The day’s top stories from BBC News, including the latest from Gaza, on US politics and about the Ukraine conflict. Delivered twice a day on weekdays, daily at weekends.
Mr Putin made his comments his in state of the nation address ahead of elections next month. Also: Hamas health officials say more than 30,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel's offensive. And meet the people who can only celebrate their birthday every four years.
The US Senate's longest-serving Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, has announced he's stepping down from his leadership position in November. Also: US reacts to breakaway region of Transnistria asking Russia for "protection from Moldova", and the scientist who produced an award-winning music video to illustrate his PhD on kangaroos.
Yulia Navalnaya urges MEPs to take inspiration from her late husband, calling him an innovator. Also: there has been a sharp rise in the number of people seeking asylum inside the EU, and a new documentary lifts the veil on the story of the disgraced fashion designer John Galliano.
Other aid deliveries into the territory have already been suspended because of looting. Also: France's Nato allies reject idea of sending Western troops to Ukraine, and the owners of a wonky public house in England have been ordered to rebuild it.
The leader of one of Europe's most feared drug gangs, Ridouan Taghi, is jailed for life in the biggest criminal trial in Dutch history. Also: US President Biden says progress is being made over agreeing a ceasefire in Gaza, and the married couple who spent over 100 days stranded at sea.
After repeated delays, the Hungarian parliament approved Sweden's accession as the organisation's 32nd member. Also, the US Supreme Court hears arguments about social media companies that could transform the way we use the internet, and the woman who was in a love triangle with the musicians George Harrison and Eric Clapton is selling their letters to her.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, criticises the Security Council for its 'inadequate' response to the Gaza conflict. Also: Farmers block the streets in Brussels protesting against EU policies, and there's a welcome sign of life from a stricken Japanese lunar lander.
The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro denies allegations that he plotted a coup after losing the 2022 election. Also: Nikki Haley suffers a fourth consecutive defeat to Donald Trump in the contest to become the US Republican nominee, and Japan's naked festival allows women for the first time.
A bonus episode from The Global Story podcast. Bengal famine: The WWii trajgedy the world forgot. The Global Story brings you one big story every weekday, making sense of the news with our experts around the world. Insights you can trust, from the BBC, with Katya Adler. For more, go to bbcworldservice.com/globalstory or search for The Global Story wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
Visiting Western leaders have pledged their solidarity, but Kyiv say more weapons are what's really needed. The body of the Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, is handed to his mother after a battle with Russian authorities, and the video of a professional female golfer being mansplained to by a stranger about how to improve her swing that's gone viral.
This week, we hear from Africa's first bobsleigh champion. Also: the Spanish football club doing its bit to make the beautiful game greener. And how foxes are providing therapy in the Florida Keys.
A spokesperson for Alexei Navalny's mother says she was given an ultimatum on whether to choose this or accept a secret funeral without mourners. Also: The EU unblocks $150 billion of funding for Poland, originally frozen over a rule-of-law dispute with the former conservative government, and the discovery in China of a 'dragon like' fossil that predates dinosaurs.
For two years, the Russian president Vladimir Putin has been waging a brutal conflict in Ukraine - the bloodiest in Europe since the Second World War. But after tens of thousands of deaths on both sides who has the upper hand? What is life like in Ukraine, and Russia, today? And when will the killing end? The Global News Podcast and Ukrainecast have come together to answer your questions.
The measures include export restrictions on firms and individuals. Also, firefighters in Spain work to gain access to a burned out apartment building to search for people still missing and, the funeral of the athlete Kelvin Kiptum takes place in Kenya.
Mrs Navalnaya finally saw his remains on Wednesday after investigators secretly took her to a morgue outside the remote prison in Russia where he collapsed and died. Also: Firefighters in the Spanish city of Valencia have been trying to rescue people from a 14-storey building that's gone up in flames, and scientists finally work out the mystery surrounding why some of the largest whales in the ocean produce their haunting and complex songs.
Albania has agreed to host two migrant processing centres that will be fully run by Italy, under a deal that worries many human rights activists. Also: Former Brazilian footballer Dani Alves is jailed in Spain for four and a half years for a sex attack, and the mystery of a village menaced by poison pen letters 100 years ago is turned into a film.
A Russian official confirmed that a strike took place but described the reports as 'grossly exaggerated'. Also: Israel's parliament overwhelmingly backs a resolution by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, and why young women are key to creating new words.
The missile's booster rockets are reported to have failed and it landed in the sea close to the launch site. The failure is highly embarrassing for both the UK and the US manufacturer of the Trident missile. Also: new research links some of the world's largest meat-packing companies to illegal deforestation in Brazil, and the Premier League tackles online abuse of players and their families.
UN doctors were granted access to the hospital in southern Gaza, days after it was raided by Israeli forces. Also: Pakistan political parties reach formal coalition agreement, and does exercise have the same benefits for both men and women?
The draft resolution was proposed at the UN Security Council. Also, countries address the International Court of Justice on the legality of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, and the Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, makes another attempt to halt his extradition to the US.
Brazil recalled its ambassador after a row developed following President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's controversial statements about Israel's military operation in Gaza. Also: Navalny's grieving widow vows to continue his work, and British Museum's social media flooded with calls regarding return of Easter Island statues.
Yulia Navalnya accuses Putin of killing Alexei Navalny, because Russian President couldn't break him. Also: Africa bans slaughter of donkeys for their skin, and conjoined twins given days to live are proving world wrong.
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said Israel's military campaign was between a "highly prepared army and women and children". Also: former Thai prime minister Thaksin freed on parole, and Shane Rose, an Australian Olympic showjumper, competes in a mankini.
The mother of the dead Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was told by the authorities his body would be handed over, once a post-mortem examination had been completed. Also: President Biden blames US Congress for the fall of the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka to Russian forces, and Harrison Ford's Star Wars script sells for $12k.
This week, the eight-year-old boy who sang in front of tens of thousands of people at a rugby international. Also: the campaign encouraging appreciation of the people who do the vital job of waste picking in India. And how a penguin helps out his short-sighted friend.
The US President says people worldwide are mourning Mr Navalny because he was everything the Mr Putin wasn't, and it was more evidence of the Russian leader's brutality. Also: Donald Trump is ordered to pay more than $350 million in penalties in his civil fraud case in New York, and the British rom-com that's been a big hit on Netflix.
Domestic and international critics of President Putin accuse the Kremlin of killing Mr Navalny. He was serving a lengthy prison term on numerous charges. Also: The UN warns that the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is becoming a regional war, and Paul McCartney is reunited with a bass guitar stolen 51 years ago.
The director of the Nasser hospital said conditions were very dangerous and appealed to the UN and Red Cross for help. Also: Senegal's constitutional court annuls a presidential decree and vote in parliament delaying the election until December, and Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian-majority country to legalise same-sex marriage.
The Israel Defence Forces says it has 'credible intelligence' that Hamas held hostages at the medical facility in Khan Younis. Also: Ukrainian soldiers say there are severe shortages of weapons and ammunition in the town of Avdiivka, which could fall at any moment; and how a stingray pregnancy is puzzling scientists.
The comments from Ukraine's new commander-in-chief come as a senior US official says some units have run out of ammunition. Also: At least one person is killed and more than twenty wounded in a shooting at a victory parade for the American football Superbowl winners in Kansas City, and how great apes - like humans - like to tease each other.
