Italian striker Mario Balotelli is recovering from a serious car crash in his hometown of Orzinuovi.

The 33-year-old former Manchester City star, who now plays for Turkish club Adana Demirspor, lost control of his Audi Q8 and hit a wall at around 8.30pm, according to local media.

The force of the crash was enough to wreck the £100,000 car, which was left missing a wheel and with a large hole in the undercarriage.

Balotelli was reportedly seen climbing out of the vehicle and staggering across the street.

He was pictured lying on the street while emergency services attended to him, though he got up on his feet shortly afterwards.

Sky Sports Italia reported that the footballer refused a police breathalyser test at the scene.

This allegedly resulted in his driving licence being confiscated.

The 33-year-old was allowed to return home to recover from what are believed to be minor injuries.

His brother, Enock Barwuah, collected him from the scene on the way home from training with his local team, MailOnline reported.

Balotelli was previously involved in a car crash in Manchester in 2010, shortly after joining City, which did not result in any arrests.

His Audi R8 collided with a BMW, after which he was found to have £5,000 in cash on his person.

Asked why he was carrying so much cash, he reportedly replied: ‘Because I am rich.’

Authorities did not immediately confirm whether Balotelli faces any legal proceedings in relation to the incident in Orzinuovi, northern Italy.

Metro.co.uk has approached a representative of the star for comment.

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A Russian mum-of-three with minimal political experience admits she is ‘afraid’ as she launches a campaign to oust Vladimir Putin.

Ekaterina Duntsova, 40, is gaining momentum for her nomination to fight in the 2024 presidential election.

The Siberian-born lawyer and journalist wants to kick out the president after years in power as elections loom in Russia next year.

‘Why did I make this decision? I love our country, I want Russia to be a thriving democratic and peaceful state. But right now our country is moving in a completely different direction,’ said she said.

‘I understand that many right now want to wait it out…but we need to act…

‘Let’s at least try! Let’s try to win this “election”!’

Ekaterina’s policies include a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, democratic reforms and the release of political prisoners.

She believes voters are ready to rebel against the current autocracy.

She claims that her age, compared to Putin, 71, along with her gender and lack of political experience may count in her favour.

But Ekaterina is also aware that presidential elections are routinely rigged so the dictator virtually cannot lose.

She has even been forced to deny that she is an officially sanctioned ‘spoiler candidate’.

This is a tactic used by the Kremlin to attract votes from, for example, liberally minded voters to nominees who will be prevented from succeeding.

‘I am definitely not a spoiler,’ she said.

‘This was my decision and it will be executed up to the point of my abilities.’

The most obvious pro-democracy, anti-war candidates who have exposed ‘endemic corruption’ under Putin are jailed on bogus convictions – like opposition leader Alexei Navalny – or exiled.

Putin, who has held continuous positions of the highest authority since 1999, has been subject to dozens of rumours about his health in recent years.

The most recent claims include that he had suffered heart problems and was employing body doubles to appear in the public eye.

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Announcing her candidacy, Ekaterina said: ‘The friends with whom I discussed my decision asked me: “Do you seriously believe that in modern Russia something can be changed through these elections?

‘”Do you believe that you will be admitted and registered as a candidate?”

‘”Aren’t you afraid that you will be imprisoned?”

‘Of course, I have no illusions about these “elections”, and, like any normal person, I am afraid.

‘But I have hope that Russia can be changed democratically.’

A sign of Kremlin concern is that she was already ordered to appear before prosecutors and underwent an interrogation on her views on Putin’s war against Ukraine.

She cited her constitutional right not to answer but signed a statement verifying she is the owner of her social media account.

She said she is backed by her three children, Maria, 19, Sophia, 16, and Sylvester, 10, who all live with her in Rzhev, a backwater town in Tver region on the rail line between Moscow and Latvian capital Riga.

She was formerly on the local council in her town, and coordinates a group searching for missing children and adults.

She is gathering the 300,000 signatures she needs to register her candidacy and has had expressions of support from all around Russia.

Ekaterina must also hold a meeting of 500 close supporters – which she vows to do in Moscow.

Political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann said: ‘This is a candidate with a clear anti-war stance.

‘Without reservations, without ambiguities… and a woman, which, as we know from numerous sociological results, rather impresses than disgusts the voter…

‘Some kind of spontaneous political activity is happening, it has not yet died in Russia, despite all the unfavourable conditions.’

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Kim Jong-un celebrated in style with his daughter at a banquet following a successful spy satellite launch.

The trench coat wearing dictator was joined by his daughter who donned a space agency t-shirt to celebrate the good news for North Korea.

Kim Jong-un was seen clapping and grinning away, while his daughter Kim Ju-ae who is believed to be aged 10 appeared more reserved with her expression.

In traditional North Korean style, the launch was blasted across state media to the country’s delight.

Scores of technicians from the National Aerospace Technology Administration joined Kim’s daughter in sporting the blue and red NATA t-shirts.

But interestingly Kim did not opt for one and instead wore his classic black trench coat.

He was also spotted celebrating the success with young scientists – a slight change from surrounding himself with North Korea’s senior cadres, top military officials and soldiers.

Earlier in the week Kim stunned with a light brown coat as he attended the launch of a spy satellite.

KCNA state news agency said North Korea has a fair few reasons to do this. ‘Strengthening its self-defensive capabilities’ and ‘defiantly ramping up war preparedness’ in the face of ‘the enemies’ dangerous military moves’ being among them.

Kim casually watched the ‘successful’ rocket liftoff that came after two failed attempts to launch spy satellites this year.

He has also increasingly started taking his daughter to missile launches for some apparent work experience.

Like her dad she’s quite the style icon after she was spotted wearing a £1,950 Christian Dior jacket in March.

She could be seen wearing the plush patterned hoodie as she watched the launch of the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile at Pyongyang International Airport on March 16.

She only appeared in public for the first time last November – at a massive ballistic missile launch, of course.

She was, for a time, simply known as Kim’s ‘beloved daughter’, though some see her sudden presence in the public eye as a sign she’s his heir-apparent.

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Irish MMA and boxing champion Conor McGregor has weighed in on the knife attack in Dublin and subsequent violent protests.

He shared his thoughts on X in response to Garda commissioner Drew Harris referring to the protesters as a ‘hooligan faction driven by far right ideology’.

Three children aged between five and six, and a woman in her 30s, were hospitalised after an attack outside a school in Dublin city centre this afternoon.

Follow the latest on the Dublin stabbings and riots on our live blog.

He has used his platform to call for action and criticise the chief of police.

McGregor said: ‘Innocent children ruthlessly stabbed by a mentally deranged non-national in Dublin, Ireland today.

‘Our chief of police had this to say on the riots in the aftermath. Drew, not good enough.

‘There is grave danger among us in Ireland that should never be here in the first place, and there has been zero action done to support the public in any way, shape or form with this frightening act.

‘Not good enough. Make change or make way. Ireland for the victory. God bless those attacked today, we pray.’

Irish police have not yet confirmed the nationality of the ‘person of interest’, a man in his 50s, who was hospitalised with serious injuries following the attack.

McGregor has since sent out further tweets, saying: ‘You reap what you sow.

‘Any update on the wellbeing of those stabbed today? Absolutely horrific scenes all day, my stomach is churning.

‘With no action being taken at all during these ever more frequent events, like literally zero action taken whatsoever, how do we expect an end to this?

‘We need reform. We need action!’

