Russian president Vladimir Putin visits the Kerch bridge linking Russian-occupied Crimea with the Russian mainland, after an attack damaged it.
AP/Alamy
About 100,000 Crimean Tatars died as part of a massive deportation of these people by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin towards the end of the second world war.
On the attack: a Ukrainian tank crew on the front line near Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine.
LE PICTORIUM/Alamy Stock Photo
Ukraine’s summer push is now showing signs of real progress, but don’t expect an end to the war anytime soon.
Niger’s Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani declares himself head of state on 28 July 2023.
ORTN-Télé Sahel/AFP via Getty Images
Ethnic politics, the presence of foreign troops and the weaknesses of past responses to coups encouraged Niger’s recent military takeover.
Visitors to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima view a large-scale panoramic photograph of the destruction following the 1945 bombing.
Carl Court/Getty Images
The United States and Russia, the two biggest nuclear powers, have no imminent plans for talks on a nuclear deal. That should change, writes a former US diplomat.
Valery Sharifulin/Kremlin Pool/EPA/AAP
Putin has progressively sickened Russian society, creating a toxic culture that celebrates xenophobia, nativism, and violence.
Three 3D views of Bradysaurus baini specimen (FMNH UC 1533). Scale bar equals 50 cm. Published in Van den Brandt et al. 2023
Credit: Fabio Manucci and Marco Romano
Large pareiasaurs are among the earliest huge plant-eating tetrapods to appear in the history of the development of life on Earth.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) shake hands with Chinese Presiden Xi Jinping.
plavi011/Shutterstock
Following deteriorating relations with the West, Russia has shifted focus to Asia, and hold China to help expand its influence.
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The NATO summit in Vilnius has kicked the prospects of Ukraine’s membership into the long grass. Kyiv, however, has other security tricks up its sleeve.
Police officers look at collected fragments of Russian rockets, including cluster rounds, that hit Kharkiv, Ukraine, in December 2022.
(AP Photo/Libkos)
Ideally, Russia would withdraw from Ukraine peacefully. Absent this, cluster munitions represent an effective way for Ukraine to defeat Russia’s invasion.
Many ordinary civilians are helping organise charity and supplies for those people who have crossed into Russia from conflict zones in Ukraine.
Vasilii' Derjugin/Kommersant/Sipa USA
Despite wanting the war to be over, ordinary Russians are rallying to ‘do their bit’ to support their country’s troops at the frontline.
Delegates at the Russia-Africa Economic Forum in Sochi, 2019.
Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
African leaders at the second Africa-Russia summit need to speak with one voice.
Seeking divine help? Neither Moscow nor Minsk wants Wagner Group mercenaries stationed in Belarus to get out of control.
EPA-EFE/Alexander Demyanchuk/Sputnik/Kremlin pool
Wagner Group mercenaries in Belarus remain a worrying wild card with possible consequences for the conflict and the wider region.
SB 266 aims to stop college professors from teaching about systemic racism.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Tactics used to censor the teaching of American history in Florida schools bear much in common with those seen in the illiberal democracies of Israel, Turkey, Russia and Poland.
New best friends? Syrian president Bashar al-Assad greets Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in Damascus, May 2023.
Syrian Presidency via Facebook via AP
Despite initiatives which appear to be normalising Suria’s relations with Arab states, Damascus remains isolated and insecure.
Vasily Deryugin/Kommersant Publishing House/AP
Russia has long been a ‘paramilitarised’ regime, where the state can be challenged and undermined, but is not completely destroyed, by paramilitary or criminal groups.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Africa Summit in 2019 in Sochi, Russia.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
The Russia-Africa summit has obvious benefits for Moscow: it conveys a perception of normalcy and the tacit approval of African elites.
Fuel tanks burn after a shelling Russian officials said was conducted by Ukrainian forces at a fuel depot in Makiivka in Russian-controlled Donetsk region on July 5, 2023.
(AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
Claiming the moral high ground in any war isn’t just about justifying a war effort — it’s also about how a war is fought. Both Ukraine and Russia, sadly, have plenty of civilian blood on their hands.
The grain deal allowed Ukrainian corn and other products to reach ports in Lebanon and elsewhere.
AP Photo/Hassan Ammar
Russia’s move, which it followed by bombing the key port city of Odesa and threatening to attack any ship sailing for Ukraine, sent global food prices skyrocketing.
A Ukrainian soldier prepares to fire a Russian TOS-1A Solntsepyok heavy flame-thrower rocket launcher, captured by a Ukrainian army battalion, towards Russian positions on the frontline near Kreminna, Luhansk region, in July 2023.
(AP Photo/Libkos)
The slow pace of the Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia doesn’t suggest military success for Ukraine is impossible.
Traffic was stopped on the bridge, linking Crimea with Russia, on July 17 after a suspected drone attack.
Sipa/Alamy
Crimea has historic symbolism to Russians, so attacks there are considered highly damaging.