Emergency crews yesterday battled to restore power to hundreds of thousands of homes in Britain after Storm Eunice carved a deadly trail across Western Europe and left transport networks in disarray.

The Covid-19 pandemic continued its retreat this week, with fewer deaths and the number of new cases decreasing in most regions of the world.

The chances of reviving the Iran nuclear accord are dwindling and the “moment of truth” has arrived for Tehran’s leadership, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said yesterday.

Western leaders yesterday said Russia and China were seeking to “replace the existing international rules” with their own order, as Beijing backed Moscow over its showdown with Nato.

Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine ordered a full military mobilization Saturday amid a spike of violence in the war-torn region and fears in the West that Russia might use the strife as a pretext for an invasion.

Ukraine's army on Saturday reported the first death of a soldier in weeks and accused Moscow-backed rebels of sharply escalating attacks that have redoubled fears of an imminent Russian invasion.

Twelve people are missing after a blaze swept through a ferry sailing from Greece to Italy early on Friday, Greek authorities said on Saturday, as firefighters battled to control the flames.

The world must by 2030 slash $1.8 trillion in annual subsidies that destroy the environment, in order to “finance a net-zero global economy”, according to a study Thursday from business groups including one founded by tycoon Richard Branson. 

Mali’s army-led government yesterday asked France to withdraw its troops from the Sahel state “without delay”, calling into question Paris’ plans to pull out over several months.

Germany yesterday accused Russia of endangering Europe’s security with demands that recall the Cold War, as Western leaders arrived for a Munich Security Conference set to be dominated by the Ukraine crisis.

Canadian police on Thursday began arresting leaders of the trucker-led protest that has choked the capital’s streets for three weeks and provoked the government into calling on rarely used emergency powers.

Britain’s meteorological service yesterday issued a rare “red weather” warning with the approaching Storm Eunice packing wind gusts of 100 miles (160 kilometres) per hour and set to cause “danger to life”.

The Kremlin yesterday said that Russia’s withdrawal of forces from around Ukraine’s borders would take place over an extended period, after reports of Moscow’s drawdown drew scepticism from Kyiv’s allies.

Pollution by states and companies is contributing to more deaths globally than Covid-19, a UN environmental report said, calling for “immediate and ambitious action” to ban some toxic chemicals.

The Kremlin and senior officials yesterday made fun of Western media for running with February 16 as the “invasion date” when Russia might attack Ukraine, some even went further suggesting western leaders should see a doctor for their war “paranoia”.

Russia said more of its forces surrounding Ukraine were withdrawing yesterday but Nato urged Moscow to prove it was pulling back, saying there were signs that more troops were on the way.

Russia said yesterday some of its military units were returning to their bases after exercises near Ukraine and mocked repeated Western warnings about a looming invasion, but Nato said it had yet to see any sign of de-escalation on the ground.

We’ve got Russian field hospitals being constructed near the border with Ukraine in Belarus, for what only can be construed as a preparation for an invasion.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday invoked rarely used emergency powers to bring an end to trucker-led protests against Covid health rules, after police arrested 11 people with a “cache of firearms” blocking a border crossing with the United States.

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia does not want a war in Europe, but described the situation in east Ukraine's breakaway regions as "genocide" and called for the conflict there to be resolved through the Minsk peace progress.