French leader Emmanuel Macron and challenger Marine Le Pen qualified for what promises to be a very tightly fought presidential election runoff on April 24, pitting a pro-European economic liberal against a far-right nationalist. With 96 percent of the votes counted for Sunday’s first round, Macron garnered 27.41 percent of the votes and Le Pen […]

Air strikes rocked Ukraine’s strategic Black Sea port Odessa early Sunday morning, according to an interior ministry official, after Kyiv had warned that Russia was trying to consolidate its troops in the south. Explosions rocked the strategic Ukrainian port city of Odessa on Sunday, as a top UN official headed to Moscow to try to […]

Card payment giants Visa and Mastercard announced on March 5, 2022, they will suspend operations in Russia, the latest major US firms to join the business freeze-out of Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. Card payment giants Visa and Mastercard announced Saturday they will suspend operations in Russia, the latest major US firms to join […]

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (L) and European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell give a joint press statement on further measures to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the European Commission in Brussels. The EU on Sunday announced swingeing new sanctions against Russia over its invasion of […]

In a flurry of diplomacy across two continents, President Joe Biden met with Germany’s new leader Monday and vowed the crucial Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline will be blocked if Russia further invades Ukraine. Russia’s Vladimir Putin retorted that the U.S. and its allies are the only ones talking invasion. Putin and French President […]

The ongoing truckers’ protest in the Canadian capital is “out of control,” the Ottawa mayor said Sunday, announcing a state of emergency as the city center remained blocked by opponents of anti-Covid measures. The protesters, who first reached the capital on January 29, have parked their big rigs on city streets and put up tents […]

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are to hold talks in Geneva later amid mounting fears that Russia could be about to invade Ukraine. Mr Blinken warned Moscow of grave consequences if any of its forces crossed the border. Russia has 100,000 troops at the border, but denies planning […]

A military court has sentenced American journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison, his lawyer said on Friday. Fenster, a 37-year-old from Detroit, Michigan, has been detained in Myanmar for more than five months. He has been denied bail and held in Insein Prison, in the country’s biggest city Yangon, since his May 24 […]

The COP26 climate summit in Glasgow is entering its final day, amid growing fears that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C is unlikely to be met. UN Secretary General António Guterres bluntly told the Associated Press news agency that goal was on “life support”. He said the summit would probably not see governments […]

Migrants stranded inside Belarus threw rocks and branches at Polish border guards and used logs to try to break down a razor wire fence overnight in new attempts to force their way into the European Union, the authorities in Warsaw said on Thursday. The EU on Wednesday accused Belarus of mounting a “hybrid attack” on […]