The region of Odesa has suffered hundreds of strike over the last week, Ukraine has said
Russia has intensified its strikes on the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa, causing widespread power cuts and threatening the region's maritime infrastructure.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said Moscow was carrying out "systematic" attacks on the region. Last week, he warned that the focus of the war "may have shifted towards Odesa".
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the repeated attacks were an attempt by Moscow to block Ukraine's access to maritime logistics.
Earlier in December, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to sever Ukraine's access to the sea as retaliation for drone attacks on tankers of Russia's "shadow fleet" in the Black Sea.
"Shadow fleet" is a term that refers to hundreds of tankers used by Russia to bypass Western sanctions imposed after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
On Sunday night in the Odesa region, strikes cut off electricity for 120,000 people and sparked a fire at a major port which destroyed dozens of containers of flour and vegetable oil.
It was the latest in a series of hundreds of strikes which have disrupted power supplies in the region for days on end and caused several casualties.
Last week, a ballistic missile strike on the Pivdenniy port east of Odesa killed eight people and injured at least 30.
Another attack earlier in the week killed a woman who was travelling in a car with her three children and temporarily cut off the Odesa region's only bridge linking Ukraine and Moldova.
Zelensky indicated a new commander of the air force for the region would be selected soon following the dismissal of Dmytro Karpenko over the weekend.
Odesa's port has always been key for the country's economy. The city is Ukraine's third largest after Kyiv and Kharkiv. It now occupies strategic importance as other ports in the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Mykolayiv regions are inaccessible to Ukraine due to Russian occupation.
Despite the war, Ukraine remains one of the world's top exporters of wheat and corn.
Since August 2023, Odesa has been the starting point of a crucial corridor that allows it to export grain out of the country, following the coastlines of Romania and Bulgaria before reaching Turkey.
Zelensky, who has previously accused Russia of "sowing chaos" on the people of Odesa, said that "everyone must see that without pressure on Russia, they have no intention of genuinely ending their aggression".
His comments came as the latest round of US-led diplomatic efforts wrapped up in Miami. The US separately met the Ukrainian and Russian delegations, with the meetings yielding optimistic statements but no clear progress to bring the end of Moscow's nearly four-year war on Ukraine any closer.
US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said he and his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov had worked on "aligning positions" on a 20-point draft peace plan put forward by Ukraine earlier this month. The plan is an alternative to a proposal presented by the US in November, which was seen as favourable to Moscow.
Before Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev even returned to Moscow from Florida, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that the European and Ukrainian changes to the peace proposal would not improve the chances of peace being achieved.
On Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused EU countries of having a "firm aspiration" to derail potential Russia-US agreements on Ukraine and to "in general prevent Russia-American relations getting healthier".
He also said European countries were "possessed by a maniacal" fear of a Russian attack. Russia was ready to confirm in a legal agreement that it had no intention of attacking either the EU or Nato, Ryabkov added, echoing previous comments from Putin.
"We've never planned to [attack Europe], but if they want to hear it from us, well, let's do it, we'll put it in writing," Putin said in November.
A husband and five other men have been charged with a string of sexual offences against his ex-wife over a 13-year period.
Philip Young, formerly of Swindon but now living in Enfield, has been charged with 56 sexual offences, including rape and administering a substance with intent to stupefy/overpower to allow sexual activity.
The 49-year-old has also been charged with voyeurism, possession of indecent images of children and possession of extreme images.
Five other men have also been charged with offences against his ex-wife, 48-year-old Joanne Young, who has waived her right to anonymity.
All six men are due to appear at Swindon Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
Mr Young, who police described as a white British national, has been remanded in custody.
The five other men are on bail.
Their names and charges are:
Norman Macksoni, 47, of Wood End Close, Sharnbrook. Police described him as a black British national. He has been charged with one count of rape and possession of extreme images
Dean Hamilton, 47, of no fixed abode. Police said he was a white British national. He has been charged with one count of rape and sexual assault by penetration and two counts of sexual touching
Conner Sanderson Doyle, 31, of Crofton Road, Swindon. Police said he was a white British national who had been charged with sexual assault by penetration and sexual touching
Richard Wilkins, 61, of Tattershall, Toothill, Swindon. He was described by police as a white British national and he has been charged with one count of rape and sexual touching
Mohammed Hassan, 37, of Torun Way, Swindon. Police described him as a British Asian male. He has been charged with sexual touching
Det Supt Geoff Smith, of Wiltshire Police, described the charges as a significant update in a "complex and extensive" investigation.
