Experts say hi-tech Fujian will help expand country’s military influence and reach farther beyond its own waters
China’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier officially entered service this week, signalling a new era in Chinese military expansion after a ceremony overseen by the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, state media has confirmed.
The Fujian is China’s first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier, and the third for China’s rapidly expanding navy, which is already the world’s biggest by ship count.
Firm released names of the three victims on the plane and investigators confirmed plane’s left wing caught fire
The death toll in the explosion that saw a UPS cargo plane lose an engine and burst into flames, has risen to 13, Craig Greenberg, the Louisville mayor, has confirmed as UPS released the names of the three victims on the plane.
“On my way to the Teamsters’ vigil, I learned of a 13th person that died as a result of the UPS flight 2976 plane crash. My heart is with the families, friends and colleagues of all who were lost in this week’s tragedy. We will get through this together,” Greenberg wrote in a social media post.
US strikes have destroyed at least 18 vessels, but Washington has yet to make public any concrete evidence that its targets posed a threat to America
US forces struck another alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean, killing three people, defense secretary Pete Hegseth has said, bringing the death toll from the Trump administration’s controversial campaign to at least 70.
The US began carrying out such strikes – which some experts say amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers – in early September, taking aim at vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
The soldier is the first to be jailed for such a crime after being found guilty of shooting dead a Ukrainian soldier who had surrendered in Zaporizhzhia region. What we know on day 1,353
A Ukrainian court has sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison after finding him guilty of killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war – the first time Ukraine has jailed a suspect on such charges. The court in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia found Dmitry Kurashov, 27, guilty of shooting dead Vitalii Hodniuk, a Ukrainian soldier who had surrendered in January 2024 when his dugout was captured by Russian forces. Kurashov, who was taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces along with other Russian troops soon after and pleaded guilty in court, although he later told reporters he was innocent and wanted to be exchanged in a prisoner swap. He told Reuters after the ruling on Thursday that he did not plan to appeal. The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said criminal investigations were under way into the murder of 322 Ukrainian servicemen who had unconditionally laid down their arms and/or surrendered since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Ukrainian drones struck a major oil refinery in Russia’s Volgograd region for the second time in almost three months, Ukraine’s general staff said on Thursday. Russian officials did not confirm the attack, although the local governor said drones started a fire at an unspecified industrial facility in the region. The refinery is the largest producer of fuel and lubricants in Russia’s southern federal district, processing more than 15m tons of crude annually, according to Ukrainian officials.
Saboteurs inside Russia burned dozens of locomotives in a bid to hamper the logistics of Russia’s armed forces, Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence said. The Freedom of Russia group used molotov cocktails to set fire to the control and power supply systems of dozens of locomotives that transported military cargo, according to a GUR statement on Thursday. It was not possible to independently verify the claim and Russian officials had no immediate comment.
Sweden and Ukraine said they had signed a letter of intent to establish a hub in Ukraine to develop new weapons technologies. The plans would see Swedish personnel working on site in Ukraine, said the Swedish defence minister, Pal Jonson. The announcement on Thursday comes after the two countries in October signed another letter of intent on aviation cooperation, which the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said could lead to Ukraine buying up to 150 of Sweden’s Gripen E fighter jets.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said foreign countries were helping Kyiv in its efforts to keep the power grid operating amid Russia’s onslaught on its energy infrastructure. “Practically every day, our power engineers, repair brigades and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine are carrying out restorations on-site after attacks,” the Ukrainian president said. “Hits keep occurring across various points, especially in our communities, and especially near the Russian border and close to the front.”
Swiss commodity trader Gunvor said it had withdrawn its proposal to buy foreign assets of Russian energy company Lukoil after the US Treasury called it Russia’s “puppet” and signalled Washington opposed the deal. The move on Thursday scuttles what would have been Gunvor’s largest acquisition and underscores Washington’s attempt to use sanctions to isolate Russia and choke revenues it uses to fight the war in Ukraine.
