Browsing: EU

President Vladimir Putin claimed Tuesday that Ukraine was suffering massive losses in its long-awaited counter-offensive against Russian forces in Ukraine, saying Kyiv’s casualties were ten times higher than Moscow’s. His assessment came hours after Russia asserted having captured Western armoured vehicles from Kyiv’s forces on the battlefield and following deadly Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian leader’s hometown. FRANCE 24’s Catherine Viette tells us more about this attack.

FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Gulliver Cragg, explained that immediate worries that the draining of the resevoir would lead to a nuclear meltdown were quickly put to rest, because the plant does not need cooling; it is not generating electricity at the moment. On the other hand, if there were to be an accident, it would have been handy to have a reservoir of water nearby.

Some countries argue the deal does not go far enough.

The winds of change are blowing through the European Union’s foreign policy – but they may not be enough to cause a storm.

With Erdogan re-elected, he no longer has an electorate to impress. With Sweden appearing to want to acquiese to some of Turkey’s demands, another major barrier is gone. FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Stockholm, Sweden, Paul Rhys reports.

The Swedish government decided Monday to extradite a Turkish citizen resident in Sweden who had been convicted in 2013 of drug crime in Turkey.

Belgium and Germany have joined Austria, Greece and Malta in allowing 16 and 17-year-old to vote in the European elections.

Canada and the Netherlands have taken Damascus to the International Court of Justice over allegations of torture, the tribunal said Monday, in the first case at the UN’s top court over Syria’s brutal civil war.

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a billionaire businessman who dominated Italy’s political landscape for decades, died on Monday aged 86, drawing tributes from leaders across the world. Italy has declared Wednesday a national day of mourning for Berlusconi, when a state funeral will be held for him in Milan’s Duomo cathedral.

Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media tycoon and four-time prime minister who brushed off a litany of legal battles and sex scandals to dominate Italian public life for more than two decades, has died in Milan aged 86.

In this week’s Focus, we turn to the tense frontier between Russia and Finland. The rapport between these neighbouring nations has soured significantly in the wake of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Historically, their mutual border has been a theatre of confrontation and conflict. Currently, Finland is taking drastic measures by erecting a formidable barbed wire fence along this boundary. According to authorities in Helsinki, the intention behind this undertaking is twofold: ensuring the nation’s protection and enhancing scrutiny over entries from Russia.

NATO launches its largest-ever aerial drill in Europe on Monday, coordinated by Germany, in a show of unity from the military alliance against potential threats – notably from Russia. Ukraine said on Sunday it had made territorial advances on three villages in its southeast, marking the first liberated settlements since its military launched a counteroffensive this past week. Follow our live blog for the latest updates on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) last month announced it would lay off nearly 10 percent of its global staff and roll back dozens of its operations across the world. Although the ICRC’s crisis can partly be blamed on the war in Ukraine and resulting inflation, it also reflects a much more worrying problem plaguing the world’s humanitarian aid groups: with the world more in need of humanitarian action than ever before, donations are failing to keep up with demand.

Scotland’s former leader Nicola Sturgeon insisted on Sunday that she had done nothing wrong after police arrested her as part of an investigation into the finances of the country’s ruling party.

Hundreds of residents of the French town of Annecy gathered Sunday to honour the people who rushed to stop a man accused of stabbing six people, including four toddlers, at a playground last week.

Montenegro was holding an early parliamentary election Sunday, a vote that could put an end to deep political divisions and years of instability that have hampered the small NATO-member country on its route to joining the European Union.

Novak Djokovic admits “history is hovering” over him as he takes on Casper Ruud in the French Open final on Sunday with a men’s record 23rd Grand Slam title tantalisingly close.

Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson shocked Britain on Friday by quitting as a lawmaker after being told he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament.

Entire villages in southern Ukraine were flooded after the Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro river burst on Tuesday. One of the river’s tributaries, the Inhoulets, burst its banks, flooding fields and villages situated more than 50 kilometres north of Kherson. FRANCE 24’s correspondent Gulliver Cragg toured part of the stricken area with the head of the Snihurivka military administration – the wartime equivalent of a mayor.

Spain’s hard left decided Friday to join forces on a single political platform for the July 23 elections, in a boost for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s reelection hopes.

In this edition of Brussels, my love?, we discuss a proposal for a nature restoration law that hit a roadblock this week when centre-right politicians called on the European Commission to go back to the drawing board.

In 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising took place. It was a courageous act of resistance against the Nazis by several hundred Jewish fighters.

Since 1941, the Jewish population of the Polish capital – approximately 400,000 people – had been confined by the Nazi occupiers to a small neighbourhood in the center of the city. Many died as a result of starvation and diseases there. Others were sent to the Treblinka death camp.

Talking Europe hosts Bujar Osmani, the foreign minister of North Macedonia, which launched EU accession talks nearly a year ago – although it has been in the EU’s waiting room for far longer than that. Currently a screening process of North Macedonia’s legislation is under way, and Osmani urges the opening of talks with the EU on key topics. He warns that North Macedonian society has become wary of “making concessions while there are no deliverables”.

Official reactions are pouring in after home affairs ministers struck a major deal to revamp the European Union’s migration and asylum policy.

As European countries grapple with the question of how to handle migration policy across the continent, many countries are looking to Denmark, known for having some of the strictest immigration rules in the European Union. Today’s Focus takes us to a district of the capital, Copenhagen, where the debate around immigration and integration has flared in recent times. This report by our colleagues at France 2 and FRANCE 24’s Jack Colmer Gale.