In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said: “When normally good, honest people come in and they’re buying their shopping and it doesn’t scan, and there’s nobody manning the checkouts, they’re saying: ‘It’s not my fault and I don’t have much time so if I can’t get my strawberries through, I’ll just put them in my basket’.”
Presenter Sara Cox is thrilled to have been offered her ‘dream job’ hosting Radio 2’s Breakfast Show (Picture: Instagram/@djsaracox/BBC)
DJ and presenter Sara Cox has celebrated landing her ‘dream job’ hosting the Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 – replacing Scott Mills – with a special brunch alongside her closest pals.
Cox, 51, was announced in the job on Thursday and will launch her first breakfast edition later this year.
Taking to Instagram on Friday morning, Cox shared a sweet picture of her and two friends toasting her new role with something sparkling, over a tasty spread.
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‘Pre-breakfast show announcement booze-free bubbles with the greatest 2 wing women I could wish for. Always there to cheer me on or pick me up & dust me down,’ she wrote in the caption.
‘Thank you for decades of friendship, love, support & lols @melanierockcliffe & @megancarveruk ♥️’
‘So pleased for you Sara – well deserved 🫶🏼’ responded presenter Nicki Chapman in the comments, where Julia Bradbury added: ‘Congrats! Don’t envy you the early starts 😂 🙌🏽🙌🏽 so happy for you.’
‘How could it be anyone else 🙌 really going to miss you on teatime though… can’t you do both?’ asked someone else, while fellow fan Ann Brine added: ‘Will miss you on teatime but know you are going to be the best start to my day – you’re a ray of sunshine!’
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On the announcement of her moving up to breakfast time, Cox said: ‘There are not enough adjectives to really sum up how I’m feeling about being trusted with such an iconic show but let’s start with ecstatic, honoured and incredibly chuffed.
‘It’s been a dream to host the Breakfast Show since I joined Radio 2 and it feels like a bit of a full circle for me.’
The DJ also thanked her coach for helping, after celebrating with close friends (Picture: Instagram/@djsaracox)
She also gave a shout-out to ‘success coach’ Michael Heppell, after he celebrated her new role and said that he was ‘very proud’; they started working together in 2011.
‘My whole mindset and confidence changed when I met you @michaelheppell thank you [sic],’ she wrote across his post, sharing it to her Stories.
Addressing the news live on air during her Radio 2 weekday Teatime show last night, she added: ‘Takes quite a lot to make me speechless, but when I got asked to host the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, I was momentarily lost for words. Maybe that’s why they asked me, was it just to shut me up! But I mean, it’s always been my dream to do Breakfast, my energy has very much been waiting in the wings. “Hi, I am waiting in the wings gal! Can I have Breakfast please?!”’
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Cox insisted that she ‘wouldn’t swap the last seven years of Teatime because I’ve had an absolute blast’.
She admitted she was intially ‘speechless’ after being offered the job (Picture: Grant Buchanan/Dave Benett/Getty)
‘It has been the most golden seven years of my entire 30-year career, and I’ve learnt so much from you because you’re the most hilarious, brilliant listeners and I beg you – please come to Breakfast with me. Please I will send you all £5 and a clipper card.’
She also addressed requests that she spread herself over both Breakfast and Teatime, saying that she was ‘not allowed’.
‘So I am going to be moved to Brekkie at some point, and someone excellent, someone annoyingly brilliant will be taking over this slot and I’ll be fuming! But until then it’s me and you for Teatime.’
When will Sara Cox start on Radio 2’s Breakfast Show?
A date for her start is yet to be confirmed (Picture: Daniel Loveday/Comic Relief/Getty)
As with the presenter’s vague comments herself about moving to the Breakfast Show ‘at some point’, no firm date has yet been revealed publicly.
During the announcement, the BBC merely confirmed she would start ‘this summer’.
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In the interim, Gary Davies has been covering the slot – including from the time Mills was pulled off air after his March 24 show until his sacking was announced on March 30 – alongside fellow DJ OJ Borg.
Cox is continuing with Teatime for now while her replacement is confirmed, with her Radio 2 colleague Rylan Clark currently the bookies’ favourite for the job.
