Marine Le Pen’s far-right party was yesterday poised to strike an alliance with that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the EU parliament, a day after being dealt a surprise defeat in French elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Russia on Monday, as the Indian leader treaded a fine line between maintaining a longstanding relationship with Moscow and courting closer Western security ties

The French left will choose a candidate for prime minister from within their victorious electoral coalition within the week, said Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure today.

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday was to start efforts to extract France from its most severe political uncertainty in decades after the left defeated the far right in elections with no group winning an absolute majority

France faced potential political deadlock after elections on Sunday threw up a hung parliament, with a leftist alliance unexpectedly taking the top spot but no group winning a majority

French voters turned out in force for the second round of a parliamentary election yesterday that could see the far-right National Rally (RN) emerge as the strongest party, severely denting President Emmanuel Macron’s authority.

An overnight Ukrainian drone attack set a Russian munitions depot ablaze the Voronezh region, near the two countries’ shared border, Russian and Ukrainian officials said yesterday.

Polling stations opened across mainland France on Sunday for a second round parliamentary vote that is expected to be won by far right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN)

France votes in legislative elections Sunday that will be decisive in determining its political future and could see the far right become the largest party in parliament for the first time

Newly elected UK prime minister Keir Starmer yesterday began his first full day in charge declaring himself “restless for change” and pledging that growth would be his Labour government’s “number one mission”.

France yesterday prepared for its most consequential legislative election of recent times, with residents of overseas territories opening voting for a poll expected to give the far right its biggest ever presence in parliament.

Four Bangladesh-origin candidates -- Tulip Rizwana Siddiq, Rushanara Ali, Rupa Huq and Apsana Begum -- have been elected as Labour Party lawmakers in the UK parliament.

Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday pledged to use his massive electoral majority to rebuild the country, saying he wanted to take the heat out of politics after years of upheaval and strife.

Russian attacks killed two and wounded more than a dozen others in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine yesterday, regional officials said.

The centre-left Labour Party’s crushing victory in the British election stands in stark contrast to recent gains by the far right across Europe.

Millions of Britons voted yesterday in a general election that polls predict will hand the opposition Labour party a landslide win and end nearly a decade-and-a-half of Conservative rule.

The UK is not the diplomatic powerhouse it once was, with Brexit leaving it looking inward and years of economic failures meaning the Conservatives and Labour are both sidelining foreign policy in their campaign messaging. Still, leaders around the world will be taking an interest in the election. Here are some of the key issues:

Britain’s political leaders made a final push for votes yesterday on the last day of an election campaign expected to return a Labour government after 14 years of Conservative rule.

The leaders of Russia and China were in Kazakhstan yesterday for a regional summit, seeking to harden anti-Western alliances and press their influence in the strategic Central Asian region.

Labour leader Keir Starmer is a former human rights lawyer turned-state prosecutor whose ruthless ambition and formidable work ethic look set to propel him to Britain’s highest political office.