He added that Ms Young was being supported by specially trained officers.
Jack Hibbert had been working as a police officer for just months before he was shot
A young police officer who was shot in the head during the Bondi Beach attack has been released from hospital.
Probationary Constable Jack Hibbert - who is just four months into the job - was patrolling a Hanukkah event when two gunmen opened fire, injuring over 40 people and killing 15.
The 22-year-old, who was also hit in the shoulder, has lost vision in one of his eyes but is now recovering at home, his family confirmed in a statement.
"As a family, we couldn't ask for anything more - having our Jack home, especially for Christmas, truly feels like a miracle."
They thanked the public for their "overwhelming support" and praised medical staff for their "exceptional" care and dedication.
"While he is home, he is still recovering and will need space, support, and continued positive thoughts during this time," the statement added.
Even after he was shot during the attack, Constable Hibbert continued to help festival attendees until he physically couldn't, his family previously said.
"Many of his colleagues who were present on the night of the incident have visited in hospital and given testaments to Jack's bravery during the incident... They described how Jack acted, he moved toward people in need, not away from danger," they said.
He was one of two police officers injured in the shooting, with the second officer Constable Scott Dyson, 25, still recovering from his injuries in hospital, according to the last police update.
Last week, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon visited Constable Hibbert in hospital, praising him as a "positive young man".
Lanyon added that the force would rally around Constable Hibbert and find "appropriate duties for him" after his recovery.
Police have alleged the suspected gunmen were inspired by Islamic State ideology and targeted the Jewish festival in what has been declared a terror attack.
Naveed Akram, 24, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one of terror. A second gunman - his father, Sajid Akram - was shot dead by police at the scene.
On Monday, new court documents alleged the pair "meticulously" planned the attack for months, and two days prior to the shooting, visited Bondi for reconnaissance.
England will investigate reports of players drinking excessively during a break from the Ashes series in the beach town of Noosa.
The England squad spent four nights on the Queensland coast between the second and third Tests.
Several outlets, including the BBC, reported that some players were drinking for a significant portion of their time in Noosa, as well as on two previous days in Brisbane, the venue for the second Test.
Although they returned an improved performance in the third Test in Adelaide, England were beaten to ensure they cannot win back the Ashes from Australia.
The home side have taken an unassailable 3-0 lead in only 11 days of cricket.
England director of cricket Rob Key told BBC Sport: "Headlines can be misleading at times, saying it's a stag do and stuff like that.
"Stories of players drinking six days solid - that's unacceptable. We'll be looking into seeing what the facts are as opposed to the things that have been embellished or elaborated on."
The break in Noosa was arranged in advance of the Ashes tour and went ahead despite England falling 2-0 behind after two Tests.
While the entire squad was present in Noosa, former Kent and England batter Key was in another part of Queensland.
Players were told to expect media attention and they were captured by TV cameras and photographers.
That included shots of some members of the squad drinking at an outside table of a bar on the main high street in the town.
"When you see a picture of five or six guys sitting down for lunch, a couple of them having drinks, you need to see what's going on with that," said Key.
"If it's true that it became a stag do and people are out drinking all the time excessively, that's not acceptable. I don't agree with a drinking culture. I don't like a drinking culture."
Key also said he previously looked into reports that white-ball captain Harry Brook and batter Jacob Bethell were drinking the night before a match on the limited-overs tour of New Zealand that preceded the Ashes.
A clip of Brook and Bethell was shared on social media, reportedly taken in Wellington the night before the third one-day international on 1 November.
"I didn't feel like that was worthy of formal warnings, but it was probably worthy of informal ones," said Key.
"There wasn't any formal action. We've had four years where we've had none of these issues really, with any of the players, and there's a whole process that we put in place for stuff like that - for what you do if they're out of line.
"That was a bit of a wake-up call for what they're going into. I don't mind players having a glass of wine over dinner. Anything more than that, I think is ridiculous."
Despite the questions over the behaviour of some players in Noosa, Key defended their right to take the break from the Ashes.
Brook, Bethell, Ben Duckett, Jofra Archer and others could spend almost six months away from home following the tours of New Zealand, Australia, and the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in the new year.
"Harry Brook is going to only be at home for six days this entire winter," said Key.
"We have to create a time where these players can get away from cricket because they're not going to do it by being at home.
