A British man convicted of being a mercenary after fighting in Ukraine has had his prison sentence extended by 2 years by a Russian court. Hayden Davies was captured by Russian forces in 2024 while serving in the Ukrainian Army’s Foreign Legion.

It was a pleasure to meet Ambassador Suzuki at the Japanese Embassy last week! Unfortunately Paddington was too shy to be in the photo…

The WSJ: NATO has been shown to be *utterly* unprepared for modern warfare after TWO battalions were "wiped out" in one day during a recent exercise in Estonia by a Ukrainian unit of just ten men armed with drones (It was just a simulation, of course) www.wsj.com/opinion/nato...

Sad to hear that the historian and dissident Roy Medvedev has died. I remember reading his books studying Russian at university. meduza.io/news/2026/02...

Missed this from a few days ago - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says "Ukraine is our enemy" This comes as the EU attempts to fast-track membership for Kyiv - which could require unanimous approval of members www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/202...

A ten-foot bull shark mauled British man Peter Smith in Tobago in 2024, in waist-deep water Miraculously, he fought the shark & survived Read his incredible story in an exclusive interview Thanks: Myranda Mowafi, Sarah Jackson www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

There’s already an enormous queue (in the ☔️) snaking around several streets to get into Phonica Records in Soho, London for the advance play of Harry Styles’s new single. People at the front say they guessed which shop it would be before the announcement!

Vladimir Putin doing cartwheels round the Kremlin Parts One & Two

Utility workers remove giant icicles from a building in Moscow. When I lived in St Petersburg in the mid-2000s, every winter there'd be a few stories of falling icicles killing pedestrians...

More on the Tories' policy of banning social media among under 16s...

Buxton, Peak District, this morning

Latest snow news from Trentham Monkey Forest, Staffordshire...

At a gritting depot in Nottingham this morning with all the latest on the preparations for storm Goretti - for @BBCBreakfast, @BBCNews channel 📺 and all updates Online 💻

Important part of moving back to the UK: getting a library card! 📚

Gen-Z are increasingly switching off the phones and going back to 'real life' dating - singles nights built around rock-climbing, karaoke and even saunas. If you missed my radio report - listen again here 📻👇 soundcloud.com/will-vernon-...

A bit of fun for Christmas...my report on sauna dating!

It’s been a difficult year for the BBC, but there are also lots of things to be proud of:

More than one hundred people gathered outside St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in central London today as a counter-protest in response to far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s ‘Christmas’ rally later in the capital.

Incredible www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Witkoff-Putin talks lasted for 5 hours but failed to achieve anything tangible. But they could claim to be the longest so far: Feb: 3.5 hrs, according to SW Mar: Putin reportedly kept SW waiting for 8 hrs, talks rumoured to be short 11 Apr: 4.5 hrs 25 Apr: 3 hrs Aug: <3 hrs

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The High Court has refused an injunction to force two London homeowners to allow the family of Muriel McKay, who was kidnapped fifty-five years ago, to conduct a “ground-penetrating radar survey” of their shared back garden in a bid to find her body.

The temperature in the village of Oymyakon, in the Siberian region of Yakutia in Russia, has reached -50 degrees Celsius, according to local metereological officials. Oymyakon is often dubbed "the coldest place on Earth".

My latest update on chess hero Bodhana ♟️ (Thanks to Malcolm Pein) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I chatted to the BBC Global News podcast about money laundering! 👀📽️Watch it below www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C3C...

UK Defence Secretary John Healey says Britain has "military options" to respond with if the ship heads south... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

🥳🥳🥳 📺 Line of Duty to return for seventh series on BBC www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What's in store for fans under the expected ban on profit-making ticket resale? youtu.be/7zQ8ySGWhx0

A man from the Russian city of Voronezh has been fined 50,000 rubles (£470, $615) for playing a song in his car by Ukrainian singer Verka Serduchka, who is blacklisted in Russia. ('Gulyanka', which is one of Serduchka's best, IMHO). The charge: 'discrediting the Russian military'

The clean up in Monmouth has begun...our report for BBC News at 10 Camera/edit: Alex Shaw youtu.be/19j-XHySpRw

As Ulyanovsk becomes the first region to admit switching off mobile internet in areas, was the Russian communications agency preparing the public for more shutdowns? This is what they posted on social media on 8 November: the joys of living without wi-fi (on intnl wifi-free day)

Authorities Russia's Ulyanovsk Region say mobile internet in large parts of the province will stay switched off until the end of the war in Ukraine. Officials claim the restrictions were imposed by Moscow, & will only be in place near strategic sites but could include whole towns

The governor of Russia's Transbaikal Territory, in the far east of the country, has appealed to officials in Moscow for help solving fuel shortages. Alexander Osipov reportedly wrote to the Russian Prime Minister and Energy Ministry after petrol stations ran dry in several towns.

Chinese astronauts say they've held the first ever barbecue in space. The crew of the Tiangong space station are seen cooking and eating chicken wings using a specially-adapted space oven that enables smoke-free baking in a microgravity environment.

Russian authorities say Ukrainian drones caused damage to an oil-exporting facility at Tuapse, one of the largest oil terminals on the Black Sea. Officials in the Krasnodar Region said drone fragments hit a tanker & damaged port buildings. Videos posted online showed big fires

When I tried to pronounce the longest word in Russian on the BBC News channel... Тетрагидропиранилциклопентилтетрагидропиридопиридиновые

The state institute that studies the Russian language says it's discovered the longest word in Russian. The Pushkin Institute says a chemical compound described in an academic paper has 55 letters. In English, the word is tetrahydropyranylcyclopentyltetrahydropyridopyridine.

An eighteen-year-old musician from the Russian city of St Petersburg has been fined for "discrediting the armed forces" for playing a song by a blacklisted popstar. Diana Loginova was taken to court immediately after being released from a thirteen-day jail sentence for...

The speaker of Georgia's parliament has said the ruling party has filed a lawsuit to ban the country's three largest opposition parties. Shalva Papuashvili said the Georgian Dream faction has asked the constitutional court to declare the parties' activities as unconstitutional.

Japan's military will be deployed to help counter a sharp rise in bear attacks in the Akita prefecture. The regional governor had called on the army to protect residents.

Donald Trump has said the first batch of US-made missiles for Japan's F-35 planes will be delivered "this week." Mr Trump made the announcement to troops aboard an aircraft carrier (the USS George Washington) near Tokyo, after a meeting with Japan's new prime minister.

The craziest thing you'll read today... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Russian state TV channels this morning are blaming the “pro-war European elites” and western media for delaying the summit between Trump and Putin in Budapest.