World

Cuba’s national power grid shut down on Friday, leaving around 10 million people on the island without electricity. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said officials were giving “absolute priority” to fixing the problem. “There will be no rest until it is restored,” he added. Image: A man at his home in Matanzas, Cuba, during a power

The world “will not tolerate any more excuses on humanitarian assistance” from Israel on the situation in Gaza, the prime minister has said. Speaking following a meeting with US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, Sir Keir Starmer sought to make the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar a

Yahya Sinwar was the mastermind behind the 7 October attacks and one of Israel’s most formidable enemies.  His death means Israelis have killed two of their biggest foes in less than a month.  But Sinwar was unique in his ability to understand and torment the Israeli psyche. He spent years in jail studying the ways

The Israeli military says it is “checking the possibility” it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Sinwar has led Hamas within Gaza since 2017, having joined its ranks in the early 1980s. He is believed to be the mastermind of the 7 October attacks. The 62-year-old took over full leadership of Hamas after the killing

Italy has made it illegal for couples to travel abroad to have a baby via surrogacy. A bill, passed on Wednesday, extends a ban that forbids surrogacy within Italy to include those who travel to countries such as the United States or Canada where the practice is legal. Those who break the law could face

Israel has launched a round of airstrikes on Beirut for the first time in six days as it continues to target Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The attack comes just a day after Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati said the US government had given him some assurances Israel would ease its strikes in the capital. In

Microsoft users face more than 600 million cyber attacks every day, partly fuelled by a growing trend of cyber crime gangs working with nation states, according to a new report by the company. In this year’s Digital Defence report, Microsoft said countries like Russia, Iran and North Korea have changed how they worked in the

A woman turns up at the entrance of the tented cholera quarantine ward in Kassala Teaching Hospital. She has a small baby in her arms. “Does your baby have cholera?” an anxious health worker asks. The woman says no. “Then move away from here,” he yells. These are extreme conditions that require a stern tone.

Canada and India have each expelled six diplomats in tit-for-tat moves in an escalating row over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in September last year there were credible allegations the Indian government was linked to the assassination in his country of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar in

Nigeria’s football players have said they are going to boycott Tuesday’s African Cup Of Nations (AFCON) game in Libya after being stranded at an airport in the country overnight, in what the team’s captain called “mind games”. The Super Eagles squad was expected to land at Benghazi Airport on Sunday, but as the charter flight

Israel has named the four teenage victims of a Hezbollah drone strike on a military base – as at least 23 people were reportedly killed in an attack on a central Gaza school. Local hospitals said the school in Nuseirat was sheltering people displaced by the war when it was hit on Sunday night. Israel

Tension is high in Asia as China conducts major military drills across the Taiwan Strait, following comments made by Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te last week. China’s military says the drills, called Joint Sword 2024-B, involve the army, navy and rocket forces, and will be carried out in the Taiwan Strait, as well as north, south

Ukraine says nine of its “drone operators and contractors” have been killed by Russian troops after they had surrendered. DeepState, a Ukrainian battlefield analysis site close to Ukraine’s defence ministry, alleges the prisoners of war were shot on 10 October in the Russian region of Kursk, where Kyiv launched an incursion in August. Ukraine’s human

A high noon is coming in Israel’s conflict with Iran, a ballistic missile showdown may be in the offing or perhaps something more asymmetrical and covert. Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deciding how to retaliate for Iran‘s multiple rocket attack on 1 October this year. But the plan is shrouded in secrecy. In a

Russia’s late opposition leader Alexei Navalny believed he would die in prison, according to excerpts from his memoir.  Mr Navalny was one of President Putin’s fiercest critics and relentlessly campaigned against corruption in the Kremlin. He died in a remote Arctic penal colony in February while serving a 19-year prison sentence on extremism charges and

Police in the US have found drugs inside a bag labelled “definitely not a bag full of drugs”.  The stash was discovered in Portland, Oregon, when officers stopped a driver and passenger inside an allegedly stolen car. Posting about the incident on X, Portland Police Bureau said scales, cash and a loaded gun were also

“I lost everyone I love,” Marwa Jarada says, reflecting on the airstrike that killed her parents and 14 other family members.  Last October, Israel bombed her family’s apartment in Gaza City, reportedly killing at least 101 people. Two days later, on 27 October 2023, the Israeli military (IDF) posted aerial footage of the strike, claiming

Barrages of rockets have been fired into Israel throughout the day as Israelis mark the anniversary of the 7 October attack.  Hundreds of relatives of hostages and people killed in the attack gathered for a memorial service in a central Tel Aviv park, although the event had to be scaled back because of threats of

The anniversary of Israel’s darkest day began with the sounds of the war that has haunted this region ever since. Artillery pounded Gaza and Apache helicopters fired into the strip from overhead. Close by, thousands gathered at first light at the site of the Nova music festival, the scene of the biggest massacre that morning

An American pensioner has been sentenced to nearly seven years in a Russian prison after being convicted of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine. Stephen Hubbard, 72, was accused of signing a $ 1,000-per-month contract with a Ukrainian territorial defence unit in the city of Izyum in February 2022. He was captured by Russian forces