"We live in an age as well where it's impossible to avoid cricket. I sit there on my phone and every Instagram thing comes up. I know that players say they shouldn't look at it, but they do.
"You can't escape cricket, especially on an Ashes series and the scrutiny. Getting away and being able to just forget about that and live like a normal person is really important."
A top Amazon executive has said the US technology giant has blocked more than 1,800 job applications from suspected North Korean agents.
North Koreans tried to apply for remote working IT jobs using stolen or fake identities, Amazon's chief security officer Stephen Schmidt said in a LinkedIn post.
"Their objective is typically straightforward: get hired, get paid, and funnel wages back to fund the regime's weapons programs," he said, adding that this trend is likely to be happening at scale across the industry, especially in the US.
Authorities in the US and South Korea have warned about Pyongyang's operatives carrying out online scams.
Amazon has seen a nearly one-third increase in job applications from North Koreans in the past year, said Mr Schmidt in his post.
He said the operatives typically work with people managing "laptop farms" - referring to computers based in the US that are run remotely from outside of the country.
The firm used a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and verification by its staff to screen job applications, he said.
The strategies used by such fraudsters have become more sophisticated, Mr Schmidt said.
Bad actors are hijacking dormant LinkedIn accounts using leaked credentials to gain verification. They target genuine software engineers to appear credible, he said, urging firms to report suspicious job applications to the authorities.
Mr Schmidt warned employers to look out for indicators of fraudulent North Korean job applications, including incorrectly formatted phone numbers and mismatched education histories.
They used stolen or forged identities of Americans to help North Korean nationals get jobs in the US, said the Department of Justice (DOJ).
It also indicted US brokers who had helped secure jobs for the North Korean operatives.
In July, a woman from Arizona was sentenced to more than eight years in jail for running a laptop farm to help North Korean IT workers secure remote jobs at more than 300 US companies.
The DOJ said the scheme generated more than $17m (£12.6m) in illicit gains for her and Pyongyang.
The political point scoring that has erupted after the terror attack last week is unusual in Australia, where leaders tend to unite after catastrophes.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and his wife leaving a memorial in Sydney on Sunday. Thousands had gathered on Bondi Beach a week after the attack there.
As warfare is reinvented in Ukraine, and Silicon Valley races to maintain its A.I. lead, China’s battery dominance is raising alarms far beyond the auto industry.
After years of planning for cars that would let drivers take their hands off the wheel and eyes off the road, China’s regulators have become more cautious.
The political point scoring that has erupted after the terror attack last week is unusual in Australia, where leaders tend to unite after catastrophes.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and his wife leaving a memorial in Sydney on Sunday. Thousands had gathered on Bondi Beach a week after the attack there.
Unreliable. Creating more problems than solving them. A negative force on the world stage. This is how large shares of America's closest allies view the U.S., according to new polling, as President Donald Trump pursues a sweeping foreign policy overhaul.
Pluralities in Germany and France — and a majority of Canadians — say the U.S. is a negative force globally, according to new international POLITICO-Public First polling. Views are more mixed in the United Kingdom, but more than a third of respondents there share that dim assessment.
Near-majorities in all four countries also say the U.S. tends to create problems for other countries rather than solve them.
The findings offer a snapshot of how Trump’s reshaping of U.S. foreign policy — including through an expansive trade agenda, sharp rhetoric toward longtime allies and reoriented military posture — is resonating across some of Washington's closest allies.
When asked whether the U.S. supports its allies around the world or challenges them, a majority of Canadians say the latter, as well as just under half of respondents in Germany and France. In the U.K., roughly 4 in 10 say the U.S. challenges, rather than supports, its allies, more than a third say it cannot be depended on in a crisis, nearly half say it creates problems for other countries, and 35 percent say the U.S. is a negative force overall.
Trump has blurred traditional lines of global alliances during his first year back in office, particularly in Canada and Europe. He called Europe a “decaying” group of nations led by “weak” people in a recent POLITICO interview and his sweeping National Security Strategyargued that the continent has lost its “national identities and self-confidence."
By contrast, the strategy reserved less scathing language for Russia — even as U.S. allies in Europe gear up for what leaders have called a “hybrid war” with Moscow.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the administration’s approach when asked about European criticisms, saying the transatlantic alliance remains rooted in shared “civilizational” values. “I do think that at the core of these special relationships we have is the fact that we have shared history, shared values, shared civilizational principles that we should be unapologetic about,” Rubio said at a briefing last week.
