Explosions are being reported in the southern city of Kherson as Ukrainian soldiers prepare for an intensified battle to return the strategic port on the west bank of the Dnipro River under their control. Russia is increasing its evacuation of residents from the conflict zone and acknowledging the deteriorating situation …

A St Petersburg court is due to hear the case on 25 November of Danara Erendzhenova, who held up a poster outside the city’s Buddhist temple. “Militarism is very expensive – Dalai Lama XIV”, it read, which police claim “discredits” Russia’s armed forces. A Chita court fined Vitaly Goryachikh two …

In spite of US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley’s recently having said that the White House is not going to “waste our time” on the nuclear deal “if nothing’s going to happen,” he nevertheless stressed that the Biden administration is still committed to employing diplomacy, presumably to revive it …