Pope Leo XIV has described Barcelona's Sagrada Família as a masterpiece of stones, colours and light as he inaugurated its newest - and tallest - tower. The giant Tower of Jesus Christ, completed in February, has brought the church to a soaring height of 172.5m (566ft) - cementing it as the tallest church in the world. His visit to the iconic basilica also marks 100 years since the death of its architect, Antoni Gaudí. Among those attending the service were Spanish royals King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, as well as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The pope's week-long visit to Spain, which began on Saturday, is the first by a pope in some 15 years.

Fully autonomous drones with no human oversight have killed soldiers on the battlefield for the first time. This is according to a senior figure in the Ukrainian defence industry, marking a watershed moment in warfare. The one-off test involved 10 AI-controlled "Terminator" drones on the front line of the Ukraine war. "We tried it," says drone-maker Alexander Kokhanovskyy, who supplied the technology and spoke to at a press event hosted by the Ukrainian embassy. We never implemented it [more widely]." The test took place two years ago and involved quadcopter drones that were programmed to fly towards the front line, cover between 3 and 5 kilometres over around 10 minutes and then engage "Terminator mode", in which an AI model searches for and intercepts targets. "We just launch it and we know everything will be dead - everything that will be found there in this particular area will be dead," says Kokhanovskyy. "There is no connection to the drone at all, you cannot see the video, ...

Ukrainian forces have carried out a missile attack deep inside Russia, hitting a major military plant overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. He said FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles struck the drone and missile plant in the city of Cheboksary, in the Chuvash Republic, more than 900km (560 miles) from the front line. Local officials said three people were injured in a missile attack on the city. Ukraine also said it had hit the Moscow-occupied port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, a Russian oil refinery in Samara and a shadow fleet oil tanker in the Black Sea. In recent months, Ukraine's military has intensified its drone strikes on key facilities across Russia.

Recent incidents heighten anxieties that hybrid warfare tactics could trigger military confrontation with Russia. Lithuanian armed special forces and members of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union take part in a military exercise in central Lithuania [File: Nils Adler/Al Jazeera] A member of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union joins in military exercises in central Lithuania [File: Nils Adler/Al Jazeera] Along the forests and marshlands that separate the Baltic states from Russia and Belarus, workers are digging anti-tank ditches, pouring concrete bunkers and erecting rows of dragon's teeth - jagged concrete obstacles designed to slow and channel advancing armour - to buy precious time in the event of an attack. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 reignited old fears in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where memories of Soviet rule remain close to the surface. In the years since, those fears have been channelled into preparation. Defence budgets have surged, military exercises have intensified, and new fortifications have emerged even as daily life largely continues as normal.

Ukrainian drones have struck a historic museum in Russia-annexed Sevastopol in Crimea, igniting a roof fire, as Russian authorities slashed nighttime train schedules amid intensifying air attacks across the peninsula and deep into Russia. Sevastopol's Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, announced the damage on Telegram early on Wednesday. "This building is not just a museum, it is a symbol of resilience, which has repeatedly taken the blows of the enemy." Razvozhayev said that during World War II's Siege of Sevastopol, "the Panorama building was subjected to massed bombing by German aviation". He declared: "The enemy will pay for this sacrilege!"

Uncrewed ground vehicles have already been tested for defending the front line by the Ukrainian military. There's a received piece of wisdom among militaries around the world that whatever new technologies appear, in the end, foot soldiers are what matters. As British Army officer Field Marshal Archibald Wavell put it shortly after the second world war: "All battles and all wars are won in the end by the infantryman." This may now finally be changing. Robots in battle are about to reach a critical point for Ukraine. In May, it began the mass production of Legit, a low-cost robot capable of carrying a machine gun.

Surveillance camera video captured the moment a Russian drone strike caused a blast in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. The strike killed two people and wounded at least 23, according to officials. Trump says Iran deal in'final throes'

Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. One of the most decorated Paralympians of all time, Oksana Masters has won an incredible 24 career medals, competing for the U.S. across a range of sports-cross-country skiing, biathlon, cycling, and rowing-at both the Winter and Summer Games. In the lead-up to the Milano Cortina Paralympic Games in March, the 36-year-old had dealt with a July 2025 hand surgery, a bone infection, a concussion, and other complications.

A pregnant woman and two others were killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, while two people were killed in Donetsk, Ukrainian officials have said. The overnight missile attacks on the town of Chuhuiv also injured six people and caused damage to residential buildings and shops, the regional prosecutor's office said on Tuesday. Photos shared online by officials show a burning building and burnt-out cars. Two people were killed in Bilozerske and Druzhkivka on Monday, Vadym Filashkin, head of the Donetsk state administration, said on Facebook, with 11 others injured in Sloviansk and Shabelkivka. The strikes come after Ukraine intensified its long-range drone strikes on Russian oil facilities, prompting fuel shortages, while Russia conducted large air attacks on the country.

"The Lost Soldiers," "Homebound," "Once Upon a Time There Was Truth," and "My World Is Melting." The year is 1919, the midst of Bolshevik takeover in Ukraine, and twenty-eight Red Army soldiers have vanished into thin air, last seen at a bathhouse. Kolechko must track them down. He gets little help from the absurd locals, who range from obstinately useless to selfishly malicious. Kolechko is a kind of anti-Poirot--a fairly conventional man whose powers of detection lie not in a dazzling intuition but in a supernatural severed ear, which has a bug-like ability to pick up dialogue.