A billion people in 43 countries are at risk of cholera, the United Nations warned yesterday, and though the outbreaks could be stopped, the United Nations said resources were desperately lacking.

Nearly 337 million life years were lost in the two first years of the Covid-19 pandemic, as millions of people died prematurely, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

More than half of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs have shrunk since the early 1990s, chiefly because of climate change, intensifying concerns about water for agriculture, hydropower and human consumption, a study published on Thursday found. 

Ukraine said yesterday it had downed nearly an entire barrage of Russian missiles overnight, the latest in an “unprecedented” wave of aerial attacks on the capital Kyiv.

The world must halve single-use plastics and slash throwaway consumption to stem the tide of environmental pollution, according to a UN report yesterday that warns the next few years are critical.

Artificial sweeteners, used to replace sugar in a vast range of products, do not help in losing weight and can have serious health effects, according to the World Health Organization.

Ukraine said yesterday it had shot down six Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missiles in a single night, thwarting a superweapon Moscow had previously touted as all but unstoppable.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday called Germany a “true friend” in his country’s battle against Russia, as Berlin pledged unwavering support for Kyiv ahead of a widely expected counter-offensive.

Germany averted a crippling 50-hour train strike as transport union EVG today called off the industrial action after reaching a wage deal with rail operator Deutsche Bahn.

Kyiv yesterday said that the massive new weapons package from Germany was another sign that Russia would lose in its war against Ukraine.

Three men sentenced to death in Iran over protests that erupted last year are at imminent risk of execution after the supreme court upheld their sentences, Amnesty International warned yesterday.

Ukraine said yesterday that its forces had recaptured chunks of territory around the embattled city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, which has been the epicentre of fighting with Russia for months.

France’s highest court yesterday ruled that the country could try foreign suspects under the universal jurisdiction principle, greenlighting inquiries into two Syrians accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The UN rights chief yesterday called on the international community to exert all possible pressure on the fighting sides in Sudan to resolve the conflict and end “the wanton violence”.

Around 27 people, a majority of them children, were injured today when a pedestrian bridge collapsed in the Finnish city of Espoo, just outside the country's capital, a spokesperson for the Helsinki regional rescue service said..Many of the injured were part of a group of school children,

France’s top administrative court yesterday ordered the government for a second time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within a year, in a case brought by a town threatened by rising sea levels.

President Vladimir Putin yesterday vowed Russia’s military would be victorious in Ukraine and blamed Western countries for the conflict, comparing the fighting to World War II during a military parade on Red Square.

Authorities in northwest Mexico rescued 113 kidnapped migrants of different nationalities from a building along the border with the United States, the state prosecutor’s office said.

A gunman shot and killed eight people and wounded at least seven others at a busy mall north of Dallas on Saturday, police said.

More than 14 million people tuned in to watch King Charles III’s coronation on BBC television, the corporation said yesterday.