Russia launched a “record” 267 drones at Ukraine, one day before the third anniversary of its full-scale invasion, according to Ukraine’s air force. Russia also launched three ballistic missiles at Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force said that 257 drones were brought down by air-defence systems or radar jamming. The attack killed at least three civilians and caused damage in Kyiv, the capital, and several other cities.
Elon Musk gave all federal employees just over 48 hours to explain what they had worked on in the past week or face dismissal, hours after Mr Trump pushed the DOGE boss to “get more aggressive”. In his effort to make deep cuts in government spending, Mr Musk has already offered federal employees the chance to resign if they do not want to return to the office full-time.
Voting began in a closely watched election in Germany. Closing polls suggested that the centre-right Christian Democratic opposition, led by Friedrich Merz, will win. But it will need to strike a deal with at least one another party. On the eve of the vote, Mr Merz was adamant that he would not enter into a coalition with the hard-right Alternative for Germany, which has been lying second in the polls.
The Vatican said that Pope Francis had spent a “tranquil” night in hospital and “rested” after suffering a long asthmatic respiratory crisis on Saturday. The 88-year-old pontiff is also receiving oxygen via the nose, according to the Vatican. Francis was admitted to hospital on February 14th. He has pneumonia in both lungs, one of which was partly removed by surgeons when he was young.
Police from Cambodia and Thailand freed 215 foreign nationals from a scam centre in north-western Cambodia. Thailand’s government said that the foreigners, who had been forced to work at the centre, would be returned to their home countries. Thailand has been cracking down on scams after its citizens lost some 60bn baht ($1.8bn) to the schemes over the past two years.
Hamas released six hostages on Saturday, but Israel did not hand over more than 600 Palestinians it was expected to free in return. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, blamed “Hamas’s repeated violations” such as “the cynical use of hostages for propaganda”. Officials said the prisoners would not be freed “until the release of the next hostages is guaranteed”.
Piers Litherland, a British archaeologist who announced on February 22nd that he had discovered the first rock-cut pharaoh’s tomb since Tutankhamun’s was identified in 1922, told the Observer that he had found a second tomb. Mr Litherland suggested that it probably contains the remains of Thutmose II, a young pharaoh who died in 1479BC and who also owned the tomb discovered earlier this month.
Word of the week: guang gun, a Chinese term meaning “bare branches”, used to describe unmarried men who are unable to continue their family line. Read the full story.
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