But as Trump disrupts long-standing relationships, skepticism among allied leaders may be seeping into public sentiment, said Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
“Public opinion in democracies often reflects elite opinion,” he said. “What you're probably seeing there is that you do have politicians in these countries expressing skepticism about the United States and about the Trump administration, and that's being reflected in the public opinion polling.”
Leaders across Europe and Canada recalibrate under Trump’s foreign policy agenda
That dynamic is playing out across Europe and Canada, as leaders across the countries try to keep the increasingly strained relationships intact.
In Germany, wavering U.S. military support for Ukraine, questions about Washington’s commitment to NATO and Trump's tariff war have added urgency for Chancellor Friedrich Merz to move beyond the country’s long-established limits on defense spending and economic policy. Weeks before taking office, Merz secured a historic spending overhaul that unlocked hundreds of billions of euros for defense and infrastructure investments after years of self-imposed austerity.
“Every foreign policy statement by Trump is followed closely, and often discussed in light of what it may mean for U.S. policy shifts regarding European security issues, such as commitment to NATO, future U.S. troop presence in Europe, and support for Ukraine,” said Dominik Tolksdorf, a transatlantic expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations.
In France, where skepticism toward the U.S. has long run deep, President Emmanuel Macron has pursued personal diplomacy with Trump while using the president’s unpredictability to bolster arguments for greater European strategic autonomy.
“Handing over one’s sovereignty to another power is a mistake — De Gaulle said nothing else,” one high-ranking French military officer, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told POLITICO. Another defense official said Trump’s National Security Strategy had increased “awareness that something is not right.”
In the U.K., Trump remains polarizing, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer has largely avoided public confrontation. His priorities now include finalizing a U.K.-U.S. trade deal and coordinating a European response to Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine — without angering the White House, the delicate balance many allied leaders are trying to strike.
Canada, meanwhile, has seen the sharpest deterioration in relations, which have soured amid a punishing trade war and Trump's intermittent rhetoric on annexation.
Flavio Volpe, the president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, described the economic disruption linked to Trump's trade moves. "People lost their jobs — ones they worked their entire lives — and billions of dollars in Canadian capital evaporated in an unexplainable turn away from the bankable post-Cold War balance of power by the White House," he wrote on LinkedIn.
Democrats remain skeptical of the U.S. on the world stage
Overall, Americans still view their country more favorably than their allies do. Nearly half — 49 percent — say the U.S. supports its allies around the world. A majority, 52 percent, say it can be depended on in a crisis, and 51 percent say the U.S. is a positive force globally.
But Democrats — who have displayed deeply pessimistic views about their country since Trump’s return to office — hold far more negative views.
Almost half of voters who backed former Vice President Kamala Harris last year — 47 percent — also say the U.S. is a negative force in the world overall, compared with just 13 percent of Trump voters. Three in four Trump voters say the U.S. is a positive force in the world.
Many Democrats also don’t just express skepticism about the U.S., but view other countries and international blocs as stronger models: 58 percent of Harris voters say the European Union is a positive force in the world, and nearly two-thirds — 64 percent — say the same about Canada, greater than the shares who say the same about the U.S.
"This tracks with our other research on the rapid change of perceptions of the U.S. over the last year,” said Seb Wride, head of polling at Public First. “Americans themselves are not blind to it.”
Prior to the 2024 election, strong majorities of both Democrats and Republicans — 71 percent and 69 percent — said the U.S. was a positive force in the world over the course of its entire history, Public First polling from October of last year found.
Exactly one year later, Democrats have sharply changed their views, with 77 percent of Trump voters still saying the U.S. is positive, compared with just 58 percent of Democrats.
“That's around 1 in 8 Democrats changing their views on the role the U.S. has played in its entire history, in just one year,” said Wride.
Voters who backed Trump last November overwhelmingly view the U.S. in a positive light, but subtle differences emerge within his coalition. Eighty-one percent of self-identifying MAGA Trump voters say the U.S. is a positive force in the world overall, compared with 71 percent of non-MAGA Trump voters. Still, 17 percent of non-MAGA Trump voters say the opposite, that the U.S. is a negative force.
POLITICO’s Matt Honeycombe-Foster contributed reporting from the United Kingdom, Victor Goury-Laffont and Laura Kayali contributed from France, Nette Nöstlinger contributed from Germany and Nick Taylor-Vaisey contributed from Canada. Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing also contributed.
