Māori storyteller, filmmaker, producer and director Libby Hakaraia is being honoured for her work in the film and media industries in this year’s Queen’s Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours. Libby, who is the founder of Māoriland…

In a crowning moment for her Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II waved at tens of thousands of adoring crowds from the balcony of Buckingham Palace on Sunday, delighting fans who had hoped to catch a glimpse of her during the final day of festivities marking the monarch's 70 years on the throne.

The 96-year-old monarch has curtailed her schedule in recent months due to difficulties in moving around. Prior to Sunday, the queen had only appeared in public twice — both on Thursday — during the four-day holiday weekend's celebrations.

Officials said she experienced "discomfort" during those events.

Huge crowds that lined the Mall outside the palace for the climax of a boisterous, colorful pageant cheered as the monarch emerged on the balcony with Prince Charles, his wife Camilla, and Prince William and his family.

READ MORE: Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott makes Queen laugh in sweet video call

It was an image for the history books and a glimpse into the monarchy's future, with the queen's three heirs — her 73-year-old son Charles, eldest grandson William and eldest great-grandson Prince George — by her side.

The queen, dressed in bright green, waved and smiled after the crowds belted out "God Save The Queen." Her appearance, which only lasted a few minutes, was followed by a crowd-pleasing performance of ABBA's "Dancing Queen."

It was an uplifting finale to a massive street pageant celebrating the queen's life and highlighting Britain's diversity. Thousands of people turned out on the streets of London, many speaking with excitement and pride about their queen and country.

READ MORE: Russia hits Kyiv with missiles as Putin issues warning to West

"We were completely bowled over. We came over all patriotic and excited in a way that we didn't think we were going to," said Veronica Timperley, 75, who watched with her daughter Kate.

Afterward, the monarch issued a statement thanking all those who celebrated her Platinum Jubilee.

"When it comes to how to mark seventy years as your Queen, there is no guidebook to follow. It really is a first," she said.

"But I have been humbled and deeply touched that so many people have taken to the streets to celebrate my Platinum Jubilee.

READ MORE: Prince Charles pays tribute to 'mummy' at Jubilee concert

"While I may not have attended every event in person, my heart has been with you all; and I remain committed to serving you to the best of my ability, supported by my family."

Sunday's pageant began with a spectacular military parade featuring 200 horses marching down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. They flanked the gold state coach, a gilded carriage that transported the queen to her coronation 69 years ago. A virtual version of her, taken from archival video from her 1953 coronation, was shown at the coach's windows.

After the pomp and pageantry came a melange of acts celebrating the diversity of modern Britain and the Commonwealth, from hip hop and Bollywood dancers to drag queens and Mardi Gras style floats.

Some 6000 performers paraded along a three-kilometre route lined with a sea of Union flags, telling the story of the queen's life with dance, vintage cars, vibrant costumes, carnival music and giant puppets.

READ MORE: Driver's incredible escape as fallen tree smashes car in Adelaide rain

Some of Britain's best-loved cultural exports were here, from the Daleks in "Doctor Who" to James Bond's sleek Aston Martins. Celebrities including singer Cliff Richard danced and sang from open-top double decker buses designed to represent the sights and sounds of each decade, beginning with the 1950s.

"It's a massive honor to be part of this. We've got the best queen in the world, don't we? Best country in the world," said Warren Jobson, a biker who took part in the parade.

The pageant was watched by an estimated one billion people around the world, organizers say.

The keenest royal fans braved the wet, chilly weather and camped out on the Mall overnight to secure the best view of the pageant.

Some came to see the celebrities who performed — like Ed Sheeran, who sang his song "Perfect" while a huge video screen showed pictures of the queen and her family — while others just wanted to be part of a historical moment.

READ MORE: Kim Jong Un's message to Queen Elizabeth II

"It's part of history, it's never going to happen again. It's something special, so if you are going to do it you've got to go big or go home," said Shaun Wallen, 50.

The queen did not join her family in the royal box watching the pageant. Nor did Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, who made their first family trip to the UK since they stepped away from royal duties and moved to the US in 2020.

The couple came to the UK for the big holiday weekend, but largely stayed out of the limelight.

Thousands of people ran out into the Mall after the parade ended Sunday in a bid to see the queen, filling the enormous expanse within minutes.

