While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 20

Russian forces stepped up their attacks in Ukraine on Saturday, advancing into the besieged city of Mariupol in a battle to seize the strategic port, and firing missiles in western Ukraine that destroyed an underground military munitions depot.

As fighting raged across the country, Ukraine was facing a worsening humanitarian crisis as losses mounted on both sides.

A senior Ukrainian military official said Saturday that a Russian rocket attack had killed more than 40 soldiers in a Ukrainian military barracks in the southern city of Mykolaiv on Friday - one of the worst single losses suffered by Ukraine since the conflict erupted last month.

President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed directly to Russians to support a diplomatic resolution to the war.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called publicly on Saturday for direct negotiations with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, but a senior Turkish official said that Mr Putin was not ready for such talks.

"Zelensky is ready to meet, but Putin thinks that the positions to have this meeting at the leaders' level are not close enough yet," said Mr Ibrahim Kalin, a chief adviser and spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

Turkey and Mr Erdogan are playing a significant mediating role between Russia and Ukraine, trying to find a path towards a longer-term cease-fire and serious negotiations on a peaceful resolution to a brutal war that has lasted more than three weeks.

Thousands of demonstrators hit the streets across Spain on Saturday in protest at the soaring cost of food, light and fuel, which have been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The rallies, which took place in Spain’s main cities, were called by the far-right Vox party which sought to tap into growing social discontent over the spiralling cost of living that has left many families struggling to pay their bills.

Outside City Hall in Madrid, a crowd of several thousand people gathered, waving hundreds of Spanish flags and chanting angry slogans calling for the resignation of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Yaroslava Mahuchikh overcame the "total panic" of armed conflict in her native Ukraine to win gold in the high jump at the World Indoor Championships on Saturday.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Mahuchikh was forced to flee her home, hide out in a cellar and eventually make the 2,000km trip over three days to Belgrade to face what she dubbed her own front line.

The reigning European indoor high jump champion, who won Olympic bronze in Tokyo last summer and world outdoor silver in Doha in 2019, left her home in Dnipro just three weeks ago as the conflict escalated.

Charles Leclerc heralded a return to form for Ferrari at the start of Formula One’s new era by handing the Italian glamour team their first pole position in over two years on Saturday at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Monegasque lit up the timing screens with a lap of one minute 30.558 seconds to beat world champion Max Verstappen by 0.123 seconds.

Spaniard Carlos Sainz missed out on handing Ferrari their first front-row lockout since the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix by 0.006 seconds and had to settle for third. That was also the last time a Ferrari started a race from the front.