A Moscow-backed court in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region has jailed two Colombians for 13 years each for fighting for Kyiv. The pair had fought for Ukraine in 2023 and 2024 and then vanished in July while on a stopover in Russia’s ally Venezuela en route back home after their deployment. Colombian daily El Tiempo reported in July 2024 that police arrested them in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, still wearing their Ukrainian army uniforms. The pair were next seen in a video published by Russia’s FSB security service, handcuffed, wearing Russian prison clothing and being walked through a court building by masked officers.
Decision by high court’s conservative majority is Trump administration’s latest win on emergency docket
The supreme court on Thursday allowed Donald Trump’s administration to enforce a policy blocking transgender and non-binary people from choosing passport sex markers that align with their gender identity.
The decision by the high court’s conservative majority is Trump’s latest win on the high court’s emergency docket, and it means his administration can enforce the policy while a lawsuit over it plays out. It halts a lower-court order requiring the government to keep letting people choose male, female or X on their passport to line up with their gender identity on new or renewed passports.
Former justice department employee’s lawyers argued it was a ‘harmless gesture’ during an act of protest
A former Department of Justice employee who threw a sandwich at a federal agent during Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington DC was found not guilty of assault by a DC jury on Thursday in the latest legal rebuke of the federal intervention.
Sean Charles Dunn, a former justice department paralegal, became a symbol of the resistance to Trump’s occupation in the nation’s capital when video of him, clad in a pink polo shirt and shorts, throwing a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent, wearing a bulletproof vest, went viral.
Abigail Zwerner alleged assistant principal ignored reports that a firearm was on school property
A Virginia schoolteacher who was shot by her six-year-old student in 2023 has been awarded $10m in damages by a jury, concluding a negligence lawsuit she brought against a school administrator.
Abigail Zwerner alleged that an assistant principal at the Newport News elementary school, where she used to teach, ignored multiple reports that a gun was on school property and probably in the possession of the boy who shot her in January 2023.
Reductions in flights will begin at 40 major US airports from Friday to help address air traffic controller shortage safety concerns as a result of the government shutdown.
The Associated Press published a list including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago airports after airline regulators identified “high-volume markets” where the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says air traffic must be reduced by 4% by 6am ET on Friday, a move that would force airlines to cancel thousands of flights and create a cascade of scheduling issues and delays. United, Southwest and Delta airlines on Thursday evening began cancelling flights
Lukoil’s Burgas plant is Bulgaria’s only refinery; Slovakia running out of reasons to buy Russian gas as US import deal takes shape. What we know on day 1,352
Bulgaria is preparing to seize control of Lukoil’s Burgas oil refinery and sell it to a new owner after the Russian oil company came under US sanctions, according to Bulgarian media reports. Burgas is Bulgaria’s only oil refinery and as part of Lukoil is at risk of having to shut down because of the sanctions. The US joined Britain last month in imposing sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft, over Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Legislation was being drafted to allow the seizure, Bulgarian outlet Mediapool reported on Wednesday. Lukoil said last week that it was moving to sell foreign assets because of the sanctions.
With international action progressively choking off Russia’s petroleum exports, Poland said on Wednesday that it was working on a deal toimport liquefied natural gas from the US to supply Ukraine and Slovakia. Officials expect to announce a joint declaration to boost imports after a meeting of the parties at a transatlantic energy conference in Athens later this week, Reuters cited a source as saying. The Polish energy ministry told Reuters late on Wednesday: “We are working with our partners – Americans, Slovaks, Ukrainians – on the possibilities of importing American gas to boost the energy security of our region.”
Slovakia’s Putin-friendly prime minister, Robert Fico, has objected to EU restrictions on Russian gas imports. Reuters said that according to its sources, as much as 4bn-5bn cubic metres of US gas per year could be shipped by southern Poland to Slovakia – about the same as Slovakia’s annual consumption. The EU in October put forward new plans to end its purchases of Russian oil and gas with a fresh package of sanctions that bans Russian LNG imports by 2027.
Moscow’s forces appear to be tightening their grip on Pokrovsk, Pjotr Sauer reports, with street fighting raging across the ruined city in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s general staff on Wednesday denied Russian claims that its troops had been encircled, saying efforts were under way to reinforce the flanks around Pokrovsk and the nearby town of Myrnohrad.