MORE : Deliveroo rider took down Dublin knife attacker by hitting him with his helmet

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A Russian state television war reporter has died after a Ukrainian kamikaze drone strike in occupied Ukraine.

Boris Maksudov, 38, a Rossiya-24 reporter, sustained shrapnel injuries and died during a medical evacuation earlier today.

Vladimir Putin’s favourite TV propagandist broke the news of the reporter’s death live on his YouTube channel.

Dmitry Kiselev, general director of the Rossiya Segodnya media group, said: ‘Tragic news has just arrived. Our colleague died on the road to Dzhankoy at 6am. Boris Maksudov died of his wounds. The guys were fighting for his life.

‘He was seriously wounded yesterday near Mirny when the Ukronazis fired on a group of VGTRK [Russian state media] journalists.’

He added: ‘The profession of journalism today is increasingly painted in khaki colours, and on top of that there is often also blood.

‘Ours [Russian forces and propagandists] are there to finish off this horrible [Ukrainian] regime, to bring a just peace closer. Let’s work, brothers.’

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova – on air with Solovyov when the news broke – claimed Ukraine saw reporters like Maksudov as ‘legitimate targets’.

The Russian Defence Ministry has since claimed the Russian journalists had been deliberately targeted.

There were angry statements today that military personnel at the scene had issued ‘blatant lies’ to commanders about the popular reporter’s condition after he was wounded in the drone attack.

This may have stopped him receiving proper treatment for serious wounds.

Pro-war blogger Roman Saponkov said: ‘They lied that there was a light injury in the arm and leg, although in fact it turned out that there were open fractures of the limbs and severed fingers.

‘If they had told the truth about the serious injury, perhaps they could have reacted earlier and this could well have saved a life’

It appears Makusdov died today as he was being moved to a hospital – footage showed the pro-war reporter after he was wounded being moved by an army vehicle.

In his final dispatch before he was hit, he is seen with a thumbs-up to the camera.

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Thousands of rats both dead and alive have ended up on beaches in a part of Australia.

Residents in Queensland have become overwhelmed by the problem which started a few months ago.

The surge of rats has been caused by breeding and a bountiful harvest as well as ideal wet weather conditions.

The rats have moved towards the coast in search of more food but many do not survive the trip.

Derek Lord, 49, a resident from the town of Normanton which has been impacted said: ‘Mate, there’s rats everywhere.’

Derek said his pet ducks have been going mad because the rats have been trying to break into the cages.

‘We have hire vehicles and they literally destroyed a car overnight, taking all of the wiring out of the engine bay,’ he added.

‘They’re really getting out of control,’ a fisherman told ABC North Queensland.

‘There’s a stench along the riverbed. Last night, with the moonlight, the river was truly alive with them.’ 

Another local said: ‘We saw them dead or alive, but exhausted, in the water and on the shoreline. [When we returned four days later], they were running on the sand’.

Other locals said the rats have turned cannibal and have started eating one another as well.

A video on social media shows heaps of dead rats piled up as flies and other insects swarm by them in the water.

Residents now worry the rats will have an adverse impact on tourism because another town affected called Karumba is a well-known fishing and birdwatching paradise.

Jemma Probert, a fishing charter owner in Karumba said: ‘We’ve heard there are still more that are coming.

‘It’s not a good thing to leave Karumba remembering.’

People fear the worst is yet to come because more wet weather is expected in Queensland.

Over the last two years parts of Queensland and New South Wales have experienced a boom in rodent numbers due to more breeding.

For example, mouse populations have reached plague conditions not seen since 2011.

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Putin has pardoned a second cannibal killer in the space of just one week.

The Russian dictator freed Nikolay Ogolobyak, 33, a Satanist who murdered and ate two children.

Now Denis Gorin, 44, has been released from his 22-year jail term after he fought and was wounded fighting against Ukraine.

He is now in hospital pictured smirking recovering from war wounds after receiving his pardon from Putin.

‘He is in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, in the hospital, with a moderate injury,’ his neighbour told Sibir.Realii.

Gorin killed his first victim in 2002, slicing off the ears and pieces of flesh from the body which he later ate after stabbing them 50 times.

He was sentenced to ten years in jail and released early for ‘good behaviour’.

Gorin then killed a man named Alexander, 36, in November 2010, for which he was finally convicted in 2017 after the body was found.

He admitted to stripping the corpses and cutting off flesh and eating it, before dumping the remains in a river.

The court verdict heard how he ‘cut soft tissue from the victim’s limbs using a knife he had with him, which he later consumed as food’.

Gorin also kept human meat in his fridge and cooked it later, the court heard.

He and his brother also beat their nephew’s alleged abuser to death in 2012 but the alleged abuser turned out to be innocent.

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A huge clean-up operation is under way after violent riots broke out in Dublin city centre following a stabbing which left three children and and a woman injured.

Violent protesters clashed with Ireland’s police force An Garda Síochana, vehicles were burned and shops were looted in disturbing scenes on Thursday night.

Police confirmed 34 people have been arrested after chaos erupted in the Irish capital.

A crime scene in Parnell Square is still in lockdown after the children, aged between five and six, were stabbed near a school in the north inner city.

The knife attack took place outside Irish-speaking school Gaelscoil Coláiste Mhuire as children were leaving around 1.40pm on Thursday.

A public order unit was deployed in the area, as crowds of protesters gathered and bottles were thrown at officers.

Flares were ignited and a garda car set on fire by what the Irish Garda commissioner calls a ‘complete lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology’.

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On the face of it, life in Dubai looks good – there are pristine beaches, malls and impressive modern buildings. But if you dare speak out on a political or judicial reform, you will almost certainly end up in prison.

Because behind the glitz, welcoming smiles and promises of forward-thinking policies churned out by the regime’s well-oiled PR machine, a host of human rights abuses are being perpetrated.

Let me be clear: The United Arab Emirates Government will stop at very little to silence dissent.

Perhaps few know this better right now than Ahmed Mansoor, a 54-year-old activist and friend who is currently languishing in solitary confinement without a bed – and has done so since 2017 – all because he dared criticise his country’s government and called for political reform.

Ahmed was arrested on charges of using social media to threaten public order and publish false and misleading information. The following year, the father-of-four was found guilty and convicted for ‘insulting the status and prestige of the UAE and its symbols including its leader’ and given a prison sentence of 10 years, according to Amnesty International.

His mistreatment is cruel, degrading, and – because of his extremely prolonged isolation from human contact – could be considered psychological torture.

In 2021, The European Parliament urged the UAE to immediately and unconditionally release Ahmed and other human rights activists, saying that the Emirati authorities had ‘violated Ahmed Mansoor’s rights for more than 10 years with arbitrary arrest and detention, death threats, physical assault, government surveillance and inhumane treatment in custody’.

Still, nothing has changed and Ahmed continues to deteriorate inside a tiny, dirty cell in the middle of the desert.

Although Ahmed Mansoor began his work defending human rights in the UAE in 2006, I only heard about him in 2011 when he was arrested for the first time, along with four other Emiratis, for organising a petition calling for democratic reforms.

The court’s ruling sentencing him to three years in prison on charges of ‘publicly insulting’ the Emirati authorities sparked anger on social media, and Ahmed became a prominent figure.

I, along with others, wrote on Twitter demanding his release. Among those who wrote about him was Khalifa Al-Nuaimi, who was also later arrested because of his involvement in defending human rights.

