President Vladimir Putin will visit Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates today, the Kremlin announced, as Moscow courts allies abroad despite being isolated over the Ukraine conflict.

A man known to French authorities for radical Islamism with mental health troubles stabbed a tourist to death and wounded two other people in Paris late Saturday night before being arrested, with prosecutors opening an investigation into a suspected “terrorist plot”.

Russian forces hit a fortified commander post of Ukraine’s “East” air defence and alerting centre in the central city of Dnipro, the Russian defence ministry said yesterday.

A person known to the French authorities as a radical Islamist with mental health troubles stabbed a German tourist to death and wounded two people in central Paris on Saturday before being arrested, officials said

Russian shelling killed one civilian and destroyed two houses in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar yesterday, the interior ministry said.

Russia yesterday said its troops were progressing in all areas of the Ukrainian front, despite observers seeing little movement more a year and a half after Moscow launched a full-scale assault on Ukraine.

The European Parliament and EU member states agreed draft new rules yesterday that are intended to protect journalists and activists from abusive lawsuits used to silence public criticism.

A Moscow court yesterday said it had extended until January the detention of US reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia earlier this year on spying charges.

Nato members yesterday pledged to stay the course on helping Ukraine fight Russia, despite doubts over US support and a bloody stalemate on the front line.

Irish writer Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize on Sunday for his novel ‘Prophet Song’, the story of a family and a country on the brink of catastrophe as an imaginary Irish government veers towards tyranny.

Russia was intensely attacking the eastern town of Avdiivka and southern village of Robotyne, where fighting has centred in recent weeks, Ukraine said yesterday.

Russia yesterday put Meta Platforms spokesperson Andy Stone on a wanted list on unspecified charges as the US social media giant -- which owns Facebook -- is classed as “extremist” by Moscow.

Iran has executed a 17-year-old convicted of murder, two rights groups said on Saturday, expressing outrage that the Islamic republic continues to hang people for crimes committed as minors.

President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the West had a “dangerous” monopoly over artificial intelligence and Russia needed to rival “biased” Western chatbots with its own technology.

Irish police make 34 arrests after Dublin rioting

Far-right populist Geert Wilders wants to be the Netherlands’ next prime minister and would focus his efforts on curbing immigration, he said following a landmark election win that will have repercussions in the Netherlands and Europe.

Fuel shortages and worsening sanitation in the Gaza Strip are shaping up to be the perfect storm for tragedy through the spread of disease, the United Nations warned yesterday.

Russia said yesterday it was holding joint naval exercises with India in the Bay of Bengal, as the two countries bolster security ties despite Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

Three people were killed and eight were wounded in overnight Russian missile attacks and shelling in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, Ukrainian officials said yesterday.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday warned of Russia’s “malign” interference in Bosnia, saying Moscow’s actions threatened the stability of the deeply divided Balkan country.