Close to 250 of Vladimir Putin’s soldiers have been killed or injured in southern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, a Ukrainian military commander said. Ukraine’s authorities said the casualties occurred on Saturday in Tavria, a village in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, just 23km from the major town of Tokmak, where Ukrainian forces are looking to advance for a strategic territorial advantage. “Over the last day, the enemy lost 248 people (84 dead, 163 wounded and one captured),” Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who is in-charge of the strategic and operational group of forces in Tavriia, said in his Telegram channel on Sunday. He said the Russian losses also include 20 units of military equipment, including a tank, three anti-aircraft guns and three ammunition depots. “In general, during the past day, the enemy attacked our positions 23 times and carried out 717 shelling and 23 airstrikes. Artillery units of the Defense Forces of the Tavriia direction performed 1,236 fire missions during the day,” he said, detailing the military offensive in the area. The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces continued offensive operations in the Melitopol direction and near Bakhmut. Russian forces continued limited ground attacks in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area on 30 September but did not make any confirmed advances, said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think-tank monitoring the war, in its latest assessment of the battlefield situation. “Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations in western Zaporizhia Oblast on 30 September but did not make any confirmed advances. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces continued offensive operations in the Melitopol (western Zaporizhia Oblast) direction,” the ISW said. While the town is 12 miles from the existing front line, wrestling its control before the rains wet the battlefield will result in Ukraine taking over Russia’s key railway, command and logistics hub. Russia’s forces have reportedly guarded the prized town with fresh defensive networks to halt Ukraine’s push to the north. Ukrainian forces have around 3-5 weeks to dismantle the second layer of Russian defences laid on the road and fields to Tokmak. Earlier this week, military analyst Roman Svitan said there have been “three or four days of painstaking hard work by our assault group and commanders in the area which have led to very serious problems for the Russians”. “I would not speak of a breakthrough until we reach Tokmak.” Read More Grant Shapps reveals military training plans inside Ukraine Ukraine aid left out of government funding package, raising questions about future US support Ukraine-Russia war - live: Moscow could annex more Ukrainian regions, says Medvedev Putin marks anniversary of annexation of Ukrainian regions as drones attack overnight Putin launches overnight drone and missile attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine

Former Premier Li Keqiang, China’s top economic official for a decade, has died of a heart attack at 68

By Joseph Ax Wisconsin's Republican-controlled Senate voted on Thursday to oust the state's nonpartisan top elections official, Meagan

The Argentine peso plunged Monday after a 52-year-old anti-establishment candidate who admires former President Donald Trump came first in primary elections that will help determine the country’s next president

A U.S. official says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may travel to Russia this month to meet with President Vladimir Putin as the Kremlin tries to acquire military equipment for use in its war in Ukraine

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in June to the slowest pace since January, as a near-historic low number of homes for sale and rising mortgage rates kept many would-be homebuyers on the sidelines

It's quiet at the Martoba cemetery outside the Libyan city of Derna, despite the presence of dozens of volunteers. Men in white hazmat suits pour lime over the brown soil to seal the graves. Cement bricks jutting out of the heaps of dirt are the only signs of the hundreds of bodies buried underneath.

The search for the Titan submersible that captivated the world came to an abrupt and grim end this week after fragments of the vessel were detected on the ocean floor near the Titanic. The discovery led the US Coast Guard to announce the ship likely imploded, killing all five passengers aboard.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kazakhstan on Thursday to cement Moscow's ties with its old ally, while Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised the West over the Israel-Hamas war...

News reports in India say that at least four students have died and 60 others have been injured in a stampede during a music festival at a university in southern India

Microsoft has revamped its bid to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard to appease British competition regulators

Defending double world champion Max Verstappen extended his lead in this year's title race when he drove his Red Bull to a comprehensive victory in challenging...