Starving residents ⁠of a Russian-held town in southern Ukraine began evacuating on Friday as part of a joint relief operation by the opposing sides, the first of its kind in four years and eight months of war. Under a local ceasefire brokered by US first lady Melania Trump, an aid convoy arrived in the town of Oleshky and people were given the opportunity to leave. Although it was a striking example of cooperation between the warring sides, the Kremlin described it as a special case that was...

Journalists at Novaya Gazeta, whose co-founder received the Nobel Peace Prize, said the government had orchestrated its demise: “They killed us.”

Pope Leo has become the first pope to vote in a US general election. The Vatican confirmed on Friday that the Chicago-born pontiff had submitted a mail-in ballot in Chicago ahead of November’s midterm elections, citing his long-standing belief in civic participation. Leo, formerly Robert Prevost, “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen” and has done so “whenever he was eligible to do so”, the Holy See press office said. The statement said he had also voted while living in...

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor spent time with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender, and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, at Balmoral, the royal family’s Scottish retreat.

The day that changed modern China also taught me how to recognize true courage.

I experienced war’s subterranean future as drones dominate the skies. I didn’t like it.

Saudi Arabia said on Friday it intercepted and destroyed a drone launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels near Islam’s holiest city, a claim the Houthis denied. A coalition spokesman, Major General Turki al-Malki, said the drone was intercepted in the region surrounding Mecca, Islam’s holiest city and a destination for millions of Muslim pilgrims each year. In a statement, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree denied carrying out any operations targeting Mecca, saying the group’s military...

Support for Édouard Philippe, the leading candidate from the centrist bloc, has eroded, while his far-right and far-left rivals benefit.

The leading contenders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot, aren’t substantially different in their approach to Israel’s security or in their opposition to a Palestinian state.

Italians can’t get enough of “Romanzo Criminale,” a best-selling novel that has been made into a hit film, a bigger hit TV show and now, an opera.

Ukrainian soldiers are traveling underground through abandoned gas pipes to reach positions near the front. Our correspondent Maria Varenikova joins them on the journey through the kill zone and into positions where troops can spend weeks at a time.

Military-involved deaths have roiled a country with an iron-fisted new president — and a history of extrajudicial killings.

On a three-day hike in Romania, a writer sidesteps the usual Bram Stoker draws and instead discovers medieval villages, ancient forests and rich living history.