Due to the significant public outrage over the sentence imposed on Ahmed and following an international protest led by human rights organisations, the President of the Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, reduced the sentences for Mansoor and the other four men. However, the authorities never returned his passport, effectively imposing a travel ban on him.

Many were in awe of his courage, as no one had dared to criticise the government openly; he rejected the suppression of freedom of expression, organised campaigns against repressive laws, and demanded democratic reforms.

Since the start of the Arab Spring in 2011, he spoke out in person and on social media, refusing to be intimidated by arrests, threats, and surveillance.

In the UAE, any punishment extends beyond the individual too: even extended family – including brothers, sisters and in-laws of those who stand up to power – become imprisoned within the country, unable to travel beyond the country’s borders. Quite simply, it is collective punishment and a means to muzzle dissent.

Following his 2017 arrest, myself and fellow activists campaigned for his release. At the beginning, the internet was the only safe way to get his story heard as I, for example, had fled my country to escape being put in prison myself. I am part of a group known as the UAE94.

Before arbitrarily detaining Ahmed, the UAE had rounded up scores of people in a grossly unfair mass trial of 94 defendants that concluded in 2013. Sixty of them remain in prison today and some are being held incommunicado.

Despite avoiding prison, I still feel at risk. I’m nervous to travel and continue to avoid visiting certain countries for fear of what the consequences might be.

I desperately want to see Ahmed walk free in good health. He should be leading a human rights organisation, not fading away behind bars.

But the only way this can ever happen is if the UAE government receives pressure from outside – and this is where you come in. Speaking truth to power is a fundamental human right and no one should be jailed for peacefully expressing their opinion on how their country is run.

Each year, Amnesty International holds the world’s biggest letter writing campaign where they invite people to contact those in power and demand justice for those being wronged and having their human rights held from them.

A truly global event, over 5.3million actions calling on those in power and in solidarity with individuals, were taken for the 10 individuals and groups who featured in Write for Rights 2022.

This year, Amnesty is asking you to write to the UAE embassy in London. This action is directed to the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, calling on him to immediately and unconditionally release Ahmed Mansoor. His sentence must be quashed and his travel ban must also be lifted.

Because if the UAE really cares about how it’s perceived on the international stage, it needs to be seen to be putting real effort into promoting and upholding progressive human rights – so far it’s very much been style over substance.

Hamad al-Shamsi is an Emirati human rights defender and Executive Director of the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre, a non-profit organisation that shines a light on prisoners of conscience detained in Emirati prisons and advocates on their behalf. You can find out more about Ahmed’s case on the Amnesty International UK website here.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing James.Besanvalle@metro.co.uk. 

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed an increase in influenza-like illnesses in China.

The organisation has asked the country for more details amid reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children since mid-October.

Shanghai Songjiang District Central Hospital has received more than 700 children every day, according to Xinmin Weekly, which is three times higher than the same period in previous years.

Crowds of parents and children have also been seen dressed in winter clothes at Beijing’s Capital Institute of Pediatrics today.

Videos posted online by local media outlets show crowded hospitals with parents and children waiting to see doctors in Xian.

‘WHO has made an official request to China for detailed information on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children,’ the UN health body said in a statement on Wednesday.

Laboratory results from reported outbreaks among children have also been requested by the WHO

It gave no indication of China’s response to their request for information.

A parent surnamed Zhang accompanied her coughing nine-year-old son and said he had fallen ill with mycoplasma pneumonia — a pathogen that can cause sore throats, fatigue and fever.

She told AFP news agency ‘there are really a lot of children who have caught it recently. Of course that worries me.’

Li Meiling, 42, whose eight-year-old daughter is suffering from some type of pneumonia said: ‘It’s true that a lot of children her age are ill with this at the moment.’

But she added: ‘It’s winter, so it’s normal that there are more cases of respiratory illnesses. It’s due to the season.’

Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning has referred journalists to ‘the competent Chinese authorities’ over the news.

The WHO has recommended communities in China impacted by the illness to get vaccinated, wear masks, keep their distance from sick people, wash hands and stay at home when ill.

Groups including the Programme for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China.

The WHO said it is unclear if these are associated with an overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities – or separate events.

China blames the spike for a cold snap in the north west of the country, on the lifting of coronavirus symptoms and the circulation of known pathogens, namely influenza and common bacterial infections that affect children, including mycoplasma pneumonia.

Beijing is experiencing a cold snap as temperatures plummet below zero in the northern capital.

The city has ‘entered a high incidence season of respiratory infectious diseases’, Wang Quanyi from the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state media.

He added Beijing ‘is currently showing a trend of multiple pathogens coexisting’.

News of the increase in respiratory disease was first announced during a news conference by Chinese officials from the National Health Commission last week.

China and the WHO faced criticism during the coronavirus pandemic for not being transparent about the number of early cases.

There is still debate about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic three years on.

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Dutch far-right populist Geert Wilders, dubbed the ‘Dutch Donald Trump’, is projected to have won a landslide victory in the Netherlands parliamentary elections.

The anti-Islam politician has vowed to stop all immigration to the Netherlands and would become the country’s first far-right prime minister.

His Freedom Party (PVV) has won 37 seats out of 150 with 98% of votes now counted.

This is well ahead of 25 for a joint Labour/Green ticket and 24 for the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte.

But the Freedom Party will need to form a coalition government even though it has more than doubled its 17 seats won in the last election.

During the victory speech Mr Wilders said: ‘I had to pinch my arm.’

‘Voters said, “We are sick of it. Sick to our stomachs”,’ he said, adding he was now on a mission to end the ‘asylum tsunami’, referring to the migration issue.

‘The Dutch will be No 1 again,’ he said. ‘The people must get their nation back.’

The election was called after the fourth and final coalition of outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte resigned in July after failing to agree to measures to rein in migration.

To the relief of everyone, Mr Wilders confirmed whatever he would do would be ‘within the law and constitution’.

His election programme included calls for a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the EU and a halt of accepting asylum seekers and migrants at the Dutch border.

The party also advocates the ‘de-Islamisation’ of the Netherlands but he has been milder about this during the election campaign.

Mainstream parties are reluctant to join forces with Mr Wilders but the size of his victory strengthens his hand in negotiations.

Pieter Omtzigt, a former centrist Christian Democrat, said he would always be open to talks.

The closest party to Mr Wilders’s in terms of number of seats are an alliance of centre-left Labour Party and Green Left, which were forecast to win 26 seats.

Its leader Frans Timmermans said the party would not go into coalition with the Freedom Party.

The win comes a year after right wing leader Giorgia Meloni won the election in Italy.

But she has since mellowed her stance on many issues and has become the acceptable face of the hard right in the EU.

Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban who has similar harsh tactics towards migration was quick to congratulate Mr Wilders.

He said: ‘The winds of change are here! Congratulations.’

The exit poll published can have a margin of error of up to three seats but generally is accurate within one or two seats, said Ipsos.

Many elections across Europe are altering the political landscape from Slovakia and Spain, to Germany and Poland, populist and hard-right parties triumphed in some EU member nations and faltered in others.

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An anti-rhino-poaching ranger has been horrifically crushed to death by a rampaging hippo when it ambushed his patrol in South Africa.

The armed ranger was with three fellow rangers at the Mkhuze Game Reserve, 180 miles north of Durban, shortly after sunrise where they were protecting a herd of elephants and rhinos.

The group had discovered footprints, after receiving a tip-off that poachers had entered the park after dark – and had split into two groups to encircle the suspected gang.