Artem Karyakin, a well-known soldier in the Ukrainian armed forces, posted that Russian troops were “present in every district of the city”. “There is no good news from there; the situation remains tense. While Russian forces have not yet fully taken control of the city, fighting is ongoing.” Emil Kastehelmi, an analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group, which monitors the war, posted: “Ukraine may be repeating a costly mistake in Pokrovsk … seen for example in Vuhledar and Kursk – a reluctance to conduct a controlled, militarily justified withdrawal from a threatened salient when the situation no longer favours the defender.”
Angelina Jolie has made a surprise visit to Kherson, according to media reports. The frontline city lies on the other side of the Dnieper river from the Russian army. It would be the US actor’s second visit to Ukraine since the Russian full-scale invasion of February 2022. According to local reporting, Jolie visited a maternity ward and a children’s hospital in Kherson, which was briefly occupied by Russian forces in 2022 and still comes under daily Russian bombardment. A photo published by local official Vitaly Bogdanov showed Jolie wearing a bulletproof vest with Ukrainian insignia. Photographs circulating online were also said to show Jolie making a visit to Mykolaiv, to the north-west of Kherson. Neither Jolie nor the Ukrainian government confirmed the visit.
Memoir chronicles Juan Carlos’s anointment as heir to dictator and death of younger brother when playing with pistols
A memoir by Spain’s disgraced former king chronicles his anointment as heir to the dictator Francisco Franco, his role in saving democracy from a coup attempt in 1981, and his grief at the death of his younger brother when the two were “playing” with a pistol as teenagers.
The book, published 11 years after Juan Carlos’s abdication and exile, is titled Reconciliation but appears to do anything but, instead detailing how he feels abandoned and misunderstood by his son and heir, King Felipe VI, and by other close family members.
NTSB agents arrive in Louisville to investigate what caused engine to fall off UPS cargo plane and left wing to catch fire
The death toll from the UPS cargo plane that exploded into a fireball in Louisville on Tuesday night has risen to 12, said Craig Greenberg, the city’s mayor. At least 15 people were reported injured and “several individuals” were still unaccounted for, Greenberg said in a social media post.
A federal investigator announced earlier Wednesday a UPS cargo plane’s left wing caught fire and an engine fell off shortly after takeoff from the Louisville Muhammad Ali international airport, causing the plane to crash and explode into a fireball.
Deep Ukrainian drone strikes hit petrochemical plant 1,300km inside Russia and Lukoil refinery east of Moscow. What we know on day 1,351
Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited troops in the Pokrovsk area of Donetsk oblast on Tuesday. “I met with our warriors at the command post of the 1st Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine Azov, which is conducting a defensive operation in the Dobropillya sector,” said the Ukrainian president, referring to a town about 20km (12 miles) from Pokrovsk.
Russian forces had pushed further into Pokrovsk and its environs, though much of it remained beyond firm control of either side, mapping by the Ukrainian project DeepState indicated on Tuesday. “The situation remains critical,” said Deepstate, adding that in some districts Russian forces were digging in and building up positions.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its most recent assessment at time of writing, posted on 3 November: “Russian forces continue to advance in the Pokrovsk direction and appear to be operating with increasing comfort within Pokrovsk itself.” The ISW added that Ukrainian forces had liberated a significant portion of a Russian penetration in the Dobropillya direction, on the eastern flank of the Pokrovsk effort.
Ukrainian long-range drones attacked an industrial plant about 1,300km inside Russia at Sterlitamak, local officials said on Tuesday. The city administration reported an explosion at the Sterlitamak Petrochemical Plant that caused its water treatment facility to partially collapse, adding that the cause of the explosion was not known. The Ukrainian military general staff said there was “considerable damage” to the plant.
Ukraine’s military said it struck a Lukoil oil refinery at Kstovo in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow. The extent of the damage was being assessed, it said. The Russian regional governor confirmed an attack by 20 drones near Kstovo.
