An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the world was probably on the verge of a new world war and the risks of a nuclear confrontation were rising.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly yesterday was expected to argue it would be “a betrayal” of Britain’s national interest to isolate China and urge against declaring “a new Cold War”.

The Kremlin said yesterday that a global shortfall in food supplies was not primarily attributable to a lack of Russian and Ukrainian grain on the market.

Italy has rescued 47 boats carrying around 1,600 migrants in the central Mediterranean sea in the last two days and brought them ashore to the island of Lampedusa.

Protesters greeted French President Emmanuel Macron with boos and calls for him to resign in his first public appearance since he signed into law an unpopular rise in the retirement age.

Russian forces stepped up heavy artillery bombardments and air strikes on the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, while President Vladimir Putin has met his commanders in two regions of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed.

The Group of Seven industrial powers drew together yesterday to criticise China’s coercion of Taiwan and Russia’s threat to station nuclear weapons in Belarus, promising to intensify sanctions on Moscow for its war on neighbouring Ukraine.

Scientists have found coastal species of shellfish and anemones living and breeding on floating islands of garbage in the Pacific thousands of miles from home.

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday staunchly defended his widely unpopular pension reform but said he understood the “anger” felt by the French after three months of protests.

Mexico’s president said Monday that his country would not tolerate spying by US on its security institutions, as an intelligence leak sparked new diplomatic tensions between the neighbours.

The European Parliament yesterday approved sweeping reforms to make EU climate change policies more ambitious, including an upgrade of the bloc’s carbon market that is set to hike the cost of polluting in Europe.

The oldest known work printed on a mechanical press -- a Korean book that predates the first European example by several decades -- went on display in Paris for the first time in 50 years on Wednesday.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under investigation by the parliamentary watchdog over a possible failure to declare shares his wife holds in an agency benefiting from a recent budget, an official said yesterday.

US ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy said she found journalist Evan Gershkovich “in good health” when meeting him in prison yesterday for the first time after his arrest on spying charges.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu in Moscow on Sunday and both men hailed military cooperation between the two nations, which have declared a “no limits” partnership.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has cancelled the building of new “smart motorways” amid concerns about safety and cost, the Department for Transport said.

The G7 yesterday pledged to quit fossil fuels faster and urged other countries to follow suit, but failed to agree to any new deadlines on ending polluting power sources like coal.

French President Emmanuel Macron signed his controversial pension reform into law yesterday, prompting accusations from unions and the left he was showing “contempt” towards those behind a three-month protest movement.

Germany was scheduled to switch off its last three nuclear reactors yesterday, exiting atomic power even as it seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels and manage an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

Moscow said yesterday that Russian forces were “blocking” Ukrainian forces from getting in or out of the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut.