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Wagner mercenaries are training Belarusian special forces just a few miles from the border with Nato-member Poland. Warsaw said that it was ready for “various scenarios as the situation develops” – having started moving around 1,000 of its own troops towards the border earlier this month. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video on Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now but ordering them to gather their strength for Africa while they trained the Belarusian army. Mr Prigozhin, who agreed to move to Belarus as part of a deal to end a mutiny by his forces that rattled Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, said what is happening with Russian forces on the Ukraine frontline is a “disgrace” and that his group wants “no part of it”. Minsk posted pictures of masked Wagner instructors, their faces covered in accordance with the mercenary group's rules, training Belarusian soldiers with armoured vehicles and what appear to be drone controls. “The armed forces of Belarus continue joint training with the fighters of the Wagner PMC (Private Military Company),” the Belarusian Defence Ministry said. “During the week, special operations forces units together with representatives of the Company will work out combat training tasks at the Brest military range.” That range is just three miles (5km) east of the Polish border. According to claims in a post by a senior Wagner commander, known by his nom de guerre “Marx”, which was republished by Wagner's Telegram channel, up to 10,000 fighters “have gone, or will go” to Belarus. Although the accuracy of that statement is difficult to verify. Poland's Defence Ministry said the country's borders were secure. In response to Warsaw reinforcing its border, the Kremlin tried to paint it as an “aggressive” move – despite Moscow's invasion of Ukraine being the ultimate genesis of it. “Of course it is a cause for concern. The aggressiveness of Poland is a reality,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said. “Such a hostile attitude towards Belarus and the Russian Federation requires heightened attention [from our side].” As part of the deal that ended the 24-hour uprising by Wagner, which involved the groups forces marching towards Moscow – eventually stopping about 125 miles from the capital – mercenaries could move to Belarus in return for charges against them being dropped. Putin said the fighters could either leave for Belarus, come under the command of the defence ministry or go back to their families. The episode exposed cracks in the Russian leader's authority, almost 18 months into an invasion that the Kremlin originally assumed would only last weeks. While Mr Putin has tried to put on the air of everything is business as usual, rumblings of discontent in the Russian military over the situation in Ukraine have bubbled to the service in a way rarely seen in the tightly-controlled world of the Kremlin. The mutiny started after weeks of complaints from Prigozhin about the state of the war, although he has been careful to state that his ire is aimed at Russia's military top brass and the country's Defence Ministry, not Putin himself. He believed that his fighters were not being supported in the fierce fighting around the symbolic city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Wagner has lost 22,000 of its men in the Ukraine war while 40,000 have been wounded, according to the Wagner commander “Marx”. If accurate, those numbers give an insight into the extent of the losses both sides are suffering in the war. The commander said in his post that a total of 78,000 Wagner men had participated in what he cast as “the Ukrainian business trip”, 49,000 of them prisoners. Wagner helped Russia to illegally annex Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and have fought Isis in Syria and operated in the Central African Republic and Mali in recent years. “Up to 10,000 fighters have gone or will go to Belarus,” the commander said. “About 15,000 have gone on holiday.” The post contradicted remarks by a Russian who said that as many as 33,000 Wagner fighters had signed contracts with the Russian Defence Ministry. “If all the dead and those who went on holiday signed up then I suppose it is possible,” the commander Marx said. Reuters contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Organisation sewing reusable sanitary pads for refugees gets charity status Varadkar pledges unwavering solidarity with Ukraine on day-long visit to Kyiv Czech parliament approves treaty making it easier to deploy US troops on Czech territory

A look at the group stage tiebreakers at the 2023 Women's World Cup.

Rex Heuermann’s wife has filed for divorce just six days after New York police arrested her husband over the notorious Gilgo Beach murders. Court records show that Asa Ellerup – the accused serial killer’s wife of two decades and mother of his children – filed a matrimonial complaint in Suffolk County Supreme Court on Wednesday. His family are said to have been left “shocked” and “disgusted” after the Long Island native, 59, was arrested on Thursday and charged with the murders of three women. It has now also emerged that his Manhattan-based architecture company was once hired for a project at the Trump Building in New York City. New York City Department of Buildings records obtained by real state publication The Real Deal show Mr Heuermann’s firm was hired by a third party for a $200,000 plumbing job on 40 Wall Street in 2018. “Mr Heuermann has never worked for the Trump Organization in any capacity,” a spokesperson for the Trump Organization told the outlet. “He was hired by a third-party tenant, who vacated years ago, to perform minor architectural work in their individual space.” It’s unclear whether Mr Heuermann ever visited the building. Read More Pizza crust, burner phones and his wife’s hair: How Long Island police tied Rex Heuermann to the Gilgo Beach murders Rex Heuermann’s wife ‘didn’t talk to anyone’ in Long Island community, neighbour says How the Gilgo Beach serial killer turned the Long Island shore into a graveyard Las Vegas police reviewing unsolved cold cases for links to Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann

(Reuters) -American Airlines raised its annual forecast for adjusted profit on Thursday, powered by strong demand for domestic and international

By Toby Sterling and Kate Abnett AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Frans Timmermans will leave the European Commission to run for the leadership

World wheat prices have soared since Russia refused to renew the Ukraine grain deal.

Firefighters battled a blaze in Rhodes as a new heatwave loomed over Greece, threatening to stoke tinderbox conditions across the country. Greek meteorological service had warned of a heightened risk of fires from Thursday, as the country recovered from the first major heatwave of the summer. A second heatwave was forecast to start on Thursday, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas, and rising further on Friday to a maximum of 44C. Thousands have also been evacuated in the Canary Islands and Switzerland in recent days, as southern Europe is gripped by ongoing wildfires and extreme heat caused by the fossil-fuel-driven climate crisis. Fires are common in Greece, but hotter, drier and windy summers have turned the Mediterranean into a wildfire hotspot in recent years. Temperature records were shattered in Rome and Catalonia on Wednesday as most of Italy’s big cities were placed under a red alert. Read More Why is there no UK heatwave as Europe swelters during Charon? Expert warns of heart attack risk as heatwaves intensify due to climate change Families unable to cancel summer holidays despite extreme heat warnings and wildfires

The chief executive of Nokia Oyj signaled that a near-term decline in operator demand for 5G gear in

Viaplay Group AB fell as much as 33% after the struggling Swedish streaming service said it’s letting go

Berlin police warned residents in parts of the capital to stay indoors as a wild animal, believed to be a lioness, is on the loose in the southwestern part of the German capital Thursday morning.

An animal - believed to be a lioness - is on the loose just outside Berlin. Garman police have residents to stay inside and bring in pets. Officers have been using loudspeakers to warn people in the Kleinmachnow, Teltow and Stahnsdorf areas.

Wheat kept rising — following the biggest daily surge in a decade on Wednesday — as Russian threats