What other presenting roles has Sara Cox done?
Sara Cox has enjoyed a 30-year broadcast career across the likes of MTV, the BBC and Channel 4 (Picture: David Parry/PA)
Sara Cox started her broadcasting career on TV in 1996, presenting The Girlie Show on Channel 4, and later had stints on Channel 5 entertainment show Exclusive and Channel 4’s Born Sloppy.
She then scored a presenting role on MTV as the host of the late-night music show MTV Hot, before starting a presenting role with Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast, which she appeared on from 1998 – 2000 as the ‘on the bed interviewer’ talking to stars including Robbie Williams and Leonardo DiCaprio.
In 1999, she moved to the BBC, co-presenting a lunchtime Saturday show with Emma B and then fronting the Radio 1 Breakfast show the following year, taking over from Zoe Ball, until December 2003.
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The next year she moved to the afternoon ‘drivetime’ slot and presented a range of shows across the Beeb, before joining Radio 2 in 2011, launching her Sounds of the 80s programme two years later.
Cox at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 1998 (Picture: Hartwig Valdmanis/United Archives via Getty)
She has hosted BBC Radio 2’s drivetime/teatime show from Monday to Friday since 2019, replacing Simon Mayo, and also stood in for the Breakfast Show last year.
Cox also remains a TV regular, having hosted The Great Pottery Show Down and appeared on episodes of The Great Celebrity Bake Off and Britain’s Top Takeaways.
She also participated in charity events with the BBC, including taking part in a non-stop 24-hour 80s Dance Challenge in 2017 for Comic Relief, where she raised £1.2million, and raising more than £9.5m for her 135-mile marathon last year in aid of Children in Need.
She was previously a model after leaving school (Picture: Shutterstock)
‘I was homesick, so I ate all these foods, and the modelling agent said: “You got too fat, you’ve got to home!”,’ she told ITV’s Lorraine Kelly in 2019.
Cox also appeared in the music video for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s 1993 single Everyday and on a controversial poster for the 1995 video game WipEout, covered in blood.
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Shortly afterwards she began her broadcasting career, and the rest is history.
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ŠIAULIAI AIR BASE, Lithuania (AP) — When NATO’s call came, the French fighter pilots scrambled with practiced urgency, already suited up to shorten their response times.
They dashed in vans to hangars where their prepped and armed Rafale jets awaited, clambered into the cockpits and fired up the engines, which puffed and screamed.
Within minutes of takeoff from the Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania, they were over the Baltic Sea, first intercepting a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft and then tailing supersonic Russian bombers and their fighter escorts that neared the airspace of multiple NATO countries.
In a conflict situation, things could quickly get heated. But for the moment, with Russia and the military alliance at odds over Ukraine but not at war, pilots on both sides just watched and filmed each other — keeping their distance like wary tomcats with claws unsheathed, their missiles visible but not used.
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One of the points of the posturing — in aerial ballets that take place away from public gaze hundreds of times a year — is to try to ensure that the frostiness between NATO and the Kremlin over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine doesn’t tilt into open hostility.
Commanders and pilots flying NATO air-policing missions on the eastern flank of the 32-nation military alliance say that their goal is to deter, not provoke. They believe their presence is reassuring for Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — that border Russia and its ally Belarus but don’t themselves have airpower to fight off any Russian attack, if it ever came to that.
“It’s a game of cat and mouse, or rather cat and cat,” said Lt. Col. Alexandre, commander of a French air force wing of four Rafales that is sharing the Lithuanian base with another fighter detachment from Romania. Citing security concerns, the French military withheld the commander’s surname.
“We watch each other, scrutinize each other and try to make sure that it doesn’t go any further,” he said.
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Alliance members take turns policing Baltic skies around the clock, seven days a week. The French inherited the building that now serves as their temporary headquarters from a Spanish detachment. They will hand it over to Italian replacements in August. Successive teams leave plaques and badges on a wall that records their passage.
NATO scrambles jets to identify and possibly take other action when Russian planes fly in Baltic airspace without switched-on transponders and without filing flight plans or communicating by radio with air traffic controllers.