But experienced patroller Sphamandla Mthembu, 31, surprised a three-ton hippo that was returning to the river and was charged by the beast and opened fire to save himself.

The gunfire alerted his colleagues, who rushed to where the ranger was gripped in the jaws of the hippo.

His coworkers didn’t stop firing their rifles until the hippo was dead – then moved forward to help their injured colleague who was still alive and able to tell them what had happened.

But the ranger died from the crush and bite wounds while waiting for medical assistance.

Father-of-two Mthembu had been a park ranger for eight years.

CEO of Ezemvelo Kwazulu-Natal Wildlife Park, Mr Shie Mkhize said: ‘My heart broke when I heard of the incident and finding the words to speak to his family was so difficult.

‘It was made even more difficult when I was told Mr Mthembu had recently lost a young child and his family were trying to come to term with that when this unfortunate incident happened.

‘Our thoughts are also with his fellow rangers who need space to be able to process what they witnessed.’

Hippos have the biggest teeth of any land mammal – their front teeth are over a foot long and their canines grow up to 18 inches long.

Local media reported the ranger had suffered nine wounds to his body, as local police opened an inquest.

A game reserve worker told a local journalist: ‘It was all very sudden and the hippo came from nowhere and charged and trampled and bit the ranger who had opened fire on it.

‘The others were firing as well but by the time it was dead so was the ranger. They said there was so much blood and they did not know how he was still alive when they reached him.’

Hippos kill more humans than any other animal in Africa, claiming at least 3,000 victims a year – they can grow up to 12 ft long and can run at 20mph.

They will even attack large boats on the river and sink or capsize them and become most agitated if humans get between them and their river or when they have young calves.

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Papau rebels in Indonesia have released a chilling new video, holding guns to their New Zealand hostage’s heads and threatening execution.

Philip Mark Mehrtens, a 37-year-old father from New Zealand, has been held by a rebel group since February but will be killed in two months if their demands are not met.

Mr Mehrtens, a pilot for an Indonesian aviation company, was kidnapped and taken hostage by the West Papua Liberation Army, as they demand the Papua region of Indonesia be freed from Jakarta.

In a new clip released by the fighters, Mr Mehrtens is seen sitting surrounded by men pointing guns at him.

The rebel leader, thought to be a man named Egianus Kogeya, said Mr Mehrtens would be shot dead in two months if his demands weren’t met.

The New Zealand foreign ministry said it was aware of the new video, and said they are continuing to work on Mr Mehrten’s release from the rebels.

Rebel spokesperson Sebby Sambom previously wrote on Facebook that Mr Mehrtens will be held hostage for negotiations with Indonesia.

They also prevoiusly said Mr Mehrtens would ‘never be released’ unless Papua was made independent.

Indonesia has continued to stress that Papua will remain a part of Indonesia, despite the group’s demands.

The group seized Mr Mehrtens in February after his plane landed in the remote region, before setting fire to it on the runway.

Onboard were five other Papuan nationals, including the area’s regional governor, who the group let go.

Consular support had been provided to the Mehrtens family as they await further news on Mr Mehrtens.

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Gaza is facing ‘imminent’ outbreaks of water borne diseases, the head of an aid group in the besieged enclave has warned.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Palestine (UNWRA), said an increase of skin diseases are also impacting the people of Gaza – which he said was unsurprising considering the unsanitary conditions in the enclave.

He described the situation for most as ‘desperate’ as ‘people are lacking everything’ as Gaza has only received 10% of its required food supplies each day in shipments from Egypt.

Follow the latest news from the Israel-Gaza conflict in our liveblog

The water system shutdown has left most of the Palestinian population drinking contaminated water.

Dehydration and malnutrition are also growing, according to the UN’s World Food Programme.

Dr Manal Mohammed is a lecturer in infectious diseases and genomics at the University of Westminster.

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He explained: ‘The very poor sanitation services across Gaza during the war and the consumption of sewage contaminated water are raising fears of the spread of waterborne infectious diseases and can cause outbreaks.

‘There are several pathogens that can be transmitted through consumption of contaminated water such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid, polio, hepatitis A virus which can cause serious illness and even death.

‘Some bacterial strains that are resistant to antibiotics such as Salmonella and E. coli can also be transmitted through contaminated water.

‘If people are not killed by rocket attacks, they might die of consuming contaminated water.’

The UN was forced to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza late last week, and warned of the growing risk of widespread starvation after internet and phone services collapsed due to lack of fuel.

Mr Lazzarini said he was in ‘full admiration’ of the UN staff who have endured terrifying experiences while working with the people living in Gaza.

He reassured the press that ‘UNRWA will stay. UNRWA has stayed. And we will scale up our footprint, scale up our presence, scale up our activities.’

Weeks of devastating Israel airstrikes in Gaza, followed by a ground invasion, have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

It does not differentiate between civilians and militants, though some two-thirds of the dead have been identified as women and minors.

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This is the shocking moment a Ukrainian missile killed a Russian singer at a concert packed with Russian marines in a ‘deliberate revenge attack’.

The HIMARS strike reportedly killed at least 25 of Putin’s troops and left 100 wounded in the occupied Donetsk region.

The concert, which was held in the village of Kumachovo, only 37 miles from the frontline, was to mark Russia’s annual Day of Missile Forces and Artillery.

In video footage, Russian actress and choreographer Polina Menshikh, 40, can be seen playing the guitar and singing for the marines when the deadly two-missile strike hits, and the video blacks out.

A theatre based in St Petersburg associated with Ms Menshikh said an upcoming performance of a play she had previously directed would be dedicated to her memory.

Russia reportedly ordered a news blackout on the troop losses from the US-made HIMARS strike on Sunday.

The Russian Investigative Committee announced a criminal probe into the attack which ‘killed a civilian’.

The Ukrainian military described the strike as a ‘reckoning blow’ after many of its own civilians were murdered in similar strikes.

But at least 25 Russian marines were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the Sunday strike, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The strike has enraged Russian war bloggers, one of whom hit out at the ‘untaught idiots’ – Russia’s commanders – who did not expect the Ukrainians to seek revenge as Russia’s own troops marked their Artillery Forces Day.

The channel raged: ‘The building where the show event was held was located only 60 kilometres [37 miles] from the frontline.

‘The result is predictable – the enemy struck with HIMARS, including Russian actress Polina Menshikh, who was performing at that moment, who died.

‘Almost two years of war and the untaught idiots still do not know what to do and what not to do.’

Commander of Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance unit Birds of Magyar, Robert Brovdi, said Kyiv’s forces had attacked the 810th separate brigade of the Russian Marines in ‘revenge for the 128th Brigade’.

The 128th Brigade saw at least 20 soldiers killed and more wounded by a Kh059 missile strike on November 4, which marks Ukraine’s Artillery Forces Day.

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President Zelensky branded the November 4 attack as a ‘tragedy that could have been avoided’ and a criminal investigation was launched.

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Apparently, not even the fire bursting out of a rocket nuzzle is enough to keep Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, toasty and warm.

Yesterday, North Korea launched its first spy satellite into orbit from the Sohae satellite launch facility in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province.

The Chollima-1 rocket threw the ‘reconnaissance satellite’ Malligyong-1 out into space at 10.42pm, according to North Korea’s KCNA state news agency.

The agency said North Korea has a fair few reasons to do this. ‘Strengthening its self-defensive capabilities’ and ‘defiantly ramping up war preparedness’ in the face of ‘the enemies’ dangerous military moves’ being among them.

