The Queen has stripped Prince Andrew of all his royal patronages and military affiliations and said he will face trial in the US as a private citizen.
China carried out fresh military drills around Taiwan Monday, Beijing said, defying calls for it to end its largest-ever exercises encircling the democratic island in the wake of a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Lord Mountbatten’s division of India into two countries was a disaster in which a million died. Using newly colourised archive footage, this documentary explores those brutal events India 1947: Partition in Colour … Jawaharlal Nehru, left, Lord Mountbatten, centre and Muhammad Ali Jinnah discuss the partition of India. Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Hopes of saving a malnourished beluga whale that has swum up the Seine river were receding on Sunday, as rescuers said they were in a race against the clock to find a solution.
When she touched down in Paris on a flight from Kabul in the summer of 2021, Farzana Farazo vowed never to give up her feminist struggle for Afghanistan, even from exile.
A Moscow court on Monday ordered journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who denounced Russia's intervention in Ukraine, to pay a new fine for discrediting the Russian army.
India named out-of-form star batsman Virat Kohli in their T20 squad for an Asia Cup campaign which begins later this month with a showdown against arch-rivals Pakistan.
England's Delicious Orie was crowned the Commonwealth Games super-heavyweight champion on Sunday, as the Northern Ireland brother and sister duo of Aidan and Michaela Walsh also won boxing gold medals.
An Iranian satellite launched by Russia blasted off from Kazakhstan early Tuesday and went into orbit amid controversy that Moscow might use it to improve its surveillance of military targets in Ukraine.
Down three games and 1-4 to her doubles partner, Feng Tianwei somehow pulled off an huge comeback to win her third Commonwealth Games women's singles gold medal
Former captain Kohli and Bumrah were left out of the T20 squad for the five-match series against West Indies, which India went on to win 4-1 on Sunday. Kohli has endured a lean run of form across all formats and the 33-year-old is without a century in international cricket since November 2019.
Gustavo Petro on Sunday took the oath of office as Colombia's first-ever leftist president, before a crowd of hundreds of thousands at his inauguration in Bogota.
Taiwan held an artillery drill Tuesday simulating a defence against an attack as its top diplomat accused Beijing of preparing to invade the island after days of massive Chinese war games. China launched its largest-ever air and sea exercises around Taiwan last week in a furious response to a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking American official to visit the self-ruled island in decades. Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views its neighbour as part of Chinese territory to be seized one day, by force if necessary. "China has used the drills and its military playbook to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan," Joseph Wu told a press conference in Taipei on Tuesday, accusing Beijing of using Pelosi's visit as a pretext for military action. "China's real intention is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and entire region," he said. Taipei's drill started in the southern county of Pingtung shortly after 0040 GMT with the firing of target flares and artillery, ending just under an hour later at 0130 GMT, said Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan's Eighth Army Corps. Soldiers fired from howitzers tucked into the coast, hidden from view of the road that leads to popular beach destination Kenting. The drills, which will also take place Thursday, included the deployment of hundreds of troops and about 40 howitzers, the army said. On Monday, Lou told AFP the drills had been scheduled previously and were not in response to China's exercises. The island routinely stages military drills simulating defence against a Chinese invasion, and last month practised repelling attacks from the sea in a "joint interception operation" as part of its largest annual exercises. The anti-landing exercises come after China extended its own joint sea and air drills around Taiwan on Monday, but Washington said it did not expect an escalation from Beijing. "I'm not worried, but I'm concerned they're moving as much as they are. But I don't think they're going to do anything more than they are," Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base. China has not confirmed if its drills in the Taiwan Strait will continue Tuesday. But Taiwanese foreign minister Joseph Wu condemned Beijing for extending its military exercises around the island, accusing them of trying to control the Taiwan Strait and waters in the wider Asia-Pacific region. "It is conducting large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyber-attacks, a disinformation campaign and economic coercion in order to weaken public morale in Taiwan," he said. Wu went on to thank Western allies, including the US after Pelosi's visit, for standing up to China. "It also sends a clear message to the world that democracy will not bow to the intimidation of authoritarianism," he said. - 'Not worried' - Taiwan has insisted that no Chinese