Russian military reservists will now have to guard oil refineries against Ukrainian drone strikes after Vladimir Putin signed a law on Tuesday extending their entanglement in the war effort. The Russian ruler also signed a law allowing military conscription all year round whereas previously it was possible only during limited periods in autumn and spring. Moscow legally bars conscripts from being deployed to combat, but after their military they enter Russia’s reserves, put them at risk of being sent to war. Heavy military spending has also started to strain the Russian state budget, with Moscow raising taxes to plug a rising deficit.
Zelenskyy urged the US to remain open to supplying Kyiv with long-range weapons. Addressing a European Union summit from the Pokrovsk area, the Ukrainian president also called for more western sanctions on Russia – including on Russia’s gas and nuclear sectors – and said he wanted Ukraine to join the EU before 2030.
Germany plans to raise its military aid to Ukraine by €3bn next year to about €11.5bn, the finance ministry in Berlin said on Tuesday. “This includes, among other things, artillery, drones, armoured vehicles and the replacement of two Patriot systems,” a ministry spokesman told AFP.
Norwegian munitions maker Nammo has signed a letter of intent with a Ukrainian industrial partner to produce, develop and sell ammunition in Ukraine, Norway’s government said.
Italy summoned Russia’s deputy ambassador on Tuesday to protest at what it said were “vulgar”, “disturbing” and “unacceptable” remarks by Moscow’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who linked the deadly collapse of a tower in Rome to Italy’s military support for Ukraine. The Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said: “Italy will not alter its foreign policy stance or its principles in response to reckless verbal attacks”. The Russian embassy in Rome later posted condolences for the death of Romanian worker Octav Stroici in the collapse but took the opportunity to complain that the angry response to Zakharova’s comments was anti-Russian.
The Indianapolis Colts have acquired two-time All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner from the New York Jets in a stunning trade ahead of Tuesday’s NFL deadline, according to multiple reports.
In exchange, the Colts will send two first-round picks to New York, marking one of the most significant deals of the season. Gardner, the No 4 overall pick in the 2022 draft, has quickly established himself as one of the league’s premier defenders, earning All-Pro honors in each of his first two years.
Los Angeles area celebrations included a downtown parade on Monday morning, a ticketed rally at Dodger Stadium and a smattering of spontaneous parties across the city.
Zelenskyy says the air defence systems being put into action while in embattled eastern city Russian troops haven’t advanced over past day. What we know on day 1,350
Ukraine has received more US-made Patriot air defence systems from Germany to help it counter Russia’s daily barrages, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.“More Patriots are now in Ukraine and being put into operation,” the Ukrainian president said on social media. “Of course, more systems are needed to protect key infrastructure sites and our cities across the entire territory of our state.” The Patriot systems are the most effective weapon against Russian missiles and Zelenskyy has pleaded with western partners to provide more of them. He thanked Germany and its chancellor Friedrich Merz for the Patriots.
Russian drones hit a house and killed a man as well as injuring five members of his family in Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region, authorities said. Two women were also injured in a separate Sumy attack overnight to Monday. “The Russians cynically targeted people – deliberately, at night, while they were sleeping,” regional head Oleh Hryhorov said. Russian missiles started a fire at a business in the central city of Dnipro, injuring one man, and also struck energy infrastructure in the southern Mykolaiv region.
Russia said on Monday its troops had advanced in the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk but Ukraine said its forces were holding on. The Russian defence ministry said its soldiers were destroying what it described as surrounded Ukrainian formations near the railway station and industrial zone of Pokrovsk – a key logistics hub dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk” – and had entered the city’s Prigorodny area and dug in there.
