Iran has launched ballistic missiles from underground bases at a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state television has said. The US navy called Wednesday’s action “irresponsible and reckless”, accusing Tehran of trying to “intimidate and coerce”. Drone footage captured by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard showed two missiles
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Germany has become a key target for Chinese and Russian interference and influence, putting Europe’s largest economy on the “frontline of a new Cold War”, a study has said. Poor relations between US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have exacerbated Berlin’s sense of exposure to potential dangers from Beijing and Moscow, according
The UK – having imposed new restrictions on those returning from Spain, and previously introduced its first local lockdown in Leicester – is far from the only country to have had to respond to resurging coronavirus infection rates. Below are some of the countries that have toughened their rules as a result of an increase
Israel’s military says it has exchanged fire with gunmen linked to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group. The incident on Monday afternoon represents an escalation of tension along the border shared by the two countries. According to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), a “terror squad” crossed the UN administered Blue Line on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon
Vietnam is evacuating 80,000 people, mostly local tourists, from the central city of Da Nang after 11 residents tested positive for coronavirus. The Southeast Asian country is back on high alert after confirming its first community infections since April over the weekend. The evacuation will take at least four days with domestic airlines operating approximately
Banksy has donated three oil paintings referencing the European migrant crisis to a charity auction raising money for a hospital in Bethlehem. The works, titled Mediterranean Sea View 2017, are estimated to sell for between £800,000 and £1.2m. The anonymous street artist from Bristol took 19th century-style Romantic seascapes and added life jackets and buoys
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has placed one city in lockdown over fears the country has its first coronavirus case. He believed “the vicious virus” may have entered the country after a resident in Kaesong, on the border with South Korea, displayed suspected COVID-19 symptoms, North Korea’s Central News Agency reported. The lockdown was
Poland is to withdraw from a European treaty aimed at preventing violence against women. The country’s justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro said the treaty “contains elements of an ideological nature, which we consider harmful”. Mr Ziobro said on Saturday that his ministry would ask the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy to begin the withdrawal
Tens of thousands of people in the far eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk have taken part in a protest march over the arrest of a popular regional governor on murder charges. Following his detention earlier in July, Sergei Furgal was flown 3,800 miles to Moscow where he has been in jail for two months. His
The air is highly charged in Portland even before nightfall. Almost everyone walking in the city centre streets is wearing a helmet. We pass one corner and someone is putting shin pads on. Fresh graffiti is going up on another corner. This doesn’t feel like a protest limping into its 55th night. Image: Federal officers
China has ordered the US to close its consulate in the city of Chengdu as tensions continue to mount between the two countries. The latest tit-for-tat escalation comes days after Washington told Beijing to cease its operations at the Chinese consulate in Houston after the US accused Chinese agents of trying to steal medical and
France has declared a significant rise in coronavirus cases – as researchers have said traces of COVID-19 are once again being found in Paris’s sewage system. The country’s health ministry reported 1,062 cases on Thursday – nearly double the 584 seen on Tuesday. It marked the second day in a row that the country had
A 93-year-old former guard at a Nazi concentration camp has been found guilty for his role in the murders of more than 5,000 prisoners during the Second World War. Bruno Dey, who had been an SS guard in the Stutthof concentration camp in German-occupied Poland during the final months of the conflict, was given a
Police in Australia asked a woman to remove tampon during a strip search, an official report has found. The request was made during one of a number of personal body searches that were documented in a report into misconduct by the New South Wales Police Force. The report by the New South Wales (NSW) Law
Portuguese police have reopened their investigation into the unsolved rape of an Irish woman after 16 years. Hazel Behan, 37, believes her attacker may have been drifter Christian B, the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. He was convicted of a similar rape a year after Ms Behan was attacked and two years
This is staggering – the UK doesn’t know if Russia interfered in the Brexit vote because it never sought to ask! For years ministers have consistently batted off questions about whether Vladimir Putin‘s regime attempted to meddle in the EU referendum, saying that there was no evidence of “successful interference”. We now know why. They