“There are plenty of times in which, on purpose or not, they’re not really respecting the ICAO — the International Civil Aviation Organization — rules, regarding flight plans and behavior,” said Col. Mihaita Marin, commanding the Romanian detachment of six F-16s.
“So obviously we are forced to take off and just make sure that they are who they say they are and their intention is peaceful,” he said.
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The arrival of spring, bringing better flying conditions, means French and Romanian flyers have been busy since they deployed at the start of April on four-month NATO rotations.
Marin said interceptions “are getting close to daily” and “that will definitely increase as the weather is getting better.”
French aircrews — watched by an Associated Press journalist who was reporting at the airbase — had their busiest day so far on Monday.
Scrambled under NATO command, French Rafales met and observed a pair of Russian Tu-22M3 bombers carrying supersonic, anti-ship missiles from their bellies that Russia has also used in Ukraine, repurposing them to attack ground targets, and which can be equipped to carry a nuclear warhead.
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The strategic bombers’ more than four-hour flight from an airbase near St. Petersburg, escorted by Su-30 and Su-35 fighters, remained in international airspace but took them past the coasts of NATO countries Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, doubling back when they approached Denmark.
The French detachment said the Russian planes didn’t have switched-on transponders, file flight plans or enter into radio contact. Fighter jets from Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Romania also went airborne to keep watch, according to the French. NATO didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The French commander, Lt. Col. Alexandre, said it isn’t clear why Russian pilots behave in ways that could endanger other users of Baltic airspace.
“We don’t know if it’s lack of professionalism or just a means for them to test us,” he said.
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“But what is sure is that we need to go every time,” he added. “We cannot say, ‘OK, that’s usual, this time we will just let them pass.’”
It comes just over a month after the author, 65, announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer
Best-selling novelist Jane Fallon has said her second breast cancer surgery “went well” and she is “looking forward to getting back to normal”.
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It comes just over a month after the author, 65, announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer following a routine mammogram.
The author has written 14 books, including Got You Back, Queen Bee and Welcome To The Neighbourhood. Her debut novel, Getting Rid Of Matthew, is being adapted for a comedy-romance film starring Wild Child actress Emma Roberts, Legally Blonde’s Luke Wilson and The Hangover’s Heather Graham.
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In a post on Instagram on Thursday, Jane – who is the long-term partner of comedian Ricky Gervais – said: “So, my second surgery went well. They got the clear margin they need on the original excision, which is great. They did hit a new little patch of precancerous cells on the other side of the new bit they took out but, thankfully, everyone agrees more surgery would be overkill.
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“A huge (percent) of pre cancer doesn’t develop into cancer. I saw the oncologist today and we’ve agreed the risks of radiation outweigh the benefits in my case. Which leaves Tamoxifen (or similar) or wait and see (my preferred option).
“I’m very nervous about going the drug route, because I know the side effects can be hideous, but I’m taking all the info on board & luckily there’s no pressure to make a quick decision.”
It was in March that Jane disclosed her diagnosis, despite having no symptoms. In an online update to her followers at the time, she wrote: “So… I thought I should post something as I’ve had a few people notice I’ve been a bit quiet on here lately. About a month ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer – very early stage thankfully and the prognosis is excellent.
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“I had a routine mammogram a week before Christmas. I had no symptoms but the brilliant radiographer spotted something iffy and sent me for further tests and eventually a biopsy. Since then I’ve had more mammograms, more biopsies and an MRI so they can pinpoint the problem area precisely. It’s been a lot, I’m not going to lie. But, my surgery is scheduled for the week after next and I just want to get it over with now.
“I’m getting incredible care and all will be fine but I’m not engaging with much beyond audiobooks and jigsaws tbh. Dr Eric on duty. Nurse Pickle wondering when lunch is.”
Jane has been in a relationship with Ricky since 1982. In addition to her successful writing career, she has also worked as a television producer, including on EastEnders, Teachers and This Life among other programmes.
That record high in points being scored has come despite teams keeping the ball in hand less.
