AstraZeneca Plc has agreed to buy a portfolio of rare disease gene therapies from Pfizer Inc. as the

The chairman of Hong Kong’s leading journalist group has been found guilty of obstructing a police officer in a case that sparked concerns about the city’s declining press freedom

A video showing Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s thoughts on death has been shared on a Telegram channel linked to the mercenary group, just hours after its chief and co-founder were feared to have died in a plane crash. Prigozhin, a former prison convict and one of Vladimir Putin’s closest associates until he launched a failed military coup in June, is believed to have died in the plane crash between Moscow and St Petersburg. The Grey Zone Telegram channel, which provides both official and unofficial updates on Wagner activities, hailed Prigozhin as a hero and a patriot who died at the hands of unidentified “traitors to Russia” earlier on Wednesday. And it later shared an undated video showing the Wagner chief’s remarks on death. “‘We will all go to hell, but we will be the best in hell,’ sums up Yevgeny Prigozhin,” the channel said in a post citing excerpts from an old interview. Prigozhin can be seen laughing in the video while seated inside a low-lit makeshift tent and talking to some people. The time and location of the video is not known. The Telegram channel Gray Zone also published remarks on death by the Wagner chief’s close associate and co-founder Dmitry Utkin, who is heard but not seen in the video. Utkin, the co-founder of the Wagner group, is also said to be among the victims of the plane crash. “Death is not the end, it’s just the beginning of something else,” the channel quoted Utkin as saying. Almost two months after the military coup staged by Prigozhin near Moscow, Russian authorities on Wednesday evening claimed he and Utkin were among 10 people onboard a plane which crashed in the Tver oblast north of Moscow with no survivors. Prigozhin’s death leaves the Wagner Group leaderless and raise questions about its future operations in Africa and elsewhere. No official comment has been released from the Kremlin or the Russian defence ministry on the whereabouts of Prigozhin, who was a self-declared enemy of the army’s leadership over what he had argued was its incompetent execution of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Prigozhin’s mercenary fighters waged a brutal battle – dubbed the “meat grinder” – in Bakhmut last year in winter, where they eventually handed Moscow its biggest territorial gain in many months. But a few months later, Prigozhin accused Mr Putin’s defence ministry of starving him of ammunition and supplies. He spent months criticising the way Russia was handling its Ukraine invasion, and had tried unsuccessfully to topple defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff. The 62-year-old, who said he should be called “Putin’s butcher”, spearheaded the mutiny against Russia’s top army brass which Mr Putin said could have tipped Russia into civil war. Wagner fighters shot down Russian attack helicopters during the revolt, killing an unconfirmed number of pilots and infuriating the military. The mutiny ended in just 24 hours as Prigozhin ordered his soldiers to return to their bases, but the incident was described as “treason” in a public address by Mr Putin. He later said that he had pardoned Prigozhin following talks over tea in Moscow. Read More Ukraine war - live: Wagner chief Prigozhin and co-founder ‘killed’ in Russia plane crash as Putin at concert Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin? Wagner Group mercenary chief feared dead in plane crash What was Vladimir Putin doing as Wagner chief rival ‘killed’ in plane crash? Prigozhin has made plenty of enemies – including Putin. This is the result Independent verified footage shows plane wreck believed to be carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin

HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met on Saturday at the Group of

The Las Vegas Raiders fired offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi on Wednesday, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press

