Europe’s extreme heat is triggering wildfires from Greece to Switzerland, as Spain’s Catalonia region recorded its highest ever

Home cooked vegetarian food prepared by ten families, will be on offer at the vibrant event.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has rubbished Ukraine’s 10-point peace plan and warned the conflict will be resolved on the battlefield if the west stuck to it. Addressing the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Lavrov dismissed the west as an “empire of lies” and said the plan promoted by Kyiv was “completely not feasible”. In a letter to Lavrov last month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres outlined four measures the U.N. could facilitate to improve Russia’s grain and fertilizer exports in a bid to convince Moscow to return to the Black Sea deal, which allowed Ukraine to export grain through the corridor and helped address a global food shortage. “We explained to the Secretary General why his proposals won’t work,” Lavrov said. “We don’t reject them. They’re simply not realistic. They cannot be implemented.” Earlier on Saturday morning, Ukraine launched another missile attack on Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, a Russian-installed official said, a day after an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet left a serviceman missing and the main building smoldering. Sevastopol was put on air raid alert for about an hour after debris from intercepted missiles fell near a pier, Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev wrote on the messaging app Telegram. Ferry traffic in the area was also halted and later resumed. Loud blasts were also heard near Vilne in northern Crimea, followed by rising clouds of smoke, according to a pro-Ukrainian Telegram news channel that reports on developments on the peninsula. Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, has been a frequent target for Ukrainian forces since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of the neighboring country almost 19 months ago. Ukraine‘s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told Voice of America on Saturday that at least nine people were killed and 16 injured as a result of Kyiv’s attack on the Black Sea Fleet on Friday. He claimed that Alexander Romanchuk, a Russian general commanding forces along the key southeastern front line, was “in a very serious condition” following the attack. Elsewhere, Ukraine said its heavy artillery was inflicting “hell” on Russian lines near Bakhmut. Captured by Russian forces in May, heavy weapons supplied by the west are inflicting significant damage on enemy lines, with the 155mm howitzers supplied by the US and NATO allies said to be proving key in the long-awaited counteroffensive. “They (the Russians) hate our hardware”, said 30-year-old unit commander Oleksandr. “That’s what we gather from our intercepts. We hear that we keep giving them hell and they keep wondering how much ammunition we have left.” Oleksandr described Klishchiivka - a village close to the devastated town of Bakhmut - as “one of the places they (the Russians) were clinging to. “We will see what’s next. We will develop our success.” Meanwhile, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has announced several support packages for Ukraine, including military, economic and humanitarian assistance. He has also pledged an extra show of diplomatic backing in steps intended to punish Russia over its war in Ukraine. In a news conference held with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Trudeau confirmed that Canada would continue to “impose costs on Russia” and ensure that “those responsible for this illegal, unjustifiable invasion do not benefit from it.” "We stand here absolutely united in our defence of democracy and our condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked, unjustified and unconscionable invasion of Ukraine”, Mr Trudeau added. Canada and Ukraine have agreed to form a working group with G7 partners to analyse the seizure and forfeiture of Russian assets, including from the Russian Central Bank. It has also added 63 Russian individuals to its sanctions list, including those who are “complicit in the kidnapping of children and the spreading of disinformation”, Mr Trudeau said. Read More Ukraine-Russia war - live: Kyiv inflicting ‘hell’ on Russian lines as counter-offensive escalates Russian foreign minister lambastes the West but barely mentions Ukraine in UN speech Zelensky meets Sudanese official during ‘technical stopover’ in Ireland Trudeau pledges Canada's support for Ukraine and punishment for Russia Zelensky gets standing ovation as he calls on Canada to ‘stay with’ Ukraine: ‘Moscow must lose’ The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

People took flour, wheat and hygiene kits after storming several warehouses, a UN agency says.

With tattoo-covered faces, wearing white shirts and shorts, gang members captured during El Salvador’s state of exception are gradually filling the country’s new mega prison

The viral video has spread to many countries in Africa, but does not show a church pastor taming lions.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet China's top envoy and potentially President Xi Jinping Monday, on the final day of a trip to Beijing...

More than half of Americans believe US Supreme Court justices decide cases largely on the basis of their partisan political views, a figure that has shot up 10 percentage points from January 2022. That figure – 53 per cent – appears to be driven by the gulf between perceptions of the conservative supermajority court among Republican and Democratic voters following several controversial rulings at the end of its latest term, according to new polling from ABC News/Ipsos. Roughly three-quarters of Republican voters and 26 per cent of Democratic voters support the court’s decision to reject affirmative action in university admissions. Sixty-eight per cent of Republicans approve of the decision to allow businesses to deny services to same-sex couples. And 71 per cent of Republicans support the court’s ruling against President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student loan debts, compared to just 17 per cent of Democrats. Overall, a bare majority of Americans (52 per cent) support the court’s decision against race-conscious admissions in higher education. That majority includes majorities among white (60 per cent) and Asian (58 per cent) Americans, while 52 per cent of Black Americans disapprove of the ruling. Despite their views on affirmative action, most Americans still do not believe that Black and Hispanic students have a fair chance of getting into the college of their choice compared to their white and Asian student counterparts. Roughly two-thirds of Americans believe that white and Asian students have a fair chance for admission to the college of their choice, compared to only 47 per cent and 50 per cent of respondents who would say the same for Black and Hispanic students, respectively. Americans’ views on the court’s actions against student debt cancellation also track closely with their age, polling finds. Older Americans are more likely to support the court’s actions – 61 per cent of people age 65 and older endorsed the ruling that struck down the president’s plan, while only 40 per cent of people aged 30 to 49 and 31 per cent of those under 30 years old support the ruling. “I know there are millions of Americans … in this country who feel disappointed and discouraged, or even a little bit angry, about the court’s decision today on student debt. And I must admit, I do, too,” Mr Biden said in remarks from the White House on 30 June following the court’s decision. Public support for the decision making at the nation’s highest court – with three justices appointed by Donald Trump during his one-term presidency – sank precipitously in the wake of the decision to overturn Roe v Wade and revoke a constitutional right to abortion care last summer. Following that ruling, among other actions under the court’s new conservative majority, the court has come under greater public scrutiny, alongside the decades of maneuvers among Republican officials to seat similarly ideologically minded judges across the federal judiciary, the actions of Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife Ginni Thomas surrounding attempts to reject 2020 election results, and a series of investigative reports that revealed apparent ethics lapses among conservative justices. Such scrutiny has called the court’s legitimacy into question, with Democratic lawmakers and critics of the court pressing for ethics investigations, impeachment proceedings and the resignation of justices. Read More Harvard sued over ‘legacy admissions’ after Supreme Court targets affirmative action Biden reveals ‘new path’ to student debt relief after Supreme Court strikes down president’s plan The ‘fake’ gay marriage case in the middle of the Supreme Court’s latest threat to LGBT+ rights The Supreme Court risks inflaming the prejudices that America sought to banish

HOUSTON The head of Exxon Mobil's multi-billion-dollar shale oil business on Oct. 25 is scheduled to be appear

What does it mean to be French?

Mozambique will supply electricity-starved South Africa with 100 megawatts of power immediately and an additional 600 megawatts in

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. consumers' near-term inflation expectations dropped to more than a two-year low in June and