The number of adult tobacco users has dropped steadily in recent years, the World Health Organization said yesterday but it warned Big Tobacco was working hard to reverse that trend.

Britain yesterday declared global Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir as a proscribed terrorist group, making it a criminal offence to belong to what it described as an antisemitic organisation.

Ukraine said yesterday it had destroyed a Russian Beriev A-50 spy plane and an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post in the Sea of Azov area, dealing a blow to Russian military operations in occupied southern Ukraine.

Five migrants trying to cross the Channel to Britain died in French waters in the early hours of yesterday, French local authorities said.

New Zealand’s former prime minister Jacinda Ardern married her longtime partner Clarke Gayford in a private ceremony on Saturday, finally tying the knot after cancelling ceremonies during strict Covid-19 controls she imposed on the country.

Archaeologists have discovered the largest and oldest network of pre-Hispanic cities ever found in the Amazon rainforest, revealing a 2,500-year-old lost civilisation of farmers.

Papua New Guinea’s prime minister declared a state of emergency yesterday, suspending government and police officials after 16 people were killed in rioting in the Pacific island nation.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine would not lead to political dialogue, and would only benefit Moscow.

US and UK forces have shot down more than 20 drones and missiles over the Red Sea launched by Yemen’s Houthis, in what London branded yesterday the “largest attack” yet by Iran-backed rebels.

At least 6,618 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2023, when record numbers headed for the Canary Islands, a migrants rights group said yesterday.

Last year was the planet’s hottest on record by a substantial margin and likely the world’s warmest in the last 100,000 years, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said yesterday.

French leader Emmanuel Macron yesterday picked Gabriel Attal as prime minister in a bid to give new momentum to his presidency, with the 34-year-old becoming France’s youngest and first openly gay head of government.

Italian prosecutors said yesterday they were investigating a junior culture minister over allegations a painting he owned and exhibited had been stolen and modified to hide its origins -- claims he denies.

French leader Emmanuel Macron today picked Gabriel Attal as prime minister in a bid to give new momentum to his presidency, with the 34-year-old becoming France's youngest and first openly gay head of government

France is set to build eight new nuclear plants on top of six already announced, the energy minister has said, arguing more reactors are needed to hit carbon reduction targets.

The European Union should form its own combined army that could play a role in peacekeeping and preventing conflict, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.

Russia launched 28 attack drones and three cruise missile at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said yesterday, adding that its air defence systems destroyed 21 of the drones.

Wives of Russians mobilised to fight in Ukraine symbolically laid flowers Saturday at the flame of the unknown soldier right beneath the walls of the Kremlin and demanded the return of their husbands from the front.

Canada said on Friday an aircraft was sent this week to Jamaica to address a maintenance issue with the plane that took PM Justin Trudeau on a visit to Caribbean, enabling him to fly back home.

Russia has hit Ukraine with missiles supplied by North Korea for the first time during its invasion, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said yesterday, corroborating an earlier assertion by Washington.