Seeing what looked like a brown blob in a tree while driving through Siberia’s Irkutsk region, 36-year-old Daria Tyurneva pulled over, curious to get a better look. She was not expecting to find a bear cub, perched on a branch, several metres up. “We stopped, without turning off the engine or taking off the gear, because we knew the mother could be somewhere nearby,” Tyurneva said, showing a phone video she recorded of the bear. Her sighting was one of several to spook Russians in recent weeks,...

Seeing what looked like a brown blob in a tree while driving through Siberia’s Irkutsk region, 36-year-old Daria Tyurneva pulled over, curious to get a better look. She was not expecting to find a bear cub, perched on a branch, several metres up. “We stopped, without turning off the engine or taking off the gear, because we knew the mother could be somewhere nearby,” Tyurneva said, showing a phone video she recorded of the bear. Her sighting was one of several to spook Russians in recent weeks,...

Ongoing fires in Indonesia that have blanketed parts of Southeast Asia with toxic haze have triggered the highest-level alert by the regional bloc’s climate and fire monitor. “Activation of Alert Level 3 for the Southern Asean region,” the Singapore Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) said on its website, seen on Saturday. Based near Singapore’s Changi Airport, the ASMC uses a four-tiered alert level system, from zero to three, with the highest triggered if there is a “high risk of...

Coconut farmer Sombat Chuekrod travelled more than 200km (120 miles) to join hundreds on the streets of Bangkok on Friday demanding that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank change how they deal with the developing world. Finance ministers, central bank governors and other top policymakers gathered this week in the Thai capital for the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, as decision makers tackle an inflation crisis fuelled by the Iran war and other economic shocks. The message from...

Pope Leo spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Friday, calling for a ceasefire in a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine, as he recovers in hospital from a lung cancer operation. The Vatican said that Pope Leo “expressed his deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky, in the Kherson region, and called for a ceasefire to allow the delivery of food and medical assistance, and the voluntary and safe evacuation of the civilian population”. The...

Pope Leo spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Friday, calling for a ceasefire in a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine, as he recovers in hospital from a lung cancer operation. The Vatican said that Pope Leo “expressed his deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky, in the Kherson region, and called for a ceasefire to allow the delivery of food and medical assistance, and the voluntary and safe evacuation of the civilian population”. The...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled what he described as a “flying” car, equipped with thrusters, during a live-streamed event at his SpaceX rocket company’s facility on Thursday. Technical and regulatory challenges have so far prevented the much-hyped flying car sector from getting off the ground. Musk revealed his new Roadster sports car during a launch event at a SpaceX test facility in Texas. During the demo, which was live-streamed on Tesla’s X account, the car launched from a steep steel ramp and...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled what he described as a “flying” car, equipped with thrusters, during a live-streamed event at his SpaceX rocket company’s facility on Thursday. Technical and regulatory challenges have so far prevented the much-hyped flying car sector from getting off the ground. Musk revealed his new Roadster sports car during a launch event at a SpaceX test facility in Texas. During the demo, which was live-streamed on Tesla’s X account, the car launched from a steep steel ramp and...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday asked European Union leaders to provide Kyiv an extra 70 billion euros (US$79 billion) in funding next year to help it keep fighting Russia. “The war will cost 155 billion euros next year. And we need at least 70 billion euros more from you – for defence, for weapons and for our resilience,” Zelensky said in a speech at an EU summit in Brussels. “This is a realistic amount. And I ask you to find this support. It will help us hold Russia back.” The...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday asked European Union leaders to provide Kyiv an extra 70 billion euros (US$79 billion) in funding next year to help it keep fighting Russia. “The war will cost 155 billion euros next year. And we need at least 70 billion euros more from you – for defence, for weapons and for our resilience,” Zelensky said in a speech at an EU summit in Brussels. “This is a realistic amount. And I ask you to find this support. It will help us hold Russia back.” The...

European leaders on Friday rallied around Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky as Kyiv’s ties with US President Donald Trump have nosedived and worries grow that US leader is increasingly siding with Russia. Relations between Kyiv and Washington have soured since last week, when Trump eased sanctions on Russia in exchange for Moscow releasing large amounts of diesel onto global markets. Zelensky infuriated Trump further by ordering Ukraine’s forces to restart strikes on Russian oil refineries in...

A teenager shot and killed three children and a teacher on Thursday at an elementary school in the US state of Oregon, police said, adding the assailant was later killed by an armed community member who pursued him into the building. Officers rushed to Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, a city of about 100,000 in the nation’s northwest, after reports of a shooter on campus on Thursday afternoon. The three children who died on the scene were aged 5, 8 and 11, said Bend police chief Mike Krantz....

