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Labour has mothballed plans to make it easier to legally change gender, The Times has learnt, in a step to counter Reform UK’s surge in the polls.

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania completed a switch from Russia's electricity grid to the EU's system on Sunday, severing Soviet-era ties amid heightened security after the suspected sabotage of several subsea cables and pipelines.

In August 2024, I resigned over the UK government’s refusal to halt arms sales to Israel amid the bombardment of Gaza. This decision followed over a year of internal lobbying and whistleblowing. My resignation made headlines, and weeks later, the new Labour government announced it would finally suspend arms sales to Israel. While this was welcome, it came far too late. Israel has continued to commit atrocities in Gaza as the UK stands by, unwilling to act.

In January 2024, Russia was losing far fewer troops — an average of 846 a day, according to the UK MOD.

But it was attracting between 1,000-1,100 new recruits a day, according to an estimate from Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy chief major general of Ukraine's main military intelligence arm, more than enough to replace those lost.

Some estimates of Russia's current military recruitment, alongside soaring casualty figures, suggest that this may no longer be the case.

The agreement builds not only on Russian-Iranian cooperation regarding Ukraine and efforts to evade Western sanctions, but also on the North-South Transport Corridor – an initiative championed by Moscow to facilitate trade from Asia to Russia.

This route, designed to bypass geopolitical choke points like the Suez Canal and the Baltics, favours a land corridor through Iran, Azerbaijan, and the Caspian Sea.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pledged to take the “strongest possible action” against Russia if it is confirmed that Russian forces killed a Melbourne school teacher in their captivity in Ukraine.

Pappe later told the audience that since the outbreak of Israel’s latest war on Gaza, he has been shocked by Europe’s response.

“I share with a lot of people a surprise at the European position,” he said on stage. “Europe, that claims to be a model of civilisation, ignored the most televised genocide of modern times.”

This is an attempt by a new leadership of Zionism to complete the work that they started in 1948, namely of taking over officially the whole of historical Palestine and getting rid of as many Palestinians as possible and in the same process, and [this is] something new, creating a new Israeli empire that is either feared or respected by its neighbours – and therefore can even expand territorially beyond the borders of mandatory or historical Palestine.

Historically, I’m willing to say with some caution that this is the last phase of Zionism. Historically, such developments in ideological movements, whether they are colonials or empires, it’s usually the final chapter [that is] the ruthless one, the most ambitious one. And then it’s too much and then they fall and collapse.

The Tesla tycoon said Mr Farage, who founded the party and is credited with its recent surge in the polls, “does not have what it takes”.

His call for change comes as a bitter blow after days of Mr Farage fawning over the world’s richest man, describing him as “a hero” and claiming he makes Reform “look cool”.

Ukraine has launched a fresh offensive in Russia's Kursk region, the Russian defence ministry says. In a statement, the ministry said efforts to destroy the Ukrainian attack groups were ongoing. Officials in Ukraine have also suggested an operation is under way. Ukraine first launched its incursion into Russia's Kursk region in August last year, seizing a chunk of territory.

On December 3, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was ready to invite Russia to the second Peace Summit. However, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is not interested in peace.

The United States will provide Ukraine with $15 billion, backed by future revenues from frozen Russian assets, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced on Dec. 30.

The agreement was signed between Ukraine's Finance Ministry and the World Bank, Shmyhal said.

"These funds are part of the PEACE in Ukraine project and represent a portion of the $20 billion U.S. contribution under the G7 initiative, which will be allocated to social and humanitarian expenditures," Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.

"We thank the United States and the World Bank for implementing and supporting this initiative, which forces Russia to pay for its aggression against Ukraine," he added/

A day after a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla, another Jeju Air airplane, also a Boeing 737-800, experienced a landing gear malfunction.

Jeju Air Flight 7C 101, which departed from Gimpo International Airport at 6:37 a.m. on Monday with 161 passengers, reported a landing gear malfunction shortly after takeoff and was forced to return to the airport, according to airline industry sources on Monday.