Andriy Yermak, right, has for years been Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky's closest aide and has played a key role in peace talks.
(BBC News) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has resigned following an anti-corruption raid on his home.
Yermak, a towering figure with enormous political influence, has been Zelensky's closest adviser throughout Russia's full-scale war, but has come under increasing pressure over an escalating scandal – even though he...
(BBC News) President Vladimir Putin has doubled down on his core demands for ending the war in Ukraine, saying Russia will lay down arms only if Kyiv's troops withdraw from territory claimed by Moscow.
Putin has long pushed for legal recognition of the Ukrainian territories Russia has seized by force. They include the southern Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014, and the eastern Donbas region, which Moscow now occupies for the most part.
For Kyiv, which has...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Firefighters in Hong Kong are working for a second day to put out a large blaze at a residential complex that has killed at least 75 people in the Chinese territory’s deadliest and most destructive fire in 60 years.
Officials said on Thursday that flames in four buildings in the Wang Fuk Court housing complex, located in the Tai Po neighbourhood, had been extinguished and fires in the rest of the site were...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) A group of military officers in Guinea-Bissau has claimed “total control” of the country, a day after two leading candidates in a tightly contested presidential election each declared victory.
Calling themselves the “High Military Command for the Restoration of Order”, the officers read out a statement on television on Wednesday, declaring that they had ordered the immediate suspension of the electoral process “until further notice”.
They also ordered the closure of all land,...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) The United States envoy has called for the warring parties in Sudan to accept his truce proposal without seeking preconditions.
Massad Boulos, adviser to President Donald Trump on African and Arab affairs, told a news conference in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday that he had presented the warring generals in Sudan with a “comprehensive” ceasefire plan, but it was accepted by neither side.
“We would like them to accept the specific text that...
(BBC News) The brain goes through five distinct phases in life, with key turning points at ages nine, 32, 66 and 83, scientists have revealed.
Around 4,000 people up to the age of 90 had scans to reveal the connections between their brain cells.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties when we "peak".
They say the results could help us understand why the risk...
(BBC News) Israel's military has killed a senior member of the militant group Hezbollah in an air strike on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, despite a ceasefire.
It described Haitham Ali al-Tabtabai, Hezbollah's chief of staff, as a veteran of the group who had held a series of senior positions.
Lebanon's health ministry said at least five people were killed and 28 others wounded in the strike, which hit an apartment building in the...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) The United States and Ukraine have announced a revised framework for ending the Russia-Ukraine war after an earlier proposal by Washington drew criticism for being too favourable to Moscow.
US and Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that they agreed that any deal to end Russia’s war should “fully uphold” Ukraine’s sovereignty as they unveiled an “updated and refined peace framework” that was scant on details.
“Both sides agreed the consultations were highly productive,” the...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered the preemptive arrest of former President Jair Bolsonaro, with a judge claiming he was intent on escaping just days before he was set to begin his prison sentence for leading a coup attempt.
The 70-year-old politician was taken to the headquarters of the country’s federal police in the capital, Brasilia, from his house arrest on Saturday.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case, said...
(BBC News) President Donald Trump has said a US plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war is not his "final offer" for Kyiv, after Ukrainian allies voiced concerns over proposals.
Earlier on Saturday, leaders from Europe, Canada and Japan said the plan had elements "essential for a just and lasting peace," but would "require additional work," citing concerns over border changes and caps on Ukraine's army.
On Sunday, security officials from Britain, France, Germany, the US and...
