Category: Europe

Sweden voted in an election pitting the incumbent centre-left Social Democrats against a right-wing bloc that has embraced an anti-immigration stance. Opinion polls predicted a razor-thin lead for Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats and an allied left-wing bloc after a campaign dominated by rising gang shootings and soaring electricity prices. Polling stations opened at […]

KHARKIV – Russian forces have withdrawn from key eastern towns, as a rapid Ukrainian counter-attack makes further gains. Ukrainian officials said troops entered Kupiansk, a vital eastern supply hub for Russian forces, on Saturday. Russia’s defence ministry then said its troops have retreated from nearby Izyum to allow them “to regroup”. The ministry also confirmed […]

FRANKFURT: The Euro­pean Central Bank anno­unced the largest rate hike in its history on Thursday and said there were more to come as it scrambles to pull inflation down from record heights. Policymakers lifted the ECB’s key rates by 75 basis points, a leap matched only by a technical move made in 1999 shortly after […]

Ukraine claims to have retaken more than 1,000 sq km (385 sq miles) of territory in its south and east from Russia in the last week. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the area had been “liberated” as part of a counter-offensive since 1 September. More than 20 villages in the Kharkiv region have also been recaptured, […]

Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, has died at Balmoral aged 96, after reigning for 70 years. Her family gathered at her Scottish estate after concerns grew about her health earlier on Thursday. The Queen came to the throne in 1952 and witnessed enormous social change. With her death, her eldest son Charles, the […]

The European Union is proposing to make it more expensive and harder for Russian citizens to get visas. Russians wanting to enter the EU will face a lengthier application process and see fees rise from €35 (£30; $34) to €80 (£69; $79). This should continue as long as Moscow wages its war of aggression against […]

“This is it folks,” Boris Johnson said in his final address to the nation as prime minister on Tuesday. “In only a couple of hours, I will be in Balmoral to see Her Majesty the Queen and the torch will finally be passed to a new Conservative leader,” Johnson said in front of 10 Downing […]

PARIS: There is little chance of Britain resetting relations with France under incoming prime minister Liz Truss, experts say, with the neighbours’ geographical proximity and sometimes diverging interests making for a testy post-Brexit relationship. Truss played on tense cross-Channel ties during the Conservative party leadership election, declaring, “The jury’s out” when asked whether French President […]

French President Emmanuel Macron’s statements in Algeria about Türkiye were “unfortunate,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Sept. 5. “I would like to say frankly that Mr. Macron’s statements were extremely unfortunate. It’s in all of our interests that we talk to each other and not about each other,” he said at a joint press […]

The Russian occupation authorities in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson have postponed a so-called referendum on joining Russia, on security grounds. “This is being paused because of the security situation,” said Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-appointed administration there. He said heavy Ukrainian shelling had made a key Kherson bridge impassable. Ukraine and its […]