On Saturday, the monarch delighted the country when she appeared in a surprise comedy video that opened an evening concert in front of Buckingham Palace. In the video, the monarch had tea with a computer-animated Paddington Bear.

She revealed that, just like the furry bear, she was partial to marmalade sandwiches and liked to keep them in her handbag.

Diana Ross and the rock band Queen headlined the star-studded tribute concert, which also featured Rod Stewart, Duran Duran, Alicia Keys and Andrea Bocelli.

Charles highlighted his mother's role as a symbol of unity and stability through the decades at the concert.

Addressing the queen as "Your Majesty, mummy," Charles said: "You laugh and cry with us and, most importantly, you have been there for us for these 70 years."

Millions of people across the country marked the occasion with patriotic street parties and barbeques, lining streets with long tables, balloons and picnic fare.

On Sunday, Charles and Camilla mingled with the crowd at The Oval cricket ground in London for a "Big Jubilee Lunch."

Veteran David Godwin, who was celebrating at a street party in central London, said the queen has "brought us together again."

"She reflects the country and right now the country is buzzing and we're on a high," he said.

One of New Zealand’s first music therapists, Dr Daphne Rickson, from Paekākāriki, has been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours.Being made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services…

Russia took aim Sunday at Western military supplies for Ukraine, launching airstrikes on Kyiv that it claimed destroyed tanks donated from abroad, as Vladimir Putin warned that any Western deliveries of longer-range rocket systems would prompt Moscow to hit “objects that we haven't yet struck.”

The Russian leader's cryptic threat of military escalation did not specify what the new targets might be.

It came days after the United States announced plans to deliver US$700 million of security assistance for Ukraine that includes four precision-guided, medium-range rocket systems, as well as helicopters, Javelin anti-tank systems, radars, tactical vehicles and more.

READ MORE: Driver's incredible escape as fallen tree smashes car

Military analysts say Russia hopes to overrun Ukraine's embattled eastern industrial Donbas region, where Russia-backed separatists have fought the Ukrainian government since 2014, before any US weapons that might turn the tide arrive. The Pentagon said last week that it will take at least three weeks to get the US weapons onto the battlefield.

Ukraine said the missiles aimed at the capital hit a train repair shop. Elsewhere, Russian airstrikes in the eastern city of Druzhkivka destroyed buildings and left at least one person dead, a Ukrainian official said Sunday. Residents described waking to the sound of missile strikes, with rubble and glass falling down around them.

“It was like in a horror movie,” Svitlana Romashkina said.

READ MORE: Cops' revolutionary new tool in fight against rule-breaking drivers

Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko urged city residents to leave, saying on Facebook that ruined buildings can be restored but “we won’t be able to bring back the lives lost.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said air-launched precision missiles were used to destroy workshops in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, including in Druzhkivka, that were repairing damaged Ukrainian military equipment.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces fired five X-22 cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea toward Kyiv, and one was destroyed by air defenses. Four other missiles hit “infrastructure facilities,” but Ukraine said there were no casualties.

Nuclear plant operator Energoatom said one cruise missile buzzed close to the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear plant, 350 kilometres to the south, and warned of the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe if even one missile fragment hit the plant.

On the Telegram app, the Russian Defense Ministry said high-precision, long-range air-launched missiles were used on the outskirts of Kyiv, destroying T-72 tanks supplied by Eastern European countries and other armored vehicles in a train car repair shop.

READ MORE: Ukraine forces 'kill two Russian generals' amid heavy fighting in east

But the head of Ukraine's railway system rejected the claim that tanks were inside. Oleksandr Kamyshin said four missiles hit the Darnytsia car repair plant, but no military equipment has been stored there. He said the site was used to repair gondolas and carriers for exporting grain.

“Russia has once again lied,” he wrote on Telegram. “Their real goal is the economy and the civilian population. They want to block our ability to export Ukrainian products."

In a television interview that aired Sunday, Putin lashed out at Western deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, saying they aim to prolong the conflict.

“All this fuss around additional deliveries of weapons, in my opinion, has only one goal: to drag out the armed conflict as much as possible,” Putin said.

He insisted such supplies were unlikely to change the military situation for Ukraine's government, which he said was merely making up for losses of similar rockets.