Russia’s desperate bid to rejoin the UN’s top human rights body with a charm offensive involving stolen Ukrainian grain and arms was defeated by a significant majority in a General Assembly vote on Tuesday. Russia received 83 votes from the 193-member UN, significantly more than the 24 countries who supported Moscow when it was booted out of the Human Rights Council in another vote more than one year ago. Russia was competing against Albania and Bulgaria for two seats on the Geneva-based UNHRC, representing the East European regional group. Bulgaria secured 160 votes, Albania received 123, while the Vladimir Putin-led nation managed only 83. In the run up to the voting, Russia made efforts to lure African allies and other friendly nations with stolen Ukrainian grain and arms in exchange for their votes – a charm offensive that experts said could work on some nations in need of the bartered goods. Moscow had claimed it had support from a silent majority at the UN, something which Tuesday’s vote shows was not the case. But experts said even its ability to win over 83 countries shows it maintains a surprisingly high level of support on the international arena. “I think the Russians will be pleased that they persuaded a sizable minority of UN members to back them (which) suggests that Moscow is not a total pariah in the UN system, despite repeated Western criticism,” Richard Gowan, UN director of the International Crisis Group, said. That said, the US and Ukraine’s allies were still able to ensure that Albania and Bulgaria swept the contest for the two seats, he said. “So, Kyiv’s friends still have a solid majority in the assembly,” Mr Gowan said.Yousuf Syed Khan, senior lawyer at Global Rights Compliance, said that declining to accept Russia’s bid for HRC membership “means that vulnerable member states were not assuaged by Russia’s bid to provide arms and grain in exchange for votes”. “Today, Ukrainians and the world community alike can welcome this glaring diplomatic success,” he told The Independent. The US and its allies had discouraged many of the UN General Assembly’s members and asked them to vote against Russia, the diplomats aware of Moscow’s attempts to woo nations with grains said. US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council that Russia’s re-election “while it openly continues to commit war crimes and other atrocities would be an ugly stain that would undermine the credibility of the institution and the United Nations”. Russian envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the US of preventing Russia’s return to the council with its campaign. “The main phobia of our American colleagues today is electing Russia to the Human Rights Council,” he told a Security Council meeting called by Ukraine on last week’s strike by a Russian missile on a Ukrainian soldier’s wake in a small village that killed 52 people. Experts have called it a near-unprecedented event where the UN body has acted consistently for 18 months to suspend a member nation. “It is close to unprecedented that the UN Human Rights Council acted as it did 18 months ago, it being only the second time in the Council’s history that a member has been suspended for committing ‘gross and systematic violations of human rights’,” said Catriona Murdoch, partner at international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance. She added that the impact of this war on civilians and “the apocalyptic devastation it is leaving meant the stakes were higher with this vote”. The other closely watched race was in the Asia group where four countries – China, Japan, Kuwait and Indonesia – were candidates for four seats. While all were expected to reach the majority of votes needed and therefore gain a seat each, some rights groups campaigned hard against Beijing and the size of the vote was closely watched. Indonesia topped the ballot with 186 votes followed by Kuwait with 183 votes and Japan with 175. China was last with 154 votes. Additional reporting by agencies Read More UN set to decide on Russia’s Human Rights Council membership as Putin ‘uses Ukrainian grain to buy votes’ Putin’s shameless UN charm offensive - with stolen grain from Ukraine Russia tries to rejoin UN Human Rights Council Ukraine-Russia war – live: Moscow fails in bid to return to UN’s top human rights body

Gazing out at San Francisco harbor from her wooden fishing boat, Sarah...

The Biden administration will centre White House efforts to address threats of various transmissible diseases, pathogens and other biological agents in a new permanent office headed by a member of the National Security Council (NSC). The White House announced the creation of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR) on Friday. OPPR will be “charged with leading, coordinating, and implementing actions related to preparedness for, and response to, known and unknown biological threats or pathogens that could lead to a pandemic or to significant public health-related disruptions in the United States”, according to a handout. The new office will shift the White House’s Covid reponse efforts from a standalone team to a broader group that will include experts working on a number of different potential “public health-related disruptions”, including new variants of the influenza (common flu) virus. “Under President Biden’s leadership, the Administration has taken significant steps to ensure all individuals have continued access to lifesaving protections such as vaccines, treatments, and tests, and that the nation is well prepared to manage the risks of COVID-19 or other causes of potential pandemics in the future,” a White House statement read. The office’s inaugural director will be Major General (retired) Paul Friedrichs, special assistant to President Biden and the Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense on the National Security Council. The new office comes three months after Mr Biden formally ended the national emergency declaration over the pandemic. More than 1.1 million Americans have died from Covid since it first emerged in the US in early 2020. Mr Biden lobbied Congress against passing the resolution to end the national emergency but nevertheless signed the bipartisan piece of legislation when it hit his desk in April. The president had previously declared the Covid pandemic “over” in 2022, telling CBS’s 60 Minutes: “We still have a problem with Covid. We're still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one's wearing masks.” Read More The fight over Alabama's congressional redistricting now shifts back to federal court DeSantis downplays Jan. 6, says it wasn't an insurrection but a 'protest' that 'ended up devolving' Biden names CIA Director William Burns to his Cabinet

Prosecutors stated in a joint statement that the infant's postmortem showed she had been shot twice and perished as a result of the wounds

President Joe Biden is nurturing economic ties this week with Asia

Turkey’s lira extended its slide from Thursday after Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek emphasized that he favors

Hardline conservatives have agreed to end their blockade of the House floor while they continue discussions with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about future spending decisions and a new "power-sharing agreement," according to multiple members leaving the speaker's office.