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.

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.

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.

Three people were killed and four others seriously wounded in a stabbing attack at a festival on Friday night in the western German city of Solingen, police said

French President Emmanuel Macron began a round of thorny consultations with political leaders yesterday, hoping to cobble together a viable ruling coalition after last month’s inconclusive election.

India’s Narendra Modi yesterday urged President Volodymyr Zelensky to sit down for talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine and offered to act as a friend to help bring peace as the two leaders met in wartime Kyiv.

The number of migrants arriving in the UK by crossing the Channel on boats hit a record in the first half of 2024, interior ministry data showed yesterday.

President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia’s economic and trade links with China are “yielding results” as he welcomed Chinese Premier Li Qiang to the Kremlin.

Hundreds of Russian firefighters in the southern Rostov region were battling a massive fire at an oil depot yesterday for a third day after it was hit in a Ukrainian drone attack.

A World Health Organization official stressed yesterday that mpox, regardless of whether it is the new or old strain, is not the new Covid, as authorities know how to control its spread.

The world's oldest living person, Spain's Maria Branyas Morera, who was born in the United States and lived through two world wars, has died at the age of 117, her family said Tuesday