After years of planning for cars that would let drivers take their hands off the wheel and eyes off the road, China’s regulators have become more cautious.
The political point scoring that has erupted after the terror attack last week is unusual in Australia, where leaders tend to unite after catastrophes.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and his wife leaving a memorial in Sydney on Sunday. Thousands had gathered on Bondi Beach a week after the attack there.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a pill version of the weight-loss drug Wegovy, according to maker Novo Nordisk.
It marks a first in this new era of weight-loss medications with Wegovy being the only so far to gain approval for the pill version of their GLP-1 drug, which has only been available as an injection.
Wegovy's Danish makers Novo Nordisk said the once-daily pill was a "convenient option" to the inject-able and would provide the same weight loss as the shot. It comes after Wegovy was approved by the FDA specifically for weight loss.
Others like Ozempic, which has similar weight-loss effects, were primarily approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.
The BBC has contacted the FDA for comment.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.
Watch: Trump announces new class of Navy battleships
President Donald Trump has announced that the US will commission a new series of heavily armed Navy "battleships" named after himself, as part of a revamped "Golden Fleet".
Construction on the Trump Class USS Defiant ships, which will be equipped to carry an array of weapons, is expected to begin soon, with Trump saying they will be operational in two-and-a-half years.
The announcement is part of a larger planned expansion of the US Navy by President Trump in both manned and unmanned vessels, including larger missile-armed warships and smaller vessels.
Officials have warned that the US currently lags behind China in both shipbuilding capacity and total output.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida alongside defence secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan on Monday, Trump said he approved the construction of two new battleships to start, with a plan to build up to 25.
"They'll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far, 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built," Trump said.
Once completed, Trump said the armed vessels would be equipped to carry hypersonic and "extremely lethal" weapons, and would be the flagships of the US Navy.
Trump, who spoke while flanked on both sides with posters of renderings of the "Trump class" ships, said the vessels would be built domestically, and their construction would create "thousands" of jobs.
Reuters
Trump said he approved the construction of two new battleships to start, with a plan to build up to 25
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Phelan said that Trump had specifically asked for a "big, beautiful" battleship-type vessel as part of the fleet, which will also include dozens of support and transport vessels.
On 19 December, another new set of vessels, based on the US Coast Guard's Legend-class National Security Cutter, were announced by the US Navy.
"Recent operations from the Red Sea to the Caribbean make the requirement undeniable - our small surface combatant inventory is a third of what we have," Chief of Naval Operations Daryl Caudle said in a video statement about the new ships.
"We need more capable blue water small combatants to close the gap and keep our [destroyers] focused on the high-end fight," he added.
Reuters
Trump unveiled a rendering of the Trump Class USS Defiant at an announcement in Mar-a-Lago on Monday
A similar vessel, the Constellatio-class frigate - which Trump approved during his first term in office - was cancelled in 2024 after repeated delays and cost overruns.
Only two ships were reportedly expected to be delivered after approximately $2bn (£1.49bn) was spent on the project.
US officials and defence analysts have repeatedly warned that the US is lagging behind China, its main potential maritime rival, in shipbuilding capacity.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has vowed to revive the US shipbuilding industry.
"We used to make so many ships," Trump said in March. "We don't make them very much, but we're going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact."
In October, Trump and Finnish President Alexander Stubb penned a deal for the US to purchase 11 Finnish-designed icebreakers, including seven built in the US with Finnish expertise.
The president's announcement also comes as US naval and air assets have surged to the Caribbean amid rising tensions with Venezuela.
The US started attacking vessels in September that were alleged to be carrying drugs, with strikes leaving at least 100 people dead.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump claimed that thousands of American lives had been saved because of the boat strikes by stopping lethal drugs from entering the US.
The attacks have been criticised by some experts, who said they could violate international laws governing armed conflict.
Vince Zampella, who co-created the widely-popular video game Call of Duty, has died in a car crash in California, aged 55.
Zampella's death was confirmed by Electronic Arts, which owns Respawn Entertainment, a game studio he co-founded.
The influential video game developer died after his car crashed and caught fire on a highway in Los Angeles on Sunday, US media report.
"This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince's family, his loved ones, and all those touched by his work," a spokesperson for Electronic Arts told the BBC.
Login