A minibus collided with a stationary train in a Channel Tunnel vehicle boarding area in France on Thursday evening, injuring the driver and 18 passengers, authorities said. Five people were severely injured, though no one’s life appeared to be in danger, the local prefect said in a statement. The minibus was carrying truck drivers of various nationalities who were heading to travel on a LeShuttle train, which carries vehicles and their passengers through the tunnel. The area around the tunnel...

The Houthis launched a deadly missile attack Thursday on the presidential palace in the Yemeni government’s interim capital of Aden, as Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for the recent dramatic escalation in the long-running war. The attack hit command centres located inside the Al-Maashiq presidential compound used by government forces and the Saudi-led military coalition that supports them, a Yemeni minister said on condition of anonymity. Saudi Arabia and the internationally recognised Yemeni...

Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife on Thursday carried out their first joint engagement since their surprise move back to the UK in August, with Meghan telling well-wishers: “It’s great to be back.” King Charles’ 42-year-old younger son and Meghan, 45 – who left Britain and quit royal duties in 2020 amid a bitter royal family feud – were greeted with cheers as they arrived in the central English city of Nottingham. The couple then stopped to chat and joke with the crowd as well as pose for...

EU leaders locked horns on Thursday over the bloc’s next long-term budget as they kicked off talks in Brussels under pressure to seal a deal before several high-stakes elections next year, most crucially in France. The 27-nation European Union wants an agreement by Christmas, worried that any future deal-making will be derailed by potential Eurosceptic wins across the bloc, including in France where the far-right’s Marine Le Pen is favoured in opinion polls. “We are facing very, very difficult...

One message told him to “go to hell”. Others said he deserved to be imprisoned. Death threats poured in. Asians who share a name with one of the men accused of raping a US university student have faced a torrent of online abuse. The alleged 2024 gang rape of a Cornell University student, detailed in a recent lawsuit, has sparked an outpouring of outrage against the seven accused perpetrators. The case has sent internet sleuths scouring digital footprints for clues to track them down. All seven...

Tech billionaire Elon Musk called on Wednesday for Volodymyr Zelensky to “go” as Ukraine’s leader, after insisting any disruption to the war-torn country’s use of his satellite communications system was the fault of the US government, not his company. The comments came as Kyiv raised doubts over US support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, accusing Washington this week of helping Moscow by failing to warn it of incoming missile strikes and hobbling Kyiv’s military response through changes to...

The Yemeni government has spoken with Beijing about the Houthis’ alleged attempts to utilise Chinese-made technology for weapons, a Yemeni minister said on Wednesday, as the two sides’ long-running civil war escalates. “The Chinese are partners and we have discussed with them about, you know, the use of dual products,” Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba said in response to an Agence France-Presse question about reports the Iran-backed group was trying to secure Chinese components to help...

Irish author Sally Rooney can no longer sell her books in the UK because of her support for the activist group Palestine Action, her publisher Faber said on Wednesday. Rooney has previously expressed her support for the group, which was banned as a “terrorist” organisation by the UK government in July 2025. It is not banned in Ireland, where Rooney lives. The proscription, which the organisation is appealing against, puts Palestine Action on the same blacklist as militant groups Hamas and...

A lawyer for a Ukrainian accused of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines supplying Russian gas to western Europe said on Wednesday that Moscow used the network to exert political and economic pressure, as the former military officer’s trial opened in Germany. Sergiy Kuznietsov is the first person to go on trial over the 2022 sabotage. The 50-year-old is accused of leading a Ukrainian team of divers and an explosives expert to bomb Nord Stream, seven months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of...

Ukraine on Wednesday accused Russia of wilfully flouting Donald Trump’s purported “energy ceasefire” and passing up an opportunity to ease hostilities, after a renewed wave of deadly strikes across the country that also hit vital power supplies. Kyiv in particular faced a barrage of powerful ballistic missiles and attack drones targeting energy facilities and critical infrastructure, despite the US president’s surprise weekend announcement. Four people were killed in the city and power to at...

Deforestation slowed worldwide last year, but the improvement is unlikely to last as the situation deteriorates in Central Africa and an exceptionally strong El Nino weather pattern intensifies, a new study said on Wednesday. Seven million hectares of forest – roughly the size of the Republic of Ireland – were permanently destroyed in 2025, a 15 per cent drop from the previous year, according to the annual Forest Declaration Assessment. The slowdown, however, is not enough to keep the world from...

Cornell University on Tuesday suspended fraternities’ parties and social events for the remaining academic year following outcry over an alleged gang rape at one of the elite college’s all-male clubs. The 2024 incident, as alleged in a graphic lawsuit filed last month, has drawn accusations that the Ivy League institution in New York state failed to properly punish the men involved. The accuser claimed that she was pressured to take ketamine, assaulted and raped by seven members of the Chi Phi...