Labour MPs criticise language used by Kemi Badenoch in fractious PMQs

• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian strikes destroyed 60,000 tonnes of Russian ammunition at a Baltic Fleet arsenal near St. Petersburg and targeted key defense-industrial facilities. • Zelenskyy claimed that Moscow has been forced to shift its air defenses to protect the Kerch Bridge and the capital city of St. Petersburg.

• The conflict in Iran has exposed the severe vulnerabilities of Asia's energy dependence, transforming a fragile situation into an economic emergency. • The Asian Development Bank warns that if oil prices remain around $96 per barrel for the year, GDP growth could drop by 0.7 percentage points in 2026.

• Iran and the United States have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to end the conflict in West Asia and ensure the Strait of Hormuz remains open. • As part of the agreement, fighting in Lebanon is set to cease to address the escalating humanitarian crisis in the region.

• Iran's economy nearly stagnated in 2025, recording a marginal growth rate of only 0.2% while non-oil GDP experienced a contraction. • The slowdown is attributed to a series of conflicts, including a 12-day war with Israel in the summer and a 40-day conflict involving the U.S. and Israel in the winter, alongside January's nationwide protests.

Farm owners say government’s long-term direction fails to adequately fund a response to UK’s food security threatThe climate crisis will lead to food price shocks and shortages, the government has warned in its new plan for British farming.But farmers criticised the plan, which outlines for the first time the government’s vision for the long-term direction of farming, for failing to adequately fund a response to this threat to the UK’s food security. Continue reading...

Agreement is first by federal government to resolve enforcement claims against a major Pfas manufacturerThe Trump administration on Wednesday reached a multi-state settlement with chemical giant Chemours Co over years-long, illegal discharges of synthetic “forever chemicals” used to make products resistant to water, grease and stains. The settlement is the first by the federal government to resolve enforcement claims against a manufacturer of harmful chemicals known as Pfas.Under the agreement, filed in federal court in West Virginia, Chemours will pay a civil penalty of $22.5m for alleged violations and spend $90m over 15 years to mitigate Pfas discharges in three states: West Virginia, North Carolina and New Jersey. Continue reading...

Transcript of body-worn camera footage reveals moment officers realised handcuffed Nowak was seriously injuredPolice officers who arrested Henry Nowak took about eight minutes to discover his stab wound, newly released evidence shows.Vickrum Digwa, 23, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years for Nowak’s murder after falsely claiming the 18-year-old had racially abused him in Southampton. Nowak was stabbed multiple times while walking back to his student accommodation alone after a night out. Continue reading...

Woman detained at airport after allegedly making racist remarks directed at workers unloading baggage, police sayBrazil’s federal police have detained a Spanish citizen in São Paulo’s international Guarulhos airport for racism, in the latest of a series of high-profile arrests of foreign tourists on similar grounds.Brazil has some of the strictest anti-racism laws in Latin America. Insulting a person on the basis of race carries a penalty of imprisonment from two to five years and a fine. Continue reading...

Deutsche Bahn widely criticised after hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded in operator’s latest setbackGermany’s rail network ground to a halt late on Tuesday as a result of maintenance work that went wrong, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers unable to get home as the national operator faced widespread criticism over the chaos.The Deutsche Bahn (DB) meltdown was initially thought to have been caused by a cyber-attack, but it later emerged that it was likely to have been triggered by a scheduled attempt to replace an ageing component in the railway’s internal communication network, without which the trains are unable to run. Continue reading...

James Desborough told team searching for missing men he enjoyed gory scenes in serial killer series, prosecution says A fan of the television serial killer show Dexter murdered two men before dismembering and burning their bodies in Cornish woodland surrounding the cabin where he lived, a jury has heard.James Desborough, 40, allegedly killed Claudio Aquilino and Daniel Coleman and hid their bodies in the dense undergrowth close to his cabin near St Austell. Continue reading...

Former Georgia congresswoman on social media says she’s ‘fed up’ and done backing a party ‘that betrays its voters’Former US congresswoman and Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene has announced that she is finished backing the Republican party, aligning herself with TV rightwinger Tucker Carlson after his own high-profile rejection of the GOP just months ahead of the midterm elections.During a recent episode of the Can’t Be Censored podcast, Carlson said when he appeared as a guest there was “no chance” he would support the Republican party any more, after years of being a prominent booster for Donald Trump. Continue reading...