Over the past five years, the ball has been kicked more than ever in the Women’s Six Nations, with a steady and consistent rise from an average of 26.1 kicks per game in 2021 to 44.7 in 2025.
The number of kick metres has doubled.
“I certainly was blessed with England when I came in, because I had so many really technically good players, who could kick the ball really well – Emily Scarratt, Katy Daley-Mclean and a number of other players – and that fit perfectly with how we wanted to play,” Middleton told BBC Sport.
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“Other teams didn’t have that for a long time.
“The whole staffing group level has risen significantly across all the nations, with an increase in coaching standards and a tactical awareness of playing a territory-based game, rather than a possession-based game.
“Over the last four or five years certainly, a lot of teams have probably shaped their key players to fit that.
“You look at Dannah O’Brien – she’s got a fantastic kicking game and Ireland built all their game around her, kick-chasing from inside their own half.
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“Wales with Lleucu George and Keira Bevan – they play a very kick-dominated game.
“During my time with England, France became a team that kicked more than we did.
“Two things have changed – the game understanding and the technical ability of players to be able to play that way.”
The US and Iran’s rival blockades of the Strait of Hormuz have become a “test of wills”, says BBC’s Chief International correspondent Lyse Doucet.
Earlier this month, US forces announced they would intercept or turn back vessels travelling to or from Iran’s coast.
Iran calls the blockade “piracy”, and its top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has said reopening the strait is “not possible” while the US maintains its naval blockade.
Lyse Doucet is reporting from Tehran on condition that none of her material is used on the BBC’s Persian Service. These restrictions apply to all international media organisations operating in Iran.
The car hit the man before the driver made off on foot towards Egton Close, leaving the man in severe pain.
The driver has since been arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, failing to stop, driving whilst disqualified and no insurance.
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He remains in police custody.
The pensioner was taken to James Cook University Hospital with serious injuries including a broken pelvis, broken back, broken foot and internal injuries.
He remains in hospital in a “serious” condition while receiving treatment.
Any witnesses to the collision are asked to contact Cleveland Police on 101, quoting reference number 075848.
In the Oval Office, Mr Trump hosted Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, and Lebanese ambassador to the US, Nada Moawad. Senior US officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also attended.
Writing on Truth Social, Mr Trump stated: “The Meeting went very well! The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah.”
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The Iran-aligned armed group, fighting Israel, was not present at the talks, maintaining its position that it has “the right to resist” occupying forces.
Mr Trump added that he looked forward to hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun soon.
Trump hosted Israel’s ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese ambassador to the US Nada Moawad in the Oval Office for a second round of US-facilitated talks, a day after Israeli strikes killed at least five people including a journalist (AFP/Getty)
The ceasefire, reached after talks between the two nations’ ambassadors to Washington last week, was set to expire on Sunday.
It has yielded a significant reduction in violence, but attacks have continued in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops have seized a self-declared buffer zone.
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‘Make Lebanon great again’
Ambassador Moawad, who went into the meeting seeking an extension of the ceasefire, thanked Trump for hosting the talks. “I think with your help, with your support, we can make Lebanon great again,” she said.
A Lebanese official earlier said Beirut would push for an Israeli withdrawal, the return of Lebanese detained in Israel and a delineation of the land border in a next phase of negotiations.
Israel has sought to make common cause with Lebanon’s government over Hezbollah, which was founded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and which Beirut has been seeking to disarm peacefully for the past year.
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Israeli ambassador Leiter said during the meeting that the talks must focus on rooting out Hezbollah rather than on Israel withdrawing its forces.
The Lebanon-Israel ceasefire has yielded a significant reduction in violence, but attacks have continued in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops have seized a self-declared buffer zone (AP)
“If Hezbollah and IRGC operatives continue to be treated with kid gloves, a real process of achieving our mutual goal will remain unachievable,” Leiter said, according to remarks shared by the Israeli embassy in Washington.
Asked how the US would help Lebanon to fight Hezbollah, Trump did not provide details but said the US had “a great relationship with Lebanon.” Trump said Israel had to be able to defend itself against attacks from Hezbollah.
