London / Europe

LONDON — High-level trade negotiations between the United States and China will continue into a second day on Tuesday, as both sides seek to ease tensions over technology exports and critical mineral shipments.

Head of NATO sounded the alarm on Russia and its allies considerably out-producing the alliance on crucial military equipment and materiel.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with high-level Chinese officials in London on Monday to seek a resolution to the trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

The Labour government completed an embarrassing u-turn on its cuts to the winter fuel aid scheme to keep the elderly warm following pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.

Russia launched what Ukraine said would be the largest air assault of the war to date, with nearly 500 missiles and drones airborne.

British author J.K. Rowling’s political views have zero impact on actor Tom Felton who has nothing but thanks and praise to offer the person whose Harry Potter creation catapulted him to international stardom.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has called for the re-opening of coal mines in Wales to help revitalise Britain’s anemic steel industry in yet another shot across the bow against Sir Keir Starmer’s government.

The Russian paramilitary group Wagner has left Mali and its units there have been taken over by the Moscow-run Africa Corps, diplomatic and security sources told AFP on Sunday.

Pope Leo XIV criticized the surge of nationalist political movements in the world as he prayed Sunday for reconciliation and dialogue – a message in line with his pledges to make the Catholic Church a symbol of peace.

Russian officials said Sunday that Moscow is still awaiting official confirmation from Kyiv that a planned exchange of 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action will take place, reiterating allegations that Ukraine had postponed the swap.

Authorities in the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, Osh, have removed a towering statue of Vladimir Lenin thought to be the tallest of the revolutionary Soviet leader in Central Asia.

The incoming president of Poland has joined Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in opposing European Union membership for Ukraine, arguing that it would go against the interests of his people.

“Buy now, pay later” giant Klarna is notorious for mercilessly replacing human employees with AI. But the fintech company understands the limits of artificial intelligence — he says his company will always offer access to human customer service agents as a “VIP thing.”

In a prompt about-face, Zia Yusuf has announced that he will be returning to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, just two days after sensationally resigning from his post as party chairman.

Lawyers have cited fake cases generated by artificial intelligence in court proceedings in England, a judge has said – warning that attorneys could be prosecuted if they don’t check the accuracy of their research.

The mass migration agenda has resulted in white British students becoming a minority in a quarter of schools in England, according to government data.

French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Greenland next weekend, the Danish prime minister’s office said Saturday – a visit by a high-profile European Union leader in the wake of U.S. expressions of interest in taking over the mineral-rich Arctic island.

The British government’s anti-terror Prevent program has listed “cultural nationalism” and the belief that Western culture is under threat from mass migration as being indicative of “right-wing terrorist ideology”.

A large Russian drone-and-missile attack targeted Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv on Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring 21.

The number of Gen Z women who say they would vote for Farage’s Reform UK has near-doubled in a month, a poll claims.

On this day, 81 years ago, tens of thousands of young men from ordinary backgrounds hit the beaches of Normandy and faced the most intense fire any group of attackers has ever faced in the history of modern warfare.

The results of a survey published by two animal rights organizations this week found that eating dogs is highly unpopular in the city of Yulin, China – home to a gory spectacle in which dog traders mark the summer solstice by butchering thousands of dogs in the streets and eating their meat with lychees.

France dampened expectations with the foreign minister saying recognition had to be more than “symbolic”.

Dutch caretaker government has set a mammoth near-five-month election campaign for the coming snap general election.

Former French Prime Minister and ex-EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has accused Ursula von der Leyen of presiding over an “authoritarian drift” during her tenure in Brussels’s top post.

“June the sixth is the price of freedom”,  Pete Hegseth said at the American War Cemetery in Normandy, France on Friday morning. 

Russia bombarded six regions of Ukraine in one of its largest aerial attacks of the three-year war, Ukrainian officials said Friday.

The first cohort of young men charged in the violent riots in Paris over the weekend were all let off without any prison time, despite all having admitted to attacking police officers and President Macron’s vow to bring those involved to justice.

President Trump stated he had sought to dissuade Russia’s President Vladimir Putin from retaliating to break the cycle of violence.

Nearly sixty per cent of people in France believe that the general state of freedom has eroded under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, a survey has found.

“If Jerusalem falls, Athens, Paris, or Amsterdam are next,” warned firebrand Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders during a heated Dutch parliamentary clash following the collapse of his coalition government.

Zia Yusuf, the businessman who was appointed Chairman of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party in July 2024 fired a parting shot.

The European Union Drugs Agency´s annual report released on Thursday found that in 2023 cocaine seizures in Europe hit a record.

President reminded Russia “very, very tough” sanctions loom if it kills peace talks, saying Ukraine could suffer the same fate.

Merz for high-stakes Oval Office talk with President Donald Trump in the same format as recent clashes with Zelensky and Ramaphosa. 

At least five people, including a 1-year-old child, his mother and grandmother, were killed Thursday in a nighttime Russian drone attack.

Pope Leo XIV held his first phone conversation with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, the Vatican and Kremlin both confirmed a day later, discussing the Church’s humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.