World

The boss of Irish broadcaster RTE has been suspended amid a controversy over misreporting the salary of its highest paid star. Director general Dee Forbes was due to step down next month but was suspended on Wednesday, RTE’s board revealed. It comes a day after it apologised and admitted Ryan Tubridy had received payments totalling

A court in Germany will deliver its verdict later today in a landmark case against a 37-year-old woman accused of crimes against humanity and aiding and abetting genocide in one of the first cases of its kind against former members of Islamic State. The defendant, known as “Nadine K” allegedly enslaved a 22-year-old Yazidi woman

Police are searching the headquarters of the 2024 Paris Olympics organisers as part of a probe into suspected corruption. The Paris organising committee said in a statement that a search is under way at its offices in the Saint-Denis suburb of the French capital, and that “Paris 2024 is co-operating with the investigators to facilitate

China’s President Xi Jinping has met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing – as the world’s two biggest economies look to cool rising tensions. Speaking after the meeting on Monday, Mr Xi said he hoped that Mr Blinken would make “more positive contributions” to stabilising ties between the two countries, state media reported.

Pakistan’s prime minister has declared a national day of mourning for those who died when a fishing trawler packed with people sank off the coast of Greece. Up to 750 men, women and children from Syria, Egypt, the Palestinian territories and Pakistan were on board the vessel trying to reach Europe. More than 500 people

Can Ukraine’s counteroffensive prevail without combat air cover, and will the West come to regret not providing Ukraine with such battle-winning capability? Although the West has provided a wealth of financial and military support to Ukraine to help combat the illegal invasion of Russian forces, it has been reluctant to provide the modern Western air

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa is among a group of African leaders in Ukraine on a peace mission. The presidents of Zambia, Senegal, Comoros, South Africa and Egypt’s prime minister are there, alongside senior officials from Uganda and Congo-Brazzaville. They met President Zelenskyy and are expected to travel to St Petersburg in Russia later on

The Irish arm of supermarket Iceland has been ordered to remove imported frozen animal products from its stores. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) served a notice on Metron Stores Limited – which trades as Iceland Ireland – to withdraw items brought into the country since 3 March this year. The products include meat

The world’s most famous early human ancestor could walk upright like a modern-day human thanks to fully bendable knee joints, research suggests. ‘Lucy’ was from an extinct ape-like species that lived in Africa more than three million years ago. She was dug up in Ethiopia in 1974, and at the time was the most complete

Belarus has started to receive tactical nuclear weapons from Russia, its leader has said. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told Russian state TV that his country is taking delivery of the weapons, some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. “We

Ukrainian forces are probing Russian defences along the frontline as they prepare to commit their new NATO-standard tanks to the fray. The highly anticipated counteroffensive is under way and in a “tidying up” phase, according to a military expert, as Ukraine seeks to prepare the battlefield for a big push when the time arises. Ukraine

A bus driver was driving too fast when the vehicle crashed in Australia, killing 10 wedding guests and injuring 25 others, police have alleged. Brett Button was arrested after mandatory hospital tests and had been in police custody but was released on bail when he appeared at Cessnock Local Court on Tuesday. He appeared in

The West cannot stop Iran from building nuclear weapons, the country’s supreme leader has said. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was speaking on Sunday as tensions continue to mount over the country’s nuclear work. In words reported by state media, he said: “Talks about Tehran’s nuclear weapons is a lie and [the West] know it. “We do

Counteroffensive action against Russian forces is under way, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, with troops engaged in intense fighting along the front line. Speaking at a Kyiv news conference alongside Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau, Zelenskyy was responding to Vladimir Putin’s comment that Ukrainian forces were taking “significant losses”. Mr Zelensky said: “The counteroffensive,

In the deep depths of a Colombian jungle, four children have been found alive weeks after a deadly plane crash. After surviving 40 days alone, the siblings were rescued by Colombian soldiers on Friday. A saga which captivated many Colombians as search teams frantically combed through the rainforest hunting for the children, aged 13, nine,

Iran has been supplying Russia with materials to build a drone manufacturing plant that could be fully operational by early next year, the White House has said. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby added that the White House is releasing satellite imagery of the “planned location” of the manufacturing plant in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Sky News he will do “whatever we need to do to defend ourselves” against Iran – and diplomacy has failed to stop Tehran from developing its nuclear capabilities. Speaking exclusively at the prime minister’s offices in Jerusalem, Mr Netanyahu rejected US attempts to resolve the growing crisis only

The British Antarctic Survey has released its new maps and they are a stark visual depiction of the retreat of ice at our poles.  Just as stark is the warning from the secretary general of the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation, Professor Petteri Taalas. In an interview with Sky News, he emphasised that the melted

Australia is to ban the sale and display of swastikas and other Nazi symbols following a rise in far-right activity. It includes the insignia of the Schutzstaffel (SS) – the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party. Federal attorney general Mark Dreyfus said such images were “repugnant” and had “no place in Australia”. It will be

Thousands of flights have been delayed and baseball games postponed across the US east coast as smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to drift south, covering cities in a yellowy-brown haze. Canadian officials say this is shaping up to be the nation’s worst wildfire season ever. Forest fires have scorched 9.4 million acres of the country