Kim ‘oversaw the launch warmly congratulated all the cadres, scientists and technicians’ of the country’s space agency, NATA, the report added.

Photographs released by KCNA showed Kim casually watching the ‘successful’ rocket liftoff that came after two failed attempts to launch spy satellites this year.

The rocket passed over Okinawa, Japan and fell into the sea east of the Philippines, the Japanese Kyodo News agency reported.

Neither Japan nor the US have been able to confirm whether the payload entered space.

Japanese leaders condemned Pyongyang for violating UN Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from using ballistic missile technology.

The country’s emergency warning system, J-Alert, was triggered at 10.55pm, urging residents in the southern prefecture of Okinawa to take shelter.

A person from Ishigaki City, Okinawa, said according to the Tawainese station FTV News: ‘We did not expect to launch in the middle of the night.

‘This is an unprecedented situation and we did not expect it.’

The projectile split off into multiple parts, with one flung into the East China Sea, about 220 miles off the Korean Peninsula, at around 10.50pm. A second ended up in the Pacific Ocean around 745 miles southwest of Japan’s southernmost Okinotori Island at around 10.57pm.

No damage was recorded due to the missile, Tokyo’s top government spokesman, Hirokazu Matsuno, said.

North Korea had warned Japan it would send up a satellite within a nine-day window from today to December 1 before doing so the night before.

South Korea was startled, to say the least, by the launch too. Military officials said their shady neighbours launched an assumed military satellite in a southward direction from Tongchang-ri in North Korea’s northwest.

The country’s Ministry of National Defence in response said it intends to partially suspend an inter-Korean agreement and will restart front-line aerial surveillance of North Korea, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The 2018 deal saw buffer and no-fly zones set up around the heavily fortified border between the North and South. Neither side can survey the other or conduct live-firing exercises.

Agreeing with Japan, Heo Tae-keun, South Korea’s deputy minister of national defence policy, said the North’s satellite launch was a clear violation of UN resolutions and ‘a grave provocation that threatens our national security’.

Seoul and Washington, he added, are ready to ‘promptly and strongly punish’ North Korea.

The Pentagon said it was ‘still assessing the success of the launch’.

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A Satanist who murdered and ate two children has been freed by Vladimir Putin after fighting in Ukraine.

Nikolay Ogolobyak, 33, has been hailed a hero by the Russian president. 

He was the oldest among a sect of Satanists in Yaroslavl and in all four were convicted of grotesque crimes. 

The Satanists killed three girls and one boy aged between 16 and 17 after engaging in animal sacrifices and digging up human graves. 

Each of the teenagers were drugged and stabbed 666 times with daggers, dismembered and then cooked on a bonfire in a revolting Satanist ritual conducted over two nights.

The criminals including Ogolobyak recited a Satanist text found on the Internet. 

Their limbs, hearts, scalps, breasts and genitals were cut off and were recovered in a pit along with the body of a small rodent crucified on an upside-down cross.

Anna Gorokhova, 16, Olga Pukhova, 15, Vavara Kuzmina, 16 and Andrei Sorokin, 16, went missing in June 2008 and their bodies were only found in the middle of August.

They were declared victims of ‘brutal ritualist child murders’ by a Russian court after a mammoth two year criminal investigation. 

Ogolobyak was found guilty of murdering two people, and of desecration of the bodies and burial places of the dead.

He was sentenced in 2010 to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony.

He was due to be released in 2028 at the age of 39 but he signed up for Putin’s war in Ukraine – knowing if he served six months and avoided death, he would be a free man. 

A convict can only be pardoned and released with Putin’s personal signature. 

Ogolobyak’s father admitted his son was wounded in the war and was now free.

‘It’s true,’ he said. 

‘He served there for six months in Storm Z…. After being wounded [he is] disabled. 

‘He can walk, but the wound was serious It is unlikely that they will take him to the [war] again. He returned on November 2.’

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The other Satanists were under 18 and given lesser sentences. 

Konstantin Baranov and Alexander Voronov were locked up for ten years in a general regime colony,  Alexey Solovyov and Alexey Chistyakov for nine years, and  Ksenia Kovalyova for eight years. 

Sergei Karpenko was sentenced to two years in a penal colony and Anton Makovkin was diagnosed with schizophrenia and prescribed compulsory psychiatric treatment.

Satanist Ogolobyak – who received the longest jail term – is now living with his mother. 

Details of his war service and wounding have not been disclosed. 

The release of rapists and murderers  after fighting for Putin is causing rising alarm in regions across Russia. 

Already, more than 30 people have been killed by pardoned returnee convicts freed from jail to fight in the war.

Of the convicts who died, Putin said: ‘They gave their lives for their Motherland and atoned for their guilt.’

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The Israeli government has approved a ceasefire deal with Hamas which would bring a temporary halt to the devastating siege that has stretched on for over six weeks.

Hamas will release dozens of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

Follow the latest news from the Israel-Gaza conflict in our liveblog

Under the deal, Hamas is to free 50 of the roughly 240 hostages it is holding in the Gaza Strip over a four-day period, the Israeli government said on Wednesday.

It said it would extend the lull by an additional day for every 10 hostages released.

The government said the first hostages to be released would be women and children.

A statement released by Qatar, who have acted as mediators with Hamas, said on Wednesday morning that the deal includes ‘the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons, the number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement,’ and that it would allow additional humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The Israeli statement made no mention of either of these elements.

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The statement from Qatar’s foreign ministry described the talks that produced the agreement as a mediation by Egypt, the US and Qatar for a ‘humanitarian pause,’ adding that the start time of the truce will be announced within the next day.

Ahead of Wednesday morning’s cabinet vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would resume its offensive against Hamas after the ceasefire expires.

It was not immediately clear when the truce would go into effect.

Mr Netanyahu convened his Cabinet for the vote late on Tuesday.

The meeting stretched well into the early hours on Wednesday, underscoring the sensitivity of a proposal that would suspend an Israeli offensive against Hamas before it has reached its goals.

Ahead of the vote, Mr Netanyahu sought to assure the government ministers that the break was only tactical, vowing to resume the offensive after the truce expires. Top security officials also attended the meeting.

‘We are at war, and we will continue the war,’ Mr Netanyahu said. ‘We will continue until we achieve all our goals.’

Israel has vowed to continue the war until it destroys Hamas’ military capabilities and returns all hostages.

Mr Netanyahu said intelligence efforts will be maintained during the lull, allowing the army time to prepare for the next stages of battle. He said the battle would continue until ‘Gaza will not threaten Israel.’

The announcement came as Israeli troops battled Palestinian militants in an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza and around hospitals overcrowded with patients and sheltering families.

The deal does not mean an end to the war, which erupted on October 7 after Hamas militants stormed across the border into southern Israel and killed at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped some 240 others.

In weeks of Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, two-thirds of them women and minors, and more than 2,700 others are missing and believed to be buried under rubble, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The ministry says it has been unable to update its count since November 11 because of the health sector’s collapse.

Gaza health officials say the toll has risen sharply since, and hospitals continue to report deaths from daily strikes, often dozens at a time.

United States President Joe Biden said in a statement late on Tuesday that he welcomes the agreement to release at least 50 hostages being held in Gaza and stressed that ‘it is important that all aspects of this deal be fully implemented.’

‘I am extraordinarily gratified that some of these brave souls, who have endured weeks of captivity and an unspeakable ordeal, will be reunited with their families once this deal is fully implemented,’ Mr Biden said.

