The French are largely satisfied with the appointment of the centre-right Michel Barnier as prime minister, but believe he will not last long in his new post, a poll said yesterday.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen yesterday urged President Emmanuel Macron to hold a referendum on key issues such as immigration, suggesting that giving the French a direct vote might help break the political deadlock.

CIA Director Bill Burns and UK MI6 chief Richard Moore yesterday warned that the world order was “under threat in a way we haven’t seen since the cold war”.

Thousands of people took to the streets across France yesterday to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to appoint centre-right Michel Barnier as prime minister with left-wing parties accusing him of stealing legislative elections.

US tech titan Google employs “anti-competitive practices” with regards to online advertising, Britain’s competition watchdog concluded yesterday in provisional findings of a two-year long investigation.

The 2024 northern summer saw the highest global temperatures on record, beating 2023’s high and making this year likely Earth’s hottest ever recorded, the EU’s climate monitor said yesterday.

At least 12 migrants died yesterday after their boat capsized on its way across the Channel to Britain, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, adding that rescue operations were underway to find people still missing. 

Children under the age of two should be kept away from digital media and television completely, the country's Public Health Agency said

Russia yesterday said that it had thwarted a “massive” Ukrainian drone attack by downing 158 drones across 15 regions, including two over the capital Moscow.

Voters in two former East German states yesterday began casting ballots in elections expected to deal a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government and deliver big gains for the far-right AfD.

The UN has published a draft on climate financing due to be presented at the COP29 in November, laying out the conflicting positions from which the main country blocs will try to clinch the next climate deal.

Record wildfires in 2023 bumped Canada into the top four greenhouse gas-emitting countries in the world that year, according to a study Wednesday that also cast doubt on its forests’ future ability to capture and store significant amounts of CO2.

Russian bombardments on the eastern Ukraine region of Donetsk killed six people yesterday, the governor of the region said, as Moscow announced it had taken another village in the area.

Pavel Durov, the founder and chief of Telegram, was to appear in a French court Wednesday to face possible charges of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on the popular messaging app after his arrest at the weekend.

Relations between Moscow and Paris have reached a nadir following the arrest of Russian-born Telegram boss Pavel Durov, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday, after the tech billionaire’s detention was extended until Wednesday.

Russia launched about 200 missiles and drones at Ukraine yesterday, killing five people and striking energy facilities nationwide, Kyiv said, while neighbouring Nato member Poland reported a drone had probably entered its airspace.

German police yesterday hunted a man who stabbed three people to death and wounded eight others at a street festival in the city of Solingen, with a terror motive for the attack “not excluded”.

An explosion outside a synagogue in southern France wounded a police officer early yesterday, in what authorities said was being treated as a potential terror attack.

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on more than 400 entities and individuals for supporting Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, the State Department said, including Chinese companies that US officials believe are helping Moscow skirt Western sanctions and build up its military.

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed more “retribution” against Russia on Ukrainian Independence Day yesterday, as Kyiv and Moscow announced the exchange of 230 prisoners just over two weeks into Ukraine’s surprise offensive on Kursk.