Zelenskyy said Russia was massing troops by the nearby town of Dobropillia, where Kyiv’s forces advanced earlier this year in a counteroffensive. Describing the situation in Dobropillia as complicated, he said Russian forces had lost the initiative in the area but were bringing in more troops. He said Pokrovsk remained under severe pressure but Russian troops had made no gains in the past day. Up to 300 Russian servicemen were still in the city, he said. “About 30% of all combat actions on the front take place in Pokrovsk.” Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said his forces had stepped up pressure on Dobropillia with the aim of forcing Russia to divert its focus away from Pokrovsk. The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
The Russian army made steady gains in Ukraine in October as it focused attacks on the eastern Donetsk region, an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War showed. Russia took 461 sq km (286 sq miles) from Ukraine in the month, the data showed. That pace was in line with the average monthly gain this year, down from a surge in July when Russia seized 634 sq km. Russia now controls 81% of the Donetsk region, while controlling – or claiming to control – 19.2% of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula.
A computer game-style drone attack system has gone “viral” among Ukrainian military units and is being extended to reconnaissance, artillery and logistics operations. Rob Booth has the story.
Ukraine will set up offices for arms exports and joint weapons production in Berlin and Copenhagen this year, Zelenskyy said on Monday. He said naval drones and artillery systems were among the weapons that Kyiv would be able to export, he said. “This is [about] co-production and export … of the weapons that we can allow ourselves to sell, in order to have more money for our internal production of deficit items for which we don’t have the money.”
Zelenskyy said he discussed additional support for Ukraine’s energy sector in a call with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Monday, amid ongoing Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy supply as winter approaches. “We are working to cover the amount needed for gas imports,” Zelenskyy said, adding that von der Leyen promised additional assistance.
Ukraine is showing “remarkable commitment” to joining the EU but must reverse recent negative trends in the fight against corruption and accelerate rule of law reforms, the European Commission has said in a draft text. The text – seen by Reuters on Monday and part of an EU enlargement report expected to be adopted on Tuesday – said that “despite the very difficult circumstances the country finds itself in on account of Russia’s war of aggression, Ukraine continued to demonstrate remarkable commitment to the EU accession path over the past year”. Ukraine has been pushing to make progress on its 2022 application to join the EU, despite the challenges of Russia’s war and EU member Hungary blocking Kyiv from formally moving to the next phase of negotiations.
Romanian worker was taken to hospital in ‘serious condition’ after being saved from Torre dei Conti rubble, but died soon after
A Romanian worker who was trapped for hours under rubble in Rome after the partial collapse of a medieval tower has died in hospital, just a short time after he was pulled free by emergency services.
“I express deep sorrow and condolences, on behalf of myself and the government, for the tragic loss of Octay Stroici, the worker who was killed in the collapse of the Torre dei Conti in Rome,” Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement after midnight. “We are close to his family and colleagues at this time of unspeakable suffering.”
International Organization for Migration says displaced are heading to Tawila, which is already sheltering 652,000 displaced people
More than 36,000 people have fled Sudan’s Kordofan region since Saturday amid a surge in fighting, the UN’s migration agency has said, after the capture last week of the city of El Fasher in neighbouring Darfur by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after more than a year under siege.
The strategic central area between the country’s Darfur provinces and the Khartoum-Riverine region that includes the capital, Khartoum, to the east, has in recent weeks become the latest battleground in the two-year civil war between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the paramilitary group.
Hamas hands remains of three soldiers to Israel and bodies of 45 Palestinians are returned to Gaza amid fragile ceasefire
Israel has announced that the remains of three soldiers killed by Hamas during its raid into Israel on 7 October 2023 have been handed over by the militant group.
The transfer is the latest since the precarious ceasefire in Gaza came into effect just over three weeks ago.
President’s remarks, made during CBS interview released on Sunday, come as the US amasses military units in Caribbean
Donald Trump has sent mixed signals about potential US intervention in Venezuela, playing down concerns of imminent war against the South American nation but saying its leader Nicolás Maduro’s days were numbered.
The president’s remarks, made during a CBS interview released on Sunday, come as the US amasses military units in the Caribbean and has conducted multiple strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels, killing dozens.
Former president also praises Mamdani’s campaign against rivals Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa
Zohran Mamdani, who holds a lead in polling ahead of New York City’s mayoral election on Tuesday, reportedly received a call Saturday from his fellow Democrat Barack Obama – and the former president offered to be a “sounding board” if his advantage turns into victory.
Obama also praised the campaign Mamdani had run against his main independent rival, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, and the Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
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