He said the agreement should release some American hostages, and added, ‘I will not stop until they are all released.’

Mr Biden emphasised that Mr Netanyahu has committed to supporting an ‘extended pause’ to make sure not only all hostages are released but that humanitarian assistance can be sent to Palestinians in Gaza.

‘Today’s deal is a testament to the tireless diplomacy and determination of many dedicated individuals across the United States Government to bring Americans home,’ Mr Biden said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Biden said a deal on releasing some hostages was ‘very close.’

Izzat Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said on Tuesday that an agreement could be reached ‘in the coming hours.’

Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said the temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was a ‘crucial step’.

Lord Cameron said: ‘This agreement is a crucial step towards providing relief to the families of the hostages and addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

‘I urge all parties to ensure the agreement is delivered in full. Of course, we want to see all hostages released immediately and families affected by the horrors of the October 7th terror attack reunited.

‘This pause provides an important opportunity to ensure much greater volumes of food, fuel and other life-saving aid can reach Gaza on a sustained basis.

‘We have already doubled our aid commitment to Palestinians this year and will work closely with the UN to ensure it reaches those who need it.

‘The UK will continue to work with all partners in the region to secure the release of all hostages, restore security and reach a long-term political solution which enables both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace.’

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A British woman and two Spanish men have been arrested in connection with the shooting of a right-wing politician in Madrid earlier this month.

Head of Spain’s far-right Vox Party, Alejandro Vidal-Quadras, 78, was shot in the face in broad daylight on November 9.

The gunshot hit the former MEP in the jaw and health officials in Madrid say it left an entry and exit hole, according to La Vanguardia.

Spanish national police have now announced that two Spaniards were also arrested in Lanjaron, southern Spain, and another in Fuengirola.

But Spain’s state news agency and other media outlets said none of the three are suspected of having fired the shot that hit Mr Vidal-Quadras.

EFE said the two people arrested in Lanjaron were a Spanish man and his partner, a British woman.

Another man detained in Fuengirola, also a Spaniard, was reportedly arrested in connection with a motorbike used in the shooting, as the National Court continues to investigate the shooting as a possible terrorist attack.

Police said earlier this month that Mr Vidal-Quadras had raised the possibility he was targeted because of his ties with Iran’s political opposition.

Investigators were exploring a potential Iranian link but so far have no found evidence of one.

Mr Vidal-Quadras has been aligned for decades with the Iranian opposition in exile.

In January, Iran’s Foreign Ministry imposed sanctions on him and others with ties to the exiled opposition group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, accusing them of ‘supporting terrorism and terrorist groups’.

Mr Vidal-Quadras was previously the head of the People’s Party in Catalonia from 1991-1996 and vice-president of the European Parliament from 2009-2014.

He has not been active in politics for several years but maintained a public role as a media commentator and columnist.

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A high-ranking Russian official has suggested a scheme to ‘free prisoners if they get pregnant’ to address Russia’s population problem.

Valery Seleznev, a deputy in the Duma, proposed the odd solution to help bring up Russia’s birth rate after its population shrank by one million in just a year.

He said of Russia’s some 45,000 female prisoners: ‘The highest goal and destiny of a woman is to create a family and give birth to children.

‘Many of these women are capable of giving birth to children. The state can offer them a kind of deal, in which a woman’s sentence is terminated and in case she gives birth during such a “vacation”, the rest of the term is cancelled.

‘We gave the opportunity to men, leaving prison early, to fight against the terrible enemy in the Northern Military District [military wing] based on the same principle of the highest atonement.

‘Why do we deprive women of the opportunity to atone? We don’t need women to give their lives to [the war].’

Russia is currently home to around 144million people – a drop from 148 million in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed.

But Seleznev’s remarks have sparked fierce opposition from within and outside of Russia.

Human rights campaigner Eva Merkacheva referred to the proposed plan as ‘insane’, and was infuriated that women were being pushed to find someone ‘like an animal, without love, affection and long-term prospects’.

She said: ‘It seems to me that the idea of releasing women who have committed minor crimes would be more correct. Help them socialise, and they themselves will find the person they love and start a family themselves.’

Another deputy in the Duma, Sultan Khamzaev, proposed offering financial incentives to women who want an abortion to give birth and let their babies be ‘raised by the state’.

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A Spanish court has heard how a young British tourist was allegedly gang-raped by three men after being spiked on a family holiday.

The victim told the court in Alicante that she had left a bar to smoke on October 1, 2016, and was snatched by three men who took her to a field and raped her.

The court heard how the victim last recalled stepping outside before ‘waking up face down in the backseat of a car’ with her ‘clothes unbuttoned and feeling pain in her legs and sexual organs’.

Local media reported the victim saw ‘three or four men’ in the car with her – one of whom reportedly apologised to her after she left the car.

She returned by taxi to her hotel, where she called the police with her mother and filed a complaint to police.

Local media reported the accused are three men, a Spaniard and ‘two North Africans’ who have pleaded innocent.

One of the defendants claimed the act was consensual, and another admitted his DNA had ben found on her clothing after he ‘pulled her out of the car while she was very drunk’.

If convicted, the men could face 12 years in prison for sexual assault and the alleged robbery of a watch and ring the victim was wearing.

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A 14-year-old boy collapsed and died after playing a football match in 35°C heat.

It happened in San Martin, Yerba Buena city, Argentina, at around 11.15am on Saturday.

The boy named as Lisandro Agustin Lazarte was taken to hospital via private car where he was declared dead and witnesses at the scene of the football match said there were no medics on site to help.

Lazarte was playing for the Argentinos Juniors team against Club Atletico San Martin in a Tucuman football league match at the Natalio Mirkin Complex.

He played less than five minutes into the first half when he collapsed while running on the pitch.

Football teams, including Argentinos Juniors and Club Atletico San Martin, have expressed their condolences for Lazarte’s death.

Viviana Castillo, director of the Caps San Jose hospital where Lazarte was treated said: ‘Lizarte was admitted at 11.30am with cardiorespiratory arrest; cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed and he did not respond, then the relevant procedure was carried out with the police.’

His body was moved to the morgue for autopsy at around 5pm the same day.

Parents had complained about the match schedule and demanded the games took place when temperatures were lower.

The relevant authorities have been urged by local media to enforce health protections for athletes, especially during periods of intense heat in Argentina between 11am and 6pm.

Investigations are ongoing and there is no official cause of death yet.

Neighbouring South American country Brazil is experiencing a record-breaking heatwave and a two-year-old boy was left to die inside a school bus during it.

Apollo Gabriel Rodrigues was allegedly forgotten about by the driver and his wife as temperatures soared to 37°C last Tuesday.

The driver, named locally as Flavio Robson Benes, 45, discovered the toddler unconscious on the back of the seat at around 4pm.

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North Korea appears to have launched a ballistic missile, sparking an emergency alert in Japan.

The Japanese government issued a warning on Tuesday for residents in the south to take cover from the possible threat of a North Korean missile.

Japan said over its J-Alert broadcasting system that North Korea appeared to have fired a missile, sending out the warning to residents in the southern prefecture of Okinawa.

North Korea had earlier in the day notified Japan that it plans to launch a satellite, in what Tokyo and Seoul said could be a third attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Any attempts by North Korea to use ballistic rocket technology have been banned by the UN, even for non-military purposes.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida previously told his government to attempt to talk Pyongyang into scrapping the plan, in cooperation with the United States and South Korea.