Trump also called for Lebanon to abolish laws against engagement with Israel. “It’s a crime to talk with Israel?” he responded when asked about the statutes known as anti-normalization laws, which he did not appear to be aware of. “Well, I’m pretty sure that that will be ended very quickly. I’ll make sure of that,” Trump said.
Deadliest day since ceasefire
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The Israeli military said that Hezbollah militants fired a missile at an Israeli military aircraft on Thursday, while also targeting Israeli soldiers operating in southern Lebanon with rockets and a drone, in separate incidents. The militant group also fired rockets toward northern Israel, it said.
No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.
Israel’s military said it carried out a number of strikes in response, killing three Hezbollah militants and targeting the group’s infrastructure that was used to launch the attacks.
Lebanon’s health ministry had earlier said an Israeli air strike had killed three people and artillery shelling wounded two others, including a child.
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Wednesday was Lebanon’s deadliest day since the ceasefire took effect on 16 April.
(L-R) US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Israel Ambassador to US Yechiel Leiter listen as US President Donald Trump speaks (AFP/Getty)
Those killed by Israeli strikes included Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, according to a senior Lebanese military official and her employer, Al-Akhbar newspaper.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday it was reviewing an incident in which it had received reports that two journalists were wounded by strikes it said were aimed at vehicles departing a military structure used by Hezbollah. It said Israel does not target journalists.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the group wanted the ceasefire to continue but “on the basis of full compliance by the Israeli enemy”. At a televised press conference, he reiterated Hezbollah’s objections to the face-to-face talks and urged the government to cancel all forms of direct contact with Israel.
Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on 2 March, when the group opened fire in support of Iran in the regional war. The ceasefire in Lebanon emerged separately from Washington’s efforts to resolve its conflict with Tehran, though Iran had called for Lebanon to be included in any broader truce.
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Hezbollah said it carried out four operations in south Lebanon on Wednesday in response to Israeli strikes.
Nearly 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel went on the offensive following Hezbollah’s 2 March attack, according to Lebanese authorities.
Israel is occupying a belt of the south that extends 5 to 10 km (3 to 6 miles) into Lebanon, saying it aims to shield northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah, which has fired hundreds of rockets during the war.
Israel’s military reiterated a warning to residents of south Lebanon not to cross into the area.
The United States has burned through billions of dollars’ worth of its critical weapons stockpile in the war with Iran, according to a report.
The conflict, which began on February 28, has seen the Pentagon using more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles, each of which costs more than $4 million.
The military has also used up around 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles stockpiled for a war with China, according to congressional officials and internal Defense Department estimates obtained by the New York Times.
More than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired, too, which is around 10 times the amount currently bought by the U.S. Military each year.
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The United States has used much of its critical weapons stockpile in the war with Iran, according to a report by The New York Times (Getty)
Internal Pentagon estimates also suggested that around 1,100 JASSM-ER missiles, which cost around $1.1 million each, have been used. That has left just 1,500 of the projectiles in the military’s inventory.
“At current production rates, reconstituting what we have expended could take years,” Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said this week.
According to a study conducted in April by the American Enterprise Institute, the war has cost the United States between $25 billion and $35 billion. In the first two days of the conflict alone, the military burned through around $5.6 billion worth of munitions, a congressional source told The Hillin March.
Officials told The NYT that the Defense Department is still waiting for Congress to approve additional funding before it can pay manufacturers to replenish the military’s drained supplies.
The Trump administration announced in January that it had secured seven-year agreements with major defense contractors in order to increase production capacity for defense systems. That meant the defense manufacturers would agree to fund factory expansions in exchange for the long-term orders.
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The USS Abraham Lincoln was moved from the South China Sea to the Middle East before the conflict began (Getty)
However, officials told the publication that there has been no effort to begin the expanded production effort since the Pentagon is still scrambling to find the funding it needs.
“The United States has many munitions with adequate inventories, but some critical ground-attack and missile-defense munitions were short before the war and are even shorter now,” Mark F. Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The NYT.
Pentagon information obtained by the newspaper also found that the war has led to depletions in essential weapon systems deployed to defend NATO’s eastern flank in the event of Russian aggression. The ability to launch offensive operations in the region has also been damaged due to the loss of attack and surveillance drones.
