, worse than a dog”. Additional reports suggested officials stood

The Russian strongman granted Lieutenant Colonel Olga “Kursa” Kachura, 52, the posthumous ‘Hero of Russia‘ honour – the Kremlin’s highest award – after the 52-year-old was killed in a rocket attack on her car. She is the 97th known colonel to have been killed in Ukraine after Putin’s illegal invasion of his neighbouring country. The

However, Spanish authorities now suspect the latest wildfire was an arson attack. The fire began on Wednesday in Galicia, Spain and has quickly advanced over the north-west region. José González, Galician Minister of Rural Affairs, has said there are evidence and witness reports to suggest someone intentionally caused the wildfire. In the early evening of

Photographic evidence collected by Oryx, an open-source site tracking military-equipment losses around the world, on Tuesday showed the Russian military has lost some 5,020 military vehicles since the start of the conflict. As per its latest data, 3,202 of those vehicles were destroyed; 103 damaged; 323 abandoned, and 1,392 captured by Ukrainian forces. Among the

Video footage shared on social media shows the warehouse, which is located just outside of Moscow, caught by a large blaze. The unit is owned online store Ozon. This is said to be the Russian equivalent of Amazon. Commentator Igor Sushko reported in a post on Twitter that the fire was covering almost nine acres. In

The military drills were announced by Chinese state media with a picture of a map being tweeted identifying the areas being used for such exercises. The move from Beijing comes after US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called Taiwan “one of the freest societies in the world”. The self-ruled island has thanked Ms Pelosi

Chinese state TV has shown footage from the beginning of military exercises near Taiwan amid raising tensions in the region following the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island on Tuesday. Taiwan’s defence ministry said late on Tuesday that China was attempting to threaten key ports and cities by announcing drills around the island in the coming

It comes as officials said the defending military had killed scores of Putin’s soldiers as part of a counter-offensive in the southern region of the country. Ukrainian armed forces have also been able to cripple three bridges across the Dnipro River, in order to limit Moscow’s supplies arriving on the front line from Crimea. Fighting

The news comes shortly after the court sentenced two other Brits, Shaun Pinner and Aidan Aslin to death for a similar offence, although the court is not internationally recognised. The trial is due to take place in the Donetsk People’s Republic, a breakaway Russian-controlled state in eastern Ukraine. John Harding, one of the men in

Ukraine: Russia strikes Odesa port after agreeing grain deal Russian-American historian Dr Yuri Felshtinsky was speaking about the sudden illness of Putin’s former associate Anatoly Chubais on the Italian island of Sardinia, as well as the death of a Ukraine grain baron. In addition, the first ship to carry Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea since Russia

Gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia to Germany have now been reduced to 20 percent of their level prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With few available alternatives to Russian fossil fuel imports, natural gas prices in Europe soared to a 14-year high in late July. If supplies of Russian gas were

Oleksiy Vadatursky, the founder of Nibulon, was killed alongside his wife after Russian missiles hit the southern port city of Mykolaiv on Sunday. Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim revealed Mr Vadatursky and his wife were killed in their home during an update on Telegram. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Mr Vadatursky’s death as a “great loss”

Greece has called for the repatriation of the collection of Elgin Marbles for more than 200 years – ever since they were taken from the Parthenon in 1802 on the order of Lord Elgin, Britain’s then-ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Jonathan Williams, the British Museum’s deputy director, has now hinted at a potential return. Mr

The so-called Legion Freedom of Russia has declared that its unit now consists of two battalions, in a blow to the Russian President’s efforts to destroy Ukraine. The movement began as a group of Russian soldiers who defected to fight for Ukraine. Igor Sushko, director of the Wind of Change Research Group, a think tank

The US’ biggest oil companies pumped out record profits over the last few months while Americans struggled to pay for gasoline, food and other basic necessities. ExxonMobil reported an unprecedented £14.77billion ($17.85billion) profit for the second quarter on Friday, nearly four times as much as the same period a year ago. Chevron also made a

In a statement made on Saturday, the White House physician, Dr Kevin O’Connor, said that Mr Biden has experienced “no reemergence of symptoms, and continues to feel quite well” and will, as a result, not resume treatment, the White House said. Mr O’Connor said the President tested negative on Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning

Chinese President Xi Jinping has stunned Western observers by announcing an unexpected set of military drills close to Taiwan. China’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, started holding “live-fire” exercises on Saturday. Earlier, footage emerged of convoys of armoured vehicles being sent to Pingtan in the Fujian Province, which sits just 125 kilometres from Taiwan.

The two Presidents discussed several topics of interest including the effects of the war in Ukraine, a news report stated. Mr Iohannis also congratulated President Sandu on Moldova’s major step toward joining the European Union (namely obtaining the EU candidate status) and once again reiterated Romania’s support in this journey. Maia Sandu thanked Romania for