‘If (North Korea) uses ballistic missile technology, that will constitute a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions even if it is aimed at launching a satellite,’ Kishida told reporters.

Japan’s NHK broadcaster has said it believes the rocket is likely to be a satellite.

Further reports suggest that the missile appears to have headed towards the Pacific Ocean, and the alert has since been lifted.

Japan’s coastguard did not take any steps to destroy the missile, its defence ministry has announced.

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For the first time since they became trapped in a Himalayan road tunnel, the faces of the 41 labourers have been captured on video.

The workers became stranded last Sunday about 500 feet from the Silkyara tunnel’s entrance after landslides caused a partial collapse in Uttarakhand, India.

Poking their heads through a pipeline that burst through the debris to grab a camera inside, rescuers made direct contact with the men last night.

In the clip, an emergency official asks the men to stand in front of the camera and smile and wave as they told them: ‘We will reach you all soon, don’t worry.’

The men, many migrant workers from far-flung states, form a semi-circle around the camera and can be seen wearing helmets and construction worker jackets inside the brightly lit three-mile-long tunnel.

One labourer was able to record a message to his loved ones, the Asian News Network reported.

‘Mother, do not worry about me, I am fine. Please, and father, eat your meals on time,’ said Jaydev, the worker.

The video, released by the state’s Department of Information and Public Relations, was filmed using a medical endoscopic camera tied to a flexible cable lowered into a six-inch pipe.

‘All workers inside the tunnel are safe,’ the department said on X.

In a press note, state officials said rescuers are providing steady supplies of ‘oxygen, nutritious food and water’, including dried fruit and the rice and lentil dish khichdi. Wi-Fi will also be installed.

Rescuers have now been working around the clock to rescue the men, sending supplies down pipelines and using drills and even robots to remove debris.

The workers were building a part of a road leading to four Hindu shrines, a plan plagued by environmental concerns and landslide fears that became a reality.

Steel pipes are now Indian officials’ silver bullet to get the workers out, with the plan for the men to crawl through the pipe to bypass the debris.

Rescuers and relatives are chatting with the workers on walkie-talkies (with one man being seen holding the two-way device in the clip) as state leaders say they are on ‘war footing’.

Pushkar Singh Dhami, the chief minister of Uttarakhand, said on X that the central government is assisting the government’s emergency response agency, the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and state administrators in the rescue effort.

‘We are working on a war footing to evacuate all the workers safely,’ he added.

Dhami told reporters today that an investigation into why the tunnel caved in will happen but only after the workers are rescued.

Karan Mehra, the head of Uttarakhand’s branch of the Indian National Congress (INC), a national political party also called Congress, led a ritual yesterday praying for their safe return.

The party officials came together in the Panchayathi Mandir temple in Dehradun to perform the Hindu ceremony known as a homa, in which offerings are burnt in a hearth-altar.

New Delhi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Goel also performed the rite, sometimes called havan, in the Hanuman Temple.

Sunita Hembrom, the sister-in-law of Surendra Kisko, one of the low-wage workers, managed to get a hold of Kisko.

‘He said, “Take care of yourselves, the children and parents,”‘ she told reporters, according to Reuters. ‘”Just tell us what they are doing to get us out of here.”‘

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Nearly a month since the first signs that Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall volcano could erupt, an expert says fewer earthquakes suggest it’s about to blow.

Or there could be ‘no eruption’ at all, Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at the UCL, told Metro.co.uk. The jury is out.

With officials saying the blast could occur with just ’30 minutes’ notice’, McGuire said the blast would be akin to a ‘fountain of lava’.

The Rekyjanes Peninsula just days ago saw up to 1,500 daily tremors, but the number has since dropped to less than 200.

Even as the Icelandic Met Office says this may be down to adverse weather affecting equipment, officials say the ‘chances of an unannounced eruption are smaller’.

The threat level in Grindavik has been lowered though locals are still unlikely to return home for ‘months’.

Underground magma continues to cause the ground to swell in Svartsengi as officials race to build walls to protect it from lava.

Travel advice from the Foreign Office remains unchanged, with tourists urged to check official guidance over whether it is safe to travel.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have attended a National Hockey League (NHL) game in Vancouver, Canada.

Harry was pictured dropping the puck for Tomas Hertl from the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes during a ceremonial face-off ahead of the whistle.

The duke joined his wife in the stands as they watched the Canucks win 3-1 over the Californian team.

The Invictus Games, the international multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick armed forces personnel, which the duke founded in 2014, will be held in Vancouver and Whistler in 2025.

The couple appeared in public together for the first time at the Toronto Invictus Games in 2017.

Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, made the ceremonial puck drop at a 2002 match, also between the Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks, during her two-week Golden Jubilee tour of Canada.

It was the first NHL game the Queen had attended since 1951 when, still a princess, she and Prince Philip watched the Montreal Canadiens take on the New York Rangers.

The Sussexes’ sporting outing comes a few days after Meghan’s surprise arrival at the Variety Power Of Women event in Los Angeles to celebrate the accomplishments of women in entertainment.

The former Suits actress said she was ‘thrilled’ to have returned to the entertainment industry with Archewell Productions and is ‘really proud’ of the projects they have has created so far, including docu-series Harry & Meghan and Heart Of Invictus.

She also teased future projects, saying: ‘We have so many exciting things on the slate… I can’t wait until we can announce them, but I’m just really proud of what we’re creating.

‘My husband is loving it too which is really fun.’

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Volodymyr Zelensky says he has survived at least five attempts on his life ordered by Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with the Sun, the Ukrainian president said there have been ‘five or six’ assassination plots foiled by his intelligence agents since the start of the Russian invasion last year. He described the first one as ‘very interesting’, but says over time they have become a matter of routine, ‘like Covid’.

‘The first one is very interesting, when it is the first time, and after that it is just like Covid,’ , he told the publication.

‘First of all, people don’t know what to do with it and it’s looking very scary.

‘And then after that, it is just intelligence sharing with you – detail that one more group came to Ukraine to (attempt) this.’

The initial attempt happened on the first day of Russia’s invasion on February 24 last year, when Russian special forces parachuted into Kyiv in an attempted decapitation strike on the Ukrainian capital.

But Zelensky says his bodyguards thwarted the plot by sealing off his office with makeshift barricades and issuing his aides with body armour and rifles.

British and US officials offered the president a way out of the capital shortly afterwards, fearing the regime would fall in a matter of hours.

However, Zelensky responded by telling them ‘I need ammo, not a ride’ and posted a defiant selfie in the streets of Kyiv, signalling an intention to stay and fight.

Almost two years later, the Ukrainian president says Putin still ‘wants very much’ to topple him from power and replace him with a pro-Russian puppet leader.

He says the operation is codenamed ‘Maidan 3’ – a reference to the Euromaidan revolution of 2014 which sparked the Russian annexation of Crimea and led to the outbreak of war.

‘[The operation] is meant to change the president. It’s bye bye,’ Zelensky said.

‘Maybe it’s not by killing. I mean it’s changing. They will use any instruments they have.

‘So that’s the idea, to the end of the year. They have even named the operation. But you see we can live with it.’

In August, Ukraine’s intelligence services (The SBU) said they foiled another attempt to kill Zelensky during an airstrike on the southern city of Mykolaiv.

SBU sources said they arrested a woman in connection with the incident who passed on secret details of the president’s trip to Mykolaiv over to Russia.

