Month: April 2022

Getty Images The two candidates fighting for the French presidency have launched bitter attacks on each other in a final bid to win over millions of undecided voters before Sunday’s election. Centrist Emmanuel Macron is aiming to become the first sitting president to win a second term for 20 years. He said Marine Le Pen’s

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The British embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv will reopen next week, Boris Johnson has announced. Ambassador Melinda Simmons said she was “heading back” after leaving when Russia invaded. The prime minister also said there was a

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. One of the last Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol has told the BBC that the besieged steelworks where they are holed up is largely destroyed above ground and civilians are trapped under collapsed buildings. Speaking from the Azovstal

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to seal off Ukrainian defenders inside the besieged port city of Mariupol. Mr Putin told forces to abandon plans to storm the sprawling Azovstal steel works there, where Ukraine

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The government will attempt to delay a decision over an investigation into whether Boris Johnson misled MPs about lockdown parties. MPs were set to vote on Thursday on a Labour plan for a Commons committee to investigate

Reuters The deadline of a Russian ultimatum demanding the surrender of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol has passed with no sign that the troops have complied. The final Ukrainian holdouts, reportedly accompanied by 1,000 civilians, have taken shelter in the city’s massive Azovstal steel plant. Moscow’s ultimatum comes as the local Ukrainian commander warned his troops

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson has denied deliberately misleading MPs over breaking lockdown laws after he was fined by police. The PM repeatedly apologised for attending a 2020 birthday party in Downing Street, but said he did not think he

Former prime minister Theresa May has criticised the government’s plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda. Mrs May told the Commons she did not support the policy due to her concerns over whether it met standards on “legality, practicality and efficacy”. Home Secretary Priti Patel said the scheme would be “a major blow to

Reuters Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia has launched an assault to seize the eastern Donbas region. Moscow bombarded cities with rocket and artillery fire on Monday and in a video address Mr Zelensky said that the battle “for the Donbas has begun”. Ukraine’s top security official, Oleksiy Danilov, said that Russia tried to

Family Handout The family of a British man who has reportedly been captured by Russian forces while fighting in Ukraine have said they are hoping for a quick resolution to his situation. Shaun Pinner, 48, appeared on Russian state TV alongside another British man, asking to be exchanged with a pro-Russian politician held in Ukraine.

Reuters Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal has said defenders of the besieged port of Mariupol will fight to the end against Russian forces. The city has not yet fallen despite a Russian ultimatum to remaining Ukrainian fighters to give up, he said. Meanwhile President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had no intention of surrendering any territory in

PA Media Priti Patel’s top civil servant warned her there was not enough evidence of the “deterrent effect” of the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda. In a letter, Matthew Rycroft said the policy’s value for money relied on it preventing illegal Channel crossings. He said while there wasn’t “sufficient evidence” of the

PA Media The government’s plan to send some asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda is “the opposite of the nature of God”, the Archbishop of Canterbury is to say. In his Easter sermon, Justin Welby will say that Christ’s resurrection is not a time for “subcontracting our responsibilities”. He will also call for a

AFP/Getty Images Russia has banned Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other senior ministers from entering Russia over the UK’s “hostile” stance on the war in Ukraine. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and 10 other senior politicians – mostly members of the Cabinet – have also been barred. Moscow said the decision had

AFP Moscow says it will respond to any Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory by striking Kyiv with more missiles. The “number and scale” of attacks will go up if its own settlements become targets, the ministry said. The warning came as Russia announced a missile strike on a military factory near Kyiv, which it claimed

Video has emerged of clashes between police and people being forced out of their homes in Shanghai, as the city enters a third week of Covid lockdown. Some residential compounds are being turned into quarantine centres. Millions are confined to their homes as Shanghai battles a fresh outbreak of the virus. Anyone who tests positive