Macron says plan to introduce 10 months’ service among 18- and 19-year-olds will help France respond to ‘accelerating threats’

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France is to introduce voluntary military service of 10 months aimed mainly at young people aged 18 and 19, as concern grows in Europe about the threat from Russia.

In a speech to troops in Varces-Allières-et-Risset in the French Alps, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the service would begin by mid-2026 and help France respond to “accelerating threats” on the global stage.

Officers say they are closing borders and suspending poll as president and main rival both claim victory

Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau have announced they are taking “total control” of the west African country, three days after elections that both the two main presidential contenders claim to have won.

Military officers said they were suspending Guinea-Bissau’s electoral process and closing its borders, in a statement read out at the army’s headquarters in the capital Bissau and broadcast on state TV. They said they had formed “the high military command for the restoration of order”, which would rule the country until further notice.

Huge blaze broke out at Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Poin Tai Po district on Wednesday

The death toll from a huge fire that has engulfed several residential tower blocks in Hong Kong has risen to 36, with a further 279 people reported missing, the city’s leader, John Lee, said in the early hours of Thursday morning.

A taskforce has been set up to investigate the cause of the fire, which broke out on Wednesday afternoon at the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po, in the northern New Territories. The complex is made up of eight 31-storey towers containing about 2,000 flats that house about 4,800 people.

The British billionaire founder of Virgin Atlantic said he was ‘heartbroken’ by loss of wife and partner for 50 years

Joan Templeman, the wife of British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, has died at the age of 80.

Branson announced her death on Tuesday in a post on social media, saying he was “heartbroken to share that Joan, my wife and partner for 50 years, has passed away.”