warplanes or ships entered its territorial waters -- within 12 nautical miles of land -- during Beijing's drills. The Chinese military, however, released a video last week of an air force pilot filming the island's coastline and mountains from his cockpit, showing how close it had come to Taiwan's shores. Its ships and planes have also regularly crossed the median line -- an unofficial demarcation between China and Taiwan that the former does not recognise -- since drills began last week. Ballistic missiles were fired over Taiwan's capital, Taipei, during the exercises last week, according to Chinese state media. On Tuesday, the Chinese military released more details about the anti-submarine drills it had conducted a day earlier around the island. The People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theater command said the exercises were aimed at enhancing the ability of air and sea units to work together while hunting submarines. It said maritime patrol aircraft, fighter jets, helicopters and a destroyer practiced locating and attacking targets in the waters off Taiwan. The scale and intensity of China's drills -- as well as its withdrawal from key talks on climate and defence -- have triggered outrage in the United States and other democracies. The drills have also shown how an increasingly emboldened Chinese military could carry out a gruelling blockade of the island, experts say. But Beijing on Monday defended its behaviour as "firm, forceful and appropriate" to American provocation. "(We) are only issuing a warning to the perpetrators," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing, promising China would "firmly smash the Taiwan authorities' illusion of gaining independence through the US". "We urge the US to do some earnest reflection, and immediately correct its mistakes." aw-jfx/cwl
Taiwan will hold live-fire military drills this week simulating a defence of the island against a Chinese invasion, officials said Monday, as Beijing carries out fresh exercises around its neighbour.
The two titans of modern drama were both cricket obsessives. What if they had faced the fast bowlers together? Playwright Shomit Dutta explains why he made it happen – with darkly comic drama Stumped
Former US president Donald Trump said Monday that his Mar-A-Lago residence in Florida was being "raided" by FBI agents in what he called an act of "prosecutorial misconduct."
Manchester United must make a decision on Cristiano Ronaldo's future now, or they can kiss the EPL season goodbye, says Neil Humphreys.
A Moscow court on Monday ordered journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who denounced Russia's intervention in Ukraine, to pay a new fine for discrediting the Russian army. In March, Ovsyannikova shot to prominence for interrupting a live TV broadcast to denounce Russia's military intervention in Ukraine. Her lawyer did not rule out on Monday the possibility she could face a criminal probe in the future. Last week, another court ordered the 44-year-old journalist to pay 50,000 rubles (around $800) for discrediting the Russian army. On Monday, Ovsyannikova, a former editor at state-controlled Channel One, said Moscow's Cheryomushkinsky district court ordered her to pay 40,000 rubles. Ovsyannikova's lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov told AFP she was fined for a post on Facebook. Two convictions within the space of six months can lead to a criminal case. In court, Ovsyannikova said she "trolled" the judge but he did not seem to understand her irony. "America and Europe are to blame for the fact that there is no longer freedom of speech, just courts and fair elections in Russia. And people are put in jail for calling for peace," she said in court, according to her statement on messaging app Telegram. Ovsyannikova, a mother of two, was briefly detained in July. Her short detention came several days after she demonstrated alone near the Kremlin, holding up a sign criticising the military intervention in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin. After sending troops to Ukraine, Moscow adopted laws imposing sentences of up to 15 years in prison for spreading information about the military deemed false by the authorities. Russian authorities have not announced the opening of any criminal investigation against Ovsyannikova. In the months following her March protest, Ovsyannikova spent time abroad, working for three months for Germany's Die Welt. In early July, she announced that she was returning to Russia to settle a dispute over the custody of her two children. The journalist, who worked for state TV for 19 years, told AFP in a recent interview she had to sell her car to bring in some extra money. Ovsyannikova, who does not currently have a permanent job, works as a freelancer for foreign media. bur/kjm
Moscow should not be shy in ‘accepting the hand extended to us by Kim Jong-un’, says Russian defence expert
China's thunderous response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit brought cross-Strait tensions to their highest level in years and sparked an outpouring of nationalist zeal online, but the mood on the streets in mainland China is a little more circumspect.
Scotland's Laura Muir ended her Commonwealth Games campaign with a flourish by winning gold in the 1500m on the final day of the athletics competition in Birmingham.
