RUSSIA: A collapse at a gold mine in the country’s far east has trapped at least 13 workers, regional officials said today.

The figure of 13 was given by the Emergencies Ministry after part of the mine in the Zeysk district fell in, but the regional prosecutor’s office said that up to 15 workers could remain underground.

A rescue operation is under way. 

BRAZIL: Far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro was formally accused today of falsifying his Covid-19 vaccination data, marking the first formal charges against him with more allegations potentially to come.

The federal police charges released by the Supreme Court alleged that Mr Bolsonaro and 16 others had inserted false information into a public health database to make it appear as though the then president, his 12-year-old daughter and several others in his circle had been vaccinated.

UNITED NATIONS: The world body’s weather agency sounded a “red alert” on global warming today, citing record-smashing increases last year in greenhouse gases, land and water temperatures and melting of glaciers and sea ice.

The World Meteorological Organisation insisted that efforts to reverse the trend had been inadequate and that there was a “high probability” that 2024 will be another year of record heat.

GERMANY: Two Afghan citizens accused of planning to attack police near the Swedish parliament in response to the burning of copies of the Koran were detained by German police today.

The suspects, identified only as Afghan citizens Ibrahim MG and Ramin N, were arrested in the eastern city of Gera, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.