Two bomb blasts at a boys’ school in the Afghan capital Kabul have killed at least six people and wounded more than 20, officials say. The blasts happened at the Abdul Rahim Shahid high school in the Shia-dominated west of the city. The number of dead and wounded is likely to rise. A nearby tuition centre was also targeted in a grenade attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Islamic State militants have attacked the area in the past. Initial reports suggested Abdul Rahim Shahid pupils and staff may have been targeted by suicide bombers, but Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said improvised explosive devices had been left outside the school, killing six people. “These are preliminary figures. We are at the site and waiting for more details,” he said.(BBC)…[+]

Actor Johnny Depp has testified in his $50m (£38m) defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard that he never struck her. The lawsuit is over an opinion piece Ms Heard wrote for the Washington Post in which she called herself a victim of domestic violence. He denies any abuse. Ms Heard has sued back, with a $100m counterclaim against Mr Depp. The closely watched civil trial, which is taking place in Virginia, is now in its second week. Ms Heard’s team has portrayed Mr Depp as an abusive partner prone to drug and alcohol binges. Mr Depp’s team has presented Ms Heard’s claims of domestic violence as a “hoax” and a calculated strategy to ruin his reputation. Speaking to the jury on Tuesday, Mr Depp said the truth was all that mattered to him now. “I never struck Ms Heard in that way, nor have I struck any woman in my life,” he testified, adding that “her accusations sort of permeated the industry”.(BBC)…[+]

At least 53 people have been killed in landslides and floods after Tropical Storm Megi devastated the Philippines. Rescue crews were still looking for survivors in flooded villages on Wednesday, digging through mud and wading through chest-high water. However the death toll from Sunday’s natural disaster is only expected to climb, officials say. Villages around Baybay city in the central Leyte province are worse hit. There, hillside avalanches and overflowing rivers wiped out homes and buried many people alive. The city’s mayor Jose Carlos Cari told news outlet CNN that at least 47 people in the area had been killed. In one village, Pilar, about 80% of the houses had been washed out to sea, a government official told news agency AFP.(BBC)…[+]

The former head of a Swiss bank has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail for charges including fraud. The court in Zurich heard that Pierin Vincenz, 65, had used his company credit card to pay for strip clubs, Tinder dates, holidays and dinners. Public interest in the case was such that the trial was moved from a Zurich courthouse to a concert hall. Vincenz, who was chief executive of Raiffeisen Bank, and his co-defendant, will appeal against the verdict. According to prosecutors, Vincenz and a former credit card company boss Beat Stocker, had lined their pockets by taking over companies in which they had secretly accumulated stakes. Stocker was jailed for four years, and Vincenz – once crowned banker of the year in Switzerland – was sentenced to 3 years and nine months. The judge found that Vincenz’s many visits to strip clubs were not in the bank’s interest, according to Swiss media. Bills totalling nearly 200,000 Swiss francs ($214,000; £165,000) for strip club visits were put on company expenses as largely business-related, Reuters reports.(BBC)…[+]

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin says her country will decide whether to apply to join Nato “within weeks”. She said she saw no reason to delay the decision, at a joint news conference alongside Sweden’s prime minister. Her comments coincided with a report to the Finnish parliament that said membership of the bloc could result in “increased tensions on the border between Finland and Russia”. Moscow has warned Finland and Sweden against joining Nato in recent weeks. Finland and Sweden are militarily non-aligned but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted increasing public support to become members of the Western defensive alliance. Swedish leader Magdalena Andersson told reporters that the same “very serious analysis” was taking place as in Finland and she saw no point in delaying it. Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported on Wednesday that Ms Andersson was aiming to apply for Nato membership in time for a Nato summit in late June.(BBC)…[+]

US President Joe Biden’s administration has finalised a set of new regulations targeting untraceable “ghost guns”. The new rules come as Mr Biden faces increasing political pressure to act against a rise in gun violence. The rule bans businesses from selling kits that can be used to create a gun at home without serial numbers.

In remarks at the White House on Monday, Mr Biden also nominated a new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The new regulations – which are nearly a year in the making – are expected to face stiff legal resistance from lobbying groups that oppose new gun control regulations. At the White House, Mr Biden showed the components of a 9mm semi-automatic pistol that he said had been made using a simple kit purchased online. Ghost guns can be self-assembled and sometimes 3D printed, which means they do not contain a serial number and cannot be traced. Background checks have not previously been required to purchase the assembly kits.(BBC)…[+]

Britney Spears has announced she is pregnant, months after she escaped the legal arrangement that gave her father control over many aspects of her life. The singer told her 40 million Instagram followers she was having a baby with partner Sam Asghari. The 40-year-old, who has two teenage sons, also revealed she suffered depression during a previous pregnancy. In June last year, she told a judge her conservatorship prevented her from marrying or removing her birth control. She has previously said she wanted a family with Asghari, a 28-year-old personal trainer. But the form of legal guardianship known as a conservatorship, set up by her father in 2008 after she experienced a public mental health crisis, meant she could not make her own decisions about her medical care.

The US and Britain say they are looking into reports that chemical weapons have been used by Russian forces attacking the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. Ukraine’s Azov regiment said three soldiers were injured by “a poisonous substance” in an attack on Monday. However, no evidence has been presented to confirm the use of chemical weapons.  UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said officials were working to “urgently” investigate what she called “a callous escalation” of the war. The Pentagon called the potential use of the weapons “deeply concerning”. Western nations have warned that the use of chemical weapons would mark a dangerous escalation of the conflict and have pledged to take firm action if Russia carries out such attacks. Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said the government was investigating the allegations, adding that early assumptions suggested phosphorous ammunition had been used.(BBC)…[+]

Elon Musk has decided not to join the board of Twitter, the company’s chief executive Parag Agrawal says. Mr Musk’s appointment was due to become effective on Saturday after revealing last week that he had bought a 9.2% stake in the social media platform. However, Mr Agrawal tweeted: “Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board.” The Tesla boss remains Twitter’s largest shareholder and the firm will remain open to his input, he added. Just over an hour after Mr Agrawal’s announcement, Mr Musk cryptically tweeted a single emoji. The tweet has since been deleted. Over the weekend, the Tesla chief suggested changes to the Twitter Blue premium subscription service, including slashing its price, banning advertising and giving the option to pay in the cryptocurrency dogecoin. Mr Musk also asked his more than 81 million followers whether Twitter is “dying” and if its headquarters should be turned into a homeless shelter. And he created a poll asking whether the letter “w” should be removed from the Twitter, with the only options being “yes” and “of course”.(BBC)…[+]

The day after Anton Ischenko celebrated his 23rd birthday, he was taken by the Russians, led away at gunpoint from his home in the village of Andriivka, west of Kyiv. His family found his body a month later, once the Russian troops were driven out. He was so badly mutilated that they had to identify him by his clothes. As Russian forces retreat to eastern Ukraine, horrors are being uncovered in the villages which they left.  About 1,000 people lived in Andriivka, some 60km away from the capital. At least 40 of them were killed. “He was a very nice boy, very clever – he recited poetry,” recalls Anton’s grandmother, Tetiana, sitting outside the family house. Suddenly, her exhausted face crumples.(BBC)…[+]