But when asked if Ukraine had responded by carrying out its own assassination attempts, Zelensky refused to comment.

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He said: ‘I can’t discuss with you any special operations of Ukrainian intelligence or Secret Service or of some special forces. There are some moments which we are not discussing. Not only inside Russia, there are things we are not discussing on our temporarily occupied territories.’

Elsewhere in the interview, Zelensky acknowledged the slow progress made by Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive, but said the incremental gains made on land had been offset by a number of major victories in the Black Sea.

His remarks come after the US Congress  recently rejected plans for an additional $60billion in military aid, amid claims in the Republican party the conflict has become a ‘forever war’.

Zelensky snapped back by claiming the ongoing conflict is ‘not a movie’ and told US lawmakers ‘we rely on your support’.

Despite this, a senior US defence official told journalists: ‘We continue to believe that Congress will provide that support and we are planning based on that conviction.’ 

Zelensky added: ‘Ukraine today [is] in the centre of these global risks of this Third World War. And I really think that Russia will push until the United States and China together will tell them very, very seriously to go out of [our] territory.’

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Two of Vladimir Putin’s senior security officials have suffered serious injuries after a car bombing.

Deputy interior minister Lt-Col Oleg Shumilov and criminal investigations chief Lt-Col Vladimir Pakholenko are both fighting for their lives following the blast.

The incident happened in the Ukrainian city of Luhansk, which is under Russian occupation.

Footage from the scene shows an inferno raging from the UAZ Patriot vehicle after it blew up.

Both of Putin’s officials escaped from the burning car but are in hospital with severe shrapnel wounds, according to local reports.

A criminal probe has been launched into what is being considered as an attempted assassination.

The SUV was reportedly being driven by Lt Col Pakholenko, who previously worked for the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs.

He later switched his allegiance to the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), which is led by Russia, in 2014.

It is the latest in a string of sabotage operations inside Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia.

On November 8, the former head of the LPR police, Mykhailo Filipenko, was also killed by a car bomb in Luhansk, according to news outlet Astra.

The attack will also serve as yet another blow to the Russian president with several key positions coming under attack in recent weeks.

On Thursday, a ‘kamikaze drone strike’ destroyed a missile base just days after Ukraine reportedly hit a Russian gunpowder factory and missile plant.

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The President of South Korea has warned that the world is facing a ‘polycrisis’ made up of multiple conflicts and threats.

On the eve of his state visit to the UK, President Yoon Suk Yeol called for deeper security ties with Britain amidst an unstable world.

Due to two major wars – in Ukraine and Israel – as well as increasing tension with Russia and North Korea, and in the South China Sea, the president is seeking support from the West.

Mr Yoon’s arrival in the UK on Monday will mark the first state visit since King Charles III’s coronation.

He is due to meet the king on Tuesday and Rishi Sunak on Wednesday, when it’s likely the two leaders will discuss defence cooperation.

The president told The Telegraph: ‘If the international community is to build peace and achieve sustainable prosperity, it must safeguard and strengthen the rules-based international order above all else.

‘We are currently facing a polycrisis that includes pandemics, climate change, the war in Ukraine and the armed conflict between Israel-Hamas.’

He also talked about other crises and threats, including Russia supplying North Korea with nuclear weapons technology. He added that he believes China is wary of aligning too closely with Moscow and Pyongyang.

South Korea is also grappling with a clash over Taiwan and disputes in the South China Sea.

Mr Yoon is now calling for greater trade links with the UK after Brexit.

Facing these multiple threats, the president has led South Korea to strengthen its links with Nato and have ‘very close security cooperation’ with the members of Aukus, which is the trilateral defence pact forged with the UK, US and Australia.

Mr Yoon will meet company executives at Mansion House in London on Wednesday to talk about future opportunities around deepening defence as well as business and investment.

He will then meet Mr Sunak in at 10 Downing Street in the afternoon, where it’s likely the pair will discuss the strengthening collaboration between Russia and North Korea.

For the last few months South Korean and US intelligence has warned that North Korea is supplying weapons to Russia as it continues waging war in Ukraine.

And this is, according to intelligence, possibly in exchange for help with Pyongyang’s increasing nuclear missile programme.

Mr Yoon continued: ‘North Korea’s provision of weapons to Russia will only prolong the war in Ukraine and increase the number of casualties.

‘In addition, if Russia offers military technologies to North Korea in return, it would threaten the security of the Republic of Korea and regional peace.’

The president has warned that both wars in Ukraine and the Middle East could spark more instability in the Korean Peninsula.

Mr Yoon added: ‘My upcoming state visit will serve as a catalyst for Korea to emerge as one of the United Kingdom’s global strategic partners.’

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More than 200 people connected to one of Italy’s biggest crime syndicates have been sentenced to hundreds of years in prison.

An Italian tribunal sentenced 207 people to a combined 2,100 years in prison on charges related to their membership in the ’ndrangheta family.

The mafia group is one of the world’s most powerful, extensive and wealthy drug-trafficking groups.

It took over an hour and 40 minutes to read aloud the court’s lengthy verdict, including the acquittal of 131 other defendants.

The drama unfolded in a bunker-stye courtroom in the southern Calabria region, where the mob organization was originally based.

The ’ndrangheta quietly amassed power in Italy and abroad as the Sicilian Mafia lost influence and now holds almost a monopoly on cocaine importation in Europe, according to prosecutors.

The organization also has bases in North and South America and is active in Africa, Italian prosecutors claimed.

Figures connected to the group have also been arrested in recent years around Europe and in Brazil and Lebanon.

The defendants had been charged with crimes that include drug and arms trafficking, extortion and mafia association – a term in Italy’s penal code for members of organised crime groups.

Others were charged with acting in complicity with the ’ndrangheta without actually being a member.

The charges grew out of an investigation of 12 clans linked to a convicted ‘ndrangheta boss.

The central figure, Luigi Mancuso, served 19 years in an Italian prison for his role in leading what investigators allege is one of the ‘ndrangheta’s most powerful crime families, based in the town of Vibo Valentia.

Vincenzo Capomolla, deputy chief prosecutor of Catanzaro, said prosecutors’ overall case held up with the convictions and confirmed the stranglehold the ‘ndrangheta held on Vibo Valentia.

‘The infiltration of the criminal organization in the province of Vibo Valentia was so deep-rooted and so widespread, so alarming, so disturbing that I think it can be noted that there was no aspect of the life of the social economic fabric of the province that was not conditioned by the capacity of the force of intimidation of this so dangerous criminal organization,’ he said.

Giuseppe Di Renzo, defense attorney for several of the defendants, however, noted that more than a third of the original defendants were fully acquitted, while others were found not guilty of some charges.

He criticized the disparate and large number of defendants, saying they showed there was no cohesive thread to the prosecutors’ case.

But Catanzaro’s former chief prosecutor who launched the investigation, Nicola Gratteri, said mafia trials often have to cast wide nets because of the very nature of how the criminal syndicates operate, infiltrating across wide swathes of society.

Several dozen informants in the case came from the ‘ndrangheta, while others formerly belonged to Sicily’s Cosa Nostra.

Awash in cocaine trafficking revenues, the ’ndrangheta has gobbled up hotels, restaurants, pharmacies, car dealerships and other businesses throughout Italy, especially in Rome and the country’s affluent north.

The buying spree spread across Europe as the syndicate sought to launder illicit revenues but also to make ‘clean’ money by running legitimate businesses, including in the tourism and hospitality sectors, investigators alleged.

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