Probe into Miao Hua comes as China slams earlier reports of investigation into defence minister as ‘slanderous’. China has suspended a high-ranking military official suspected of “serious violations of discipline”, the latest in a series of senior figures targeted in a widening crackdown on corruption in the armed forces. The Ministry of Defence said on Thursday that Miao Hua, director of the political work department on the powerful...

The United States on Tuesday provided the first official confirmation that its long-range Army Tactical Missiles (ATACMS) were in use in Russia, as Europe absorbed the ramifications of Russia’s retaliatory response with an intermediate ballistic missile that could strike “anywhere in Europe”. As the question of strategic escalation swirled around NATO capitals and Moscow, Russian forces continued a dogged advance through Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, seizing more villages....