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07-06-2026 MOSCOW: If Vladimir Putin’s Russia had an official slogan, what would it be? “Russia is what it is, and we’re not ashamed of showing it,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov once told me in an interview. That fits but I recently heard an updated version from veteran pop and folk …

07-06-2026 WASHINGTON/ JERUSALEM: Donald Trump has become the latest US president to find himself at odds with Benjamin Netanyahu, after reportedly clashing with the Israeli prime minister over military action in Lebanon that has thrown Washington’s Iran diplomacy into crisis. Tehran responded to Israel’s strikes on Lebanon by threatening to …

07-06-2026 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: Dozens of people have been killed and injured after a fire tore through a multi-storey building in south Delhi, police in India’s capital say. Many of the victims were foreigners including people from South Asian and African countries who had travelled to India for medical …

07-06-2026 JERUSALEM/ WASHINGTON/ CAIRO: Israel and Lebanon have agreed to the implementation of a ceasefire, the US State Department has announced in a statement. The agreement is “contingent on a complete cessation” of attacks from the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, among other conditions. It comes after Israeli strikes killed at …

07-06-2026 JERUSALEM/ WASHINGTON: A Democratic lawmaker in the United States has grilled top diplomat Marco Rubio on whether Israel has nuclear weapons, but the secretary of state did not provide a clear answer. “Most of the world assesses that they do,” Rubio told Congressman Joaquin Castro at a hearing on …

07-06-2026 WASHINGTON/ TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said no progress has been made in talks with the United States, though channels of communication remain open. Araghchi also defended Tehran’s attacks on US allies in the Gulf region as “self-defence” and warned: “What sanctions and war failed to achieve won’t …

07-06-2026 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: By 6am, the sun over Banda had already forgotten it was morning. The light had the hard glare of a summer afternoon. Shadows were shrinking before breakfast. In May, this dusty district in India’s Uttar Pradesh state spent days at the top of an unenviable …

06-06-2026 TEHRAN/ WASHINGTON/ MANAMA: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it attacked “enemy bases in the region”, hitting them with “aerospace missiles”, in a statement carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency. Kuwait said its air ⁠defences intercepted missile and drone ⁠attacks while air raid sirens were activated in …

06-06-2026 Warning: This story contains details some may find upsetting HAMPSHIRE/ LONDON: Student Henry Nowak repeatedly told police officers “I can’t breathe” as he lay dying in handcuffs after being stabbed, bodycam footage shows. The 18-year-old Southampton student was handcuffed after killer Vickrum Digwa, 23, lied to police at the …

06-06-2026 LONDON: A second batch of papers relating to Lord Mandelson’s time as UK ambassador to the US was published on Monday. It comes after MPs voted to release the documents in February, aiming to reveal behind-the scenes-discussions about how he was appointed to the role. The peer was sacked …