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UK fighter jets intercepted a Russian maritime patrol aircraft after it "repeatedly approached" a carrier strike group in the Norwegian Sea, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. The Russian Bear-F plane passed at low altitude and "unnecessarily close" to the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier and is believed to have dropped 10 sonobuoys into the water on Thursday, the MoD added. The MoD said Moscow's activity in the Norwegian Sea was "unsafe and unprofessional". It comes weeks after Royal Marines boarded a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the English Channel , while the head of the military has warned the risks and threats facing the UK are greater now than at any time since the Cold War. The UK's Carrier Strike Group is currently deployed off Iceland under Nato command, with 1,500 British personnel on board. The group consists of HMS Prince of Wales, Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan, F-35 jets, Merlin and Wildcat helicopters, and is sup...

With your back to the wall, you don’t also bang your head into it. Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely in his most precarious position yet. But as NATO meets in Ankara this week, is this the moment he chooses truly to test the alliance? His war of choice is dragging down the Russian economy – along with his poll ratings – and is also into its fifth year. As Kyiv’s long- to mid-range bombardments continue,  causing gas shortages   and damage so broad that Moscow’s skyline belches black smoke, questions mount as to what Putin can do to respond to Ukraine's new-found confidence . Chief among them is whether he can, or will, escalate in return – against Ukraine, but also its NATO backers. There persists a steady drumbeat of concern Russia might open a new front in Europe. Poland has reportedly been warned by the United States that Moscow might attack – in a limited fashion, perhaps with drones or another form of hybrid warfare, but still in a way that ...

Cuba suffered a nationwide blackout on Monday as it faces an ongoing energy crisis , worsened by an effective US blockade on fuel shipments. Cuba’s energy ministry said the national electrical grid had suffered a total collapse. The country’s grid operator said it is investigating the cause. Cuba has experienced several nationwide blackouts over the past few years, as the country’s aging electricity infrastructure struggles to meet demand. The country’s power crisis worsened this year after the US forced Cuba’s main suppliers to stop oil shipments. In March, it had at least two  total blackouts within a week. The energy crunch has strained essential services , including education, transportation and medicine. Fresh sanctions by the US have also further deteriorated the Cuban economy and prevented many tourists from visiting the island. The US says the economic stranglehold is meant to force the Cuban government to pry open the island’s hermeti...

LAGUAIRA/CARACAS, June 27 (Reuters) - The death toll from Venezuela's devastating twin earthquakes  rose ​above 1,400 on Saturday as foreign rescue teams poured into the country and authorities pressed on with the search ‌for survivors in the hardest-hit coastal areas. The updated toll came as rescuers fanned out across La Guaira and parts of Caracas, where families and volunteers have spent days pulling survivors  and bodies from the rubble, often complaining of scant heavy equipment and a limited official presence. Officials said more than 1,600 foreign rescuers had arrived ​and that additional teams were on the way, adding to a growing international response to the twin quakes that struck ​on Wednesday and unleashed hundreds of aftershocks. In La Guaira, a coastal state popular with beachgoers, residents said ⁠the disaster response had been uneven, with some people digging through collapsed buildings by hand in search of missing relatives. Top lawmaker ​Jor...

Russian-installed authorities declared a state of emergency in Crimea on Friday, as repeated, intensified Ukrainian strikes on the peninsula lead to widespread power outages and fuel shortages. Blackouts have plagued Sevastopol, the largest city in Russian-controlled Crimea, for days. The Kremlin-installed governor of the city, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Friday that restrictions to electricity supply would continue because repair work to the power grid had been suspended following air raid alerts prompted by Ukrainian drone activity. Ukraine’s drone forces commander Robert Brovdi  said Kyiv had attacked Sevastopol’s main power substation seven times in the early hours of Wednesday. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, a move widely condemned by the international community, after the Maidan protests ousted Ukraine’s then pro-Kremlin president, Viktor Yanukovych. The port city of Sevastopol was historically home to the headquarters for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Ukrainian Preside...

President Donald Trump has unveiled a new Boeing 747-8 jet for Air Force One that the Qatari government donated last year as an "unconditional" gift to the US. The US military has finished modifications to the luxury jumbo jet, which has been valued at an estimated $400m (£300m). "This plane was transformed into a flying White House at a level of luxury that nobody's ever seen before," Trump said in a speech at Joint Base Andrews on Friday. The US Air Force said in a press release that the jet will begin initial commissioning flights - a "final exam" to test out the aircraft's modifications - before it will be used to transport the president. Modifications to the jet included upgrades in security, mission communications, logistics support, and advanced technology, the Air Force said. Any potential threats from the previously owned aircraft have been "neutralised", it added. The interiors of the aircraft have been m...

When Tim Cook retires in September, he’ll close a remarkable 15-year chapter of the Apple brand story. When Cook succeeded Steve Jobs as CEO in 2011, many observers thought Apple’s best days were behind it. Few predictions have turned out so dramatically wrong. Under Cook’s leadership , Apple became the first publicly traded company worth $1 trillion and the world’s most admired brand. But numbers alone don’t explain Cook’s success. If Steve Jobs was the greatest business storyteller of our time, Tim Cook was the most consistent storyteller. The consistency was on display when Cook took his final bow  at the company’s annual worldwide developers conference (WWDC). After Apple executives introduced new services, software, and AI capabilities for Siri, Cook ended the opening day’s keynote by saying, “Creating the best products in the world that enrich people’s lives has always been our North Star.” The Difference Between a Mission Statement and a North Star The ...

Beijing/Hong Kong  —    When the wheels of Air Force One lifted up from Beijing on Friday, US President Trump was wrapping a three-day visit  with many questions still outstanding about what exactly he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had agreed to. Over the weekend, statements from both sides have started to demystify the outcomes of a meeting that was largely about resetting the tone between the world’s top economies after a fractious year that drove both to the edge of decoupling. Now, the US and China are poised to set up two new institutions – a “board of trade” and a “board of investment” – to manage those economic ties, statements from the White House and China’s Ministry of Commerce confirmed Sunday. The White House also said that China would purchase at least $17 billion per year of US agricultural products and make an initial purchase of 200 American-made Boeing aircraft. Beijing’s readout did not directly confirm those deals, saying instead t...