Millions of children in the Philippines returned to school as the academic year started on Monday, with many taking their seats in classrooms for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic hit.. The Philippines is one of the last countries in the world to resume full-time, in-person lessons -- sparking warnings that the prolonged closure of classrooms had worsened an education crisis in the country.
Woolly socks and thermostats turned down a notch: Europeans are preparing for a difficult winter without gas supplies from Russia, part of the fallout from the war in Ukraine.. - 'Operation Thermostat' - The gas supply from Russia to Germany from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has already been drastically cut back.
On the front line south of the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, a 40-year-old combat medic nicknamed "Doc" is preparing to mark the six month anniversary of Russia's invasion in a trench.. - A third front - In Mykolaiv, the war now seems like nothing new.
From her engagement to Prince Charles as a shy teenager to her roles as doting mother, humanitarian and global celebrity, Diana's turbulent 36-year life still captivates people around the world.. Heir to the throne Prince William was born the following year, followed by Prince Harry two years later.
Six months after Russian forces launched what they hoped would be a blitzkrieg invasion of Ukraine, the conflict has turned into a grinding campaign of daily air strikes and battles with no clear endgame in sight.. - Military hardware and intelligence data from Europe and the US have allowed Ukrainian forces to slow -- but not stall -- Russian forces in the Donbas and along the Black Sea coast.
The royal family's perceived botched response to Diana's death sparked a gradual and largely successful shift in its image management, but recent crises have renewed questions about that modernisation effort.. "Diana's death is this whirlwind moment, which requires the monarchy to reorientate its public image, to embrace a more modern, expressive kind of celebrity image as a way of appealing to audiences," royal historian Ed Owens told AFP. Noting "that story lives on through her sons", he sees particular peril in Harry's apparent estrangement, the queen's recent handling of scandal-tarred Andrew and heir Charles' looming reign.
Eccentric former NBA star Dennis Rodman is planning a trip to Russia in an effort to seek the release of imprisoned WNBA player Brittney Griner, NBC News reported on Sunday.. "I got permission to go to Russia to help that girl," Rodman told NBC. "I'm trying to go this week."
Russia might take the provocative step of putting Ukrainian soldiers on trial as Kyiv marks 31 years of independence for the war-ravaged country next week, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Sunday.. Zelensky cited media reports that Russia was preparing to put Ukrainian fighters captured during the siege of Mariupol on a public trial to coincide with the independence anniversary Wednesday.
Rescue workers searched through the rubble of a Shiite Muslim shrine in central Iraq into Sunday night, after a landslide killed at least five people including a child.. - 'Mobilise all efforts' - Iraqi President Barham Saleh on Twitter called on the "heroic" rescue workers to "mobilise all efforts to save the trapped people".
The daughter of Alexander Dugin, a hardline Russian ideologue close to President Vladimir Putin, has been killed in a car bombing on Moscow's outskirts, authorities said on Sunday.. According to family members quoted by Russian media, Dugin -- a vocal supporter of Kremlin's offensive in Ukraine -- was the likely target of the blast as his daughter borrowed his car at the last minute.