Operations in the Pacific have been reduced, too, with the USS Abraham Lincoln being moved from the South China Sea to the Middle East before the conflict began. A third aircraft carrier, the USS George HW Bush, has also been moved to the region.
More than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired in the conflict, which is around 10 times the amount currently bought by the U.S. Military each year (Getty)
Officials told the publication that Patriot missiles from the THAAD system in South Korea, which were deployed to curb the looming threat from North Korean missiles, are being moved away to support the war effort with Iran.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed in a statement given to The NYT that the “entire premise of this story is false.”
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“The United States of America has the most powerful military in the world, fully loaded with more than enough weapons and munitions, in stockpiles here at home and all around the globe, to effectively defend the homeland and achieve any military operation directed by the commander in chief,” she said.
The Independent has contacted the White House and the Department of Defense for comment.
Zelensky says Ukraine does not need ‘symbolic’ partial EU membership
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected the idea of a partial EU membership for his war-hit nation.
Germany and France have proposed limited ”symbolic” or ”associate” EU membership for Ukraine as part of a peace deal, which would grant some benefits but exclude voting rights or full access to shared budgets.
“Ukraine does not need symbolic membership in the EU,” Zelensky said, speaking to reporters on his presidential WhatsApp chat on the way to Cyprus.
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“Ukraine is defending itself and is definitely defending Europe. And it is not defending Europe symbolically – people are really dying,” he said.
Zelensky added that Ukraine is defending “shared European values” and therefore saying the country deserves full membership in the 27-strong bloc of countries.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends the EU Summit in Ayia Napa, Cyprus (AP)
Arpan Rai24 April 2026 10:05
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Zelensky rules out territory swap with Putin: ‘Try to withdraw from your own house’
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has reiterated his administration’s stand on territorial concessions to Russia as part of any peace deal.
Zelensky said the land in question has history and shared values for millions of people.
“We never speak about Ukrainian territories just like about territories. It is not only land. It is our history, families, roots, children and houses,” he said, speaking to reporters outside the summit venue in Cyprus.
“When somebody says Ukraine should withdraw, please try to withdraw from your own house,” Zelensky added.
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Arpan Rai24 April 2026 09:45
Ukraine says it killed 12 FSB officers in an attack on command post
Ukraine’s drone wing says it has killed at least 12 officers and injured 15 others in a strike on a command post of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in the Donetsk region on Wednesday.
Unmanned Systems Forces commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi confirmed the attack yesterday and said Ukrainian forces used FP-2 drones manufactured by the Ukrainian defence company Fire Point.
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The drones can carry up to 100kg payloads and are used for medium-range strikes.
The operation, during which operators carried out “eight precision strikes on the target,” was conducted by the Unmanned Systems Forces together with fighters from the 1st Corps of the Ukrainian National Guard’s Azov Brigade, the statement from Brovdi read.
He said the command post hit in the attack is responsible for sabotage operations, building intelligence networks, recruitment, carrying out terrorist attacks and arson, and coordinating Russian proxy forces.
Soldiers demonstrate how the Tencore Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) TerMIT is used for evacuation procedures (Getty)
Arpan Rai24 April 2026 09:30
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EU finally approves €90bn Ukraine loan – how will it aid the fight against Russia?
The loan is set to cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s needs for the next two years. Economists had warned Ukraine would run out of money by June without the EU loan, necessitating deep cuts to public services.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen stated: “While Russia doubles down on its aggression, we are doubling down on our support to the brave Ukrainian nation enabling Ukraine to defend itself and putting pressure on Russia’s war economy.” The move underscores the EU’s continued commitment to Kyiv.
Arpan Rai24 April 2026 09:11
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Prince Harry, on visit to Kyiv, tells Putin to ‘stop this war’
Prince Harry made an unannounced visit to Kyiv and called on Russia’s president Vladimir Putin to end the war – a week after a massive Russian aerial attack on the country – and on US president Donald Trump to show leadership to help resolve the conflict.