If Kyiv gets longer-range rockets, he added, Moscow will “draw appropriate conclusions and use our means of destruction, which we have plenty of, in order to strike at those objects that we haven't yet struck.”

The US has stopped short of offering Ukraine longer-range weapons that could fire deep into Russia. But the four medium-range High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems in the security package include launchers on wheels that allow troops to strike a target and then quickly move away — which could be useful against Russian artillery on the battlefield.

The Spanish daily El Pais reported Sunday that Spain planned to supply anti-aircraft missiles and up to 40 Leopard 2 A4 battle tanks to Ukraine. Spain’s Ministry of Defense did not comment on the report.

In Kyiv’s eastern Darnystki district, a pillar of smoke filled the air with an acrid odor over the charred, blackened wreckage of a warehouse-type structure. Soldiers blocked off a nearby road leading toward a large railway yard.

Before Sunday's early morning attack, Kyiv had not faced any such Russian airstrikes since the April 28 visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The attack triggered air-raid alarms and showed that Russia still had the capability and willingness to hit at Ukraine’s heart, despite refocusing its efforts to capture Ukrainian territory in the east.

In recent days, Russian forces have focused on capturing Ukraine's eastern cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. On Sunday they continued their push, with missile and airstrikes on cities and villages in the Donbas.

In the cities of Sloviansk and Bakhmut, cars and military vehicles were seen speeding into town Sunday from the direction of the front line. Dozens of military doctors and paramedic ambulances worked to evacuate civilians and Ukrainian servicemen, and a hospital was busy treating the injured, many hurt by artillery shelling.

The UK military said in its daily intelligence update that Ukrainian counterattacks in Sieverodonetsk were “likely blunting the operational momentum Russian forces previously gained through concentrating combat units and firepower.” Russian forces previously had been making a string of advances in the city, but Ukrainian fighters have pushed back in recent days.

The statement also said Russia’s military was partly relying on reserve forces of Luhansk separatists.

“These troops are poorly equipped and trained, and lack heavy equipment in comparison to regular Russian units,” the intelligence update said, adding that the move "indicates a desire to limit casualties suffered by regular Russian forces.”

Both sides in the conflict have been waging an information war, especially on television, along with military attacks. Russia’s Tass news agency reported Sunday that Ukrainian forces had knocked out broadcast TV service in Donetsk, where it said a broadcast tower had toppled. Ukrainian authorities did not immediately confirm the attack.

In the Azov Sea port of Mariupol, which Russia claimed to have captured in May following a brutal monthslong siege, a mayoral aide said water supplies contaminated by decomposing corpses and garbage were causing dysentery and posing a threat of cholera and other diseases.

In remarks carried by Ukraine’s Unian news agency, Petro Andriushchenko said Russian authorities controlling the city have imposed a quarantine. He did not describe what measures Russian authorities had included, and his report could not be independently confirmed.

World Health Organisation officials warned last month about the threat of cholera and other infectious diseases in Mariupol.

Far from the battlefield, Ukraine's national soccer players missed out on qualifying for a World Cup spot, losing 1-0 to Wales in an emotionally charged mission in Cardiff. Back home, some Ukrainians gathered in bars to watch the game.

Wendy van Delden has been honoured in the Queen’s Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours for more than 40 years of dedication to the Waikanae Music Society.Awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to music, Wendy said her first…

Arriving in New Zealand from the United Kingdom in 2003 on a three-year secondment to the New Zealand tax department as deputy commissioner, Naomi Ferguson has stayed ever since, now being given one of New Zealand’s highest honours…

Legacy is a keyword that springs to Dianne Grennel’s mind regarding a royal accolade that has been bestowed on her.Di, from Waikanae, has been made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday and Platinum…

“Receiving this honour has been both overwhelming and very humbling for me as I have played just a small part in the development and success of Catholic education.”That was Jenny Gordon’s reaction to being made a Member of the New…

Police have located a firearm and arrested three men during a pre-planned search warrant in Clarkson Cres, Otara, this afternoon.Police say the Armed Offenders Squad assisted as a precaution.A police spokesperson says the operation…

Two rescue helicopters alongside emergency services are responding to a crash in which a vehicle has gone into the Waipara River, near the bridge off Double Corner Rd in Amberley.The crash occurred about 5.35pm.Two people were…