The UK government yesterday announced its intention to drastically overhaul post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, arguing the plan was needed to end political paralysis in the territory but risking a trade war with the EU.

Russia has lost around a third of the ground forces it deployed to Ukraine and its offensive in the Donbas region “has lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule”, British military intelligence said yesterday.

Finland yesterday confirmed its bid for Nato membership as a bulwark against Russia, redrawing the balance of power in Europe after decades of military non-alignment.

A senior NATO official said Sunday that Russia’s military advance in Ukraine appears to be faltering and he expressed hope that Kyiv can win the war, as Russia’s neighbor Finland announced it wants to join the Western military alliance.

The leader of Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia on Friday set July 17 as a date for a referendum on joining Russia.

Stalled negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme have been unblocked after fresh talks in Tehran, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said

An international team of astronomers yesterday unveiled the first image of a supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy -- a cosmic body known as Sagittarius A*.

Finland’s leaders said Thursday they’re in favor of rapidly applying for NATO membership, paving the way for a historic expansion of the alliance that could deal a serious blow to Russia as its military struggles with its war in Ukraine.

All heatwaves today bear the unmistakable and measurable fingerprint of global warming, top experts on quantifying the impact of climate change on extreme weather said Wednesday.

Spain’s government yesterday sacked the country’s spy chief as part of a widening scandal over the hacking of the mobile phones of the prime minister and Catalan separatist leaders.

Head of state Queen Elizabeth II missed yesterday’s ceremonial opening of the UK parliament for the first time in nearly 60 years, handing the duty to her heir Prince Charles in a clear sign of the looming transition of power.

The world faces a 50 percent chance of warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, if only briefly, by 2026, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday.

More than three quarters of people in Finland now support joining Nato, a new poll showed yesterday, after opinion on the military alliance flipped following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace yesterday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “mirroring fascism”, as the country held an annual Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square.

Emmanuel Macron was sworn in for his second term as France’s president yesterday at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace, followed by the firing of canons at the Invalides gardens.

World food prices fell slightly last month after hitting a record in March, thanks to a 5.7 percent drop in vegetable oil prices, UN food agency said yesterday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party lost control of traditional strongholds in London and suffered setbacks elsewhere in local elections, with voters punishing his government over a series of scandals.

Europe is increasingly becoming a hub for production and trans-shipment of cocaine to other regions of the world, in addition to being a major consumption market, EU agencies said on Friday, warning also about the expanding methamphetamine industry.

The European Union has proposed a phased embargo of Russian oil but may find it tricky to implement, given Europe’s complex distribution

From countering a Western “information war” during a Taiwan conflict to using “shock and awe” to swiftly subdue the island’s forces, Chinese strategists are soaking up lessons from Russia’s Ukrainian quagmire, diplomats, scholars and analysts say.