World

Around 300 Indian travellers are stuck in a French airport after their flight was grounded in a human trafficking investigation. Those on board the Romania-based charter company Legend Airlines plane from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates to Managua, in Nicaragua, included families and children. The youngest passenger is a 21-month-old toddler while some

A former TV journalist hoping to challenge Vladimir Putin in Russia’s next presidential election has been barred from standing. Independent politician Yekaterina Duntsova hoped to run on a platform to end the war with Ukraine. But on Saturday, she was disqualified after members of the central electoral commission voted unanimously to reject her candidacy, citing

Ukraine’s military has claimed it shot down three Russian fighter jets in the south of the country. The Su-34 fighter bombers were reportedly brought down in the Kherson region on Friday, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the air force. President Zelenskyy praised Odesa’s anti-aircraft unit in his nightly video address. Mykola Oleshchuk, Ukrainian

The chancellor has signed a deal aimed at boosting financial services ties with Switzerland, describing the arrangements as a “global first”. It is aimed at boosting access to each other’s markets and is based on mutual recognition of laws and market regulations in both countries. The Treasury said the Berne Financial Services Agreement marked a

People in Iceland have been told to stay at home and “get into the Christmas spirit” rather than attempt the risky journey to the site of the erupted volcano. A gash two miles long has opened up on the Reykjanes peninsula, spewing between 100 and 200 cubic metres of lava every second. Though the lava

Africa’s first female billionaire has lost her High Court fight against an application to freeze up to £580m of her assets. Businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, whose father Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled Angola for 38 years until 2017, is being sued by Unitel, a telecoms operator in the African country. The firm asked London’s High

For the first time in India’s parliamentary history, 78 lawmakers were suspended in a single day. A large swath of INDIA Alliance MPs were dismissed on Monday, with a further 49 excluded today making a total of 141 suspended. The alliance, which has 142 MPs in the lower house and 101 MPs in the upper

Israel will compete at Eurovision next year, despite calls for the country to be banned over its conflict with Hamas, organisers have said. Artists from Iceland had called for a boycott of the contest in Malmo, Sweden, unless Israel was prevented from taking part, after its ground invasion of Gaza. Irish broadcaster RTE has also

Elon Musk’s X is being investigated by the EU over its efforts to combat disinformation and harmful content. The social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, is the first to be probed under the bloc’s Digital Services Act. It came into force in November 2022 and requires large online companies to do more to tackle

Israeli forces battling Hamas claim to have uncovered the largest Hamas tunnel found in Gaza, designed to carry carloads of Hamas fighters up to the border with Israel. Neutralising the hundreds of kilometres of underground tunnels and bunkers in Gaza is among the aims of the Israeli offensive, launched after Hamas fighters went on a killing and

Donald Trump has said undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” during a speech in New Hampshire. The Republican presidential frontrunner repeated language that had previously been criticised as xenophobic and echoing Nazi rhetoric. Mr Trump made the comments during a campaign event where he railed against the record number of migrants attempting

Israel’s ambassador to the UK has insisted there will be no Palestinian state and that Israel believes there is no prospect of a two-state solution. Although it has been evident for some time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government were no advocates for such a post-war peace, this is the first time the

It had all the makings of one of those nightmare EU summits. A crucially important meeting that would drag on rancorously late beyond the end of the week. The villain of the piece, Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban – whose critics call him Putin’s puppet – had arrived looking up for a fight. There was

The Philippines has said it is contingency planning for an escalation of hostilities with China. The two nations have been in a series of confrontations in the South China Sea, one involving a crew being forced to stave off Chinese forces that attempting to board Philippine vessels. Relations have significantly deteriorated this year after several

Mainland Spain has recorded its hottest December day, putting the nation’s ski season at risk. The country is nearing the end of its hottest year on record after a summer that has produced four heatwaves, part of a global pattern of rising temperatures that scientists say is down to human caused climate change. A mass

A review into a massive police data breach in Northern Ireland has blamed a force-wide lack of prioritisation of data security. A report from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) found the data breach, which saw details of all employees of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) accidentally published online, was not the result

Russia has become stronger as a result of the conflict in Ukraine – just as it did by defeating Hitler and Napoleon – its foreign minister has claimed. In a wide-ranging series of assertions, Sergei Lavrov said the “hybrid war” that the West is supposedly waging against Russia is based on “cancel culture”. He also

As the United Nations vote showed last night, Israel still has the backing of its most powerful ally, the United States, and the UK who chose to abstain. However, with 13 of the 15 members of the Security Council voting in favour of a ceasefire, and more than eighty other countries supporting it, the US

Despite overwhelming military superiority, Israel is struggling to develop an effective strategy to tackle the tunnel network under Gaza. This “underworld” has provided Hamas with a degree of sanctuary beyond the gaze of satellites, drones and military forces. How will Israel defeat Hamas without destroying the tunnel network? Please use Chrome browser for a more

Russian President Vladimir Putin will run for office again in 2024. The 71-year-old – whose power has been questioned like never before over the costly war in Ukraine – will be widely expected to win and secure another six years in the Kremlin, taking him to 2030. He made the announcement during a medal ceremony