By convention, the British royal family do not speak out on political matters, although King Charles and other senior royals have regularly voiced their support for Ukraine.
But Harry, on his third visit to the country since the war began, used far more explicit language than any of his relatives have done previously.
“President Putin, no nation benefits from the continued loss of life we are witnessing. There is still a moment – now – to stop this war, to prevent further suffering for Ukrainians and Russians alike, and to choose a different course,” Harry said in a speech to a Kyiv security forum.
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He called on Washington to do more to bring about an end to the war.
“This is a moment for American leadership, a moment for America to show that it can honour its international treaty obligations,” he said.
“Europe has stood up in profound ways,” said the British Army veteran who served in Afghanistan.
“The task now is to match endurance with speed, solidarity with scale, and commitment with consistency,” he said.
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Prince Harry shakes hands with Kyiv Security Forum Chair Arseniy Yatsenyuk at the start of the forum in Kyiv (Reuters)
Arpan Rai24 April 2026 09:10
Russian diplomats say new EU sanctions are ‘economic blackmail’
Russian diplomats have denounced the latest European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow in connection with its invasion of Ukraine, saying the new measures lacked UN legitimacy and infringed the rights of third countries.
Russian news agencies quoted a statement by diplomats at Russia’s mission to the European Union as saying the measures were meaningless without a decision from the UN Security Council.
“We would like to remind you that only sanctions imposed by the decision of the UN Security Council are legitimate,” state news agency TASS quoted the statement as saying.
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“All others are unilateral coercive measures, and essentially — arbitrariness and aggression that contradict international law and the UN Charter.”
RIA news agency said the statement accused the EU of restricting exports of specific goods to a number of countries cooperating with Russia and said this was “resorting to economic blackmail and extraterritorial application of sanctions”.
The EU adopted its 20th package of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine after Slovakia and Hungary dropped their opposition to the move following the resumption of flows through the Druzhba oil pipeline.
The EU had initially aimed to adopt the package to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
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Russian president Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via video link at the Kremlin in Moscow (Reuters)
Arpan Rai24 April 2026 08:49
Watch | ‘How’s his wife?’: Trump slams Prince Harry after Duke of Sussex’s plea to support Ukraine
‘How’s his wife?’: Trump slams Prince Harry after Duke of Sussex’s plea to support Ukraine
Arpan Rai24 April 2026 08:34
Ukraine says it is in ‘strongest frontline position in a year’ as Russian advance grinds to a halt
Andrii Sybiha credited the progress to Kyiv’s superiority in drone warfare and air defence, which he claimed had the ability to shoot down up to 90 per cent of attacks.
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He added: “For us, the situation on the battlefield is about strengthening our negotiating position. We can shoot down up to 90 per cent of the targets that strike our cities… [Ukraine’s] position on the battlefield is indeed the strongest, or the most solid, it has been over the past year.”
Earlier this month, Agence France-Presse analysed data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and found that Russia had made almost no territorial gains across the frontline in March. It marks the country’s worst progress in two and a half years.
Arpan Rai24 April 2026 08:14
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Russia says it foils a plot to bomb telecoms watchdog leaders
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it had foiled a plot to bomb senior officials at the country’s telecoms watchdog, the Interfax news agency reported this morning.
The FSB said the leader of the plotters was shot dead while resisting arrest.
A total of seven people were detained, the FSB said. The FSB said searches had found links to Ukrainian paramilitary units during searches.
“On 18 April 2026, a terrorist attack against Roskomnadzor officials, planned by detonating a vehicle using an explosive device, was foiled,” the FSB was quoted as saying.
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Arpan Rai24 April 2026 07:57
EU has started push for 21st package of sanctions against Russia, Kallas says
The European Union has started pushing for a 21st package of sanctions against Russia, the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said this morning, one day after the EU adopted the 20th sanctions package against Russia over Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
“We’re really pushing to go on with the 21st package of sanctions,” Kallas told reporters ahead of an informal summit of EU leaders in Cyprus.
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“It sends a very clear signal to Russia that they can’t outwait us. It also sends a clear signal to Russia that Ukraine is more important to us than it is to them, and we will keep on supporting them.”
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