Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered nuclear weapons drills near Ukraine, Moscow said yesterday, in response to “threats” from Western officials to deploy Nato troops to Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen pressed Xi Jinping at a summit in Paris yesterday to use Beijing’s influence to halt the Russian war against Ukraine, also telling the Chinese leader to accept fair global trade rules.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark’s first female prime minister and leader of the Danish Social Democrat Party, has joined the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Bangladesh as a patron.

Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday arrived in France on a state visit hosted by Emmanuel Macron where the French leader will seek to push his counterpart on issues ranging from Ukraine to trade.

London’s Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan yesterday won a record third term after easily defeating Conservative challenger Susan Hall, UK media said after all the capital’s districts reported their results, reports AFP.

Britain’s Labour yesterday urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to call a general election after the opposition party made significant gains in English polls that included a seat in parliament.

Russian military personnel have entered an air base in Niger that is hosting US troops, a senior US defense official told Reuters, a move that follows a decision by Niger’s junta to expel US forces.

Canadian police charged three people yesterday with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the province of British Columbia in June 2023, Canadian media said, citing court documents.

The EU yesterday launched an investigation into Meta’s Facebook and Instagram over concerns the platforms are failing to counter disinformation ahead of EU elections in June.

King Charles III yesterday reportedly told fellow cancer patients “I’m well”, as he carried out his first official public engagement since being diagnosed with the condition.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has worsened, with Kyiv’s troops falling back to new positions in at least three places along the front, Ukraine’s top general said yesterday.

Ireland is looking to amend the law to allow the return of asylum seekers to the United Kingdom, broadcaster RTE said yesterday after an influx over the border with Northern Ireland.

US intelligence agencies have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably didn’t order opposition politician Alexei Navalny killed at an Arctic prison camp in February, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the world’s most famous portrait, could get a room of its own in the Louvre, the museum’s president said on Saturday.

Russia launched a “massive” missile strike at Ukraine overnight, damaging four power plants in the latest barrage targeting the country’s energy supply, officials in Kyiv said yesterday.

France’s national library said yesterday it had removed four 19th-century books from its shelves whose emerald green covers were likely laced with highly poisonous arsenic.

Ukrainian and Russian forces exchanged drone and artillery fire yesterday, leaving at least seven dead, regional officials on both sides of the frontline announced.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a "credible" defence strategy less dependent on the United States

Food insecurity worsened around the world in 2023, with some 282 million people suffering from acute hunger due to conflicts, particularly in Gaza and Sudan, UN agencies and development groups said yesterday.

Asylum seekers housed on an accommodation barge on the coast of southern England say they are afraid of being sent to Rwanda, after a controversial proposal for deportation was approved.