Europe

Russia said on Thursday it had scrambled a fighter jet to intercept a British spy plane operating near Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Russia’s defense ministry said the British foray was part of a wider uptick in military activity by the United States …

New cascades of red-hot lava tumbled into the Atlantic Ocean off Spain’s La Palma on Wednesday morning, sending up plumes of white smoke and extending a platform of volcanic rock created by earlier flows. The stream of molten rock from the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which began erupting in mid-September, reached …

Swedish Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson will have a shot at becoming the Nordic country’s first female prime minister after the speaker picked her on Thursday to try and form a government from a fragmented parliament. Andersson was elected by the Social Democrat party to replace former Prime Minister Stefan Lofven …

Countries bordering Belarus on Thursday warned the migrant crisis on the European Union’s eastern borders could escalate into a military confrontation while Ukraine said it would deploy thousands more troops to reinforce its frontier. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia said Belarus posed serious threats to European security by deliberately escalating its …

The European Union’s foreign policy chief warned the bloc on Wednesday that it must agree an ambitious doctrine as the basis for joint military action abroad, including with a deployable crisis force. Josep Borrell told reporters his first draft of the “Strategic Compass” – the closest thing the EU could …

Swedish centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven formally resigned on Wednesday, opening the way for Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson to become the country’s first woman premier if she can win parliament’s approval. Lofven, a former welder and union negotiator, has headed a minority coalition with the Greens since 2014 and said …

The EU said Tuesday it is pressing more than a dozen countries to prevent their nationals leaving for Belarus on a perilous attempt to get into the bloc. The effort is part of Brussels’ reaction to what it says is an orchestrated campaign by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to destabilize …

Several EU member states on the UN Security Council have criticized Israel’s move to proceed with settlement construction in Palestine’s West Bank and East Jerusalem while slamming the decision to dub six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. “We reiterate our strong opposition to the expansion of settlements and will not …

A 27-year-old man who stabbed four people with a knife on a German high-speed train apparently attacked his victims “at random” and showed signs of mental illness, authorities said Sunday. Police and investigators told reporters in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz that the attacker’s intentions were still unclear, but there is …

Archaeologists have uncovered a room at a villa just outside Pompeii containing beds and other objects that shed light on the living conditions of slaves in the ancient Roman city buried by a volcanic eruption. The room, in an excellent state of preservation, contains three wooden beds and a series …

Thousands of protesters set off from a Glasgow park Saturday to march through the city hosting the U.N. climate conference and demanding bolder global action. Students, activists, and climate-concerned citizens bundled up against the damp cold, linking arms as they moved west from the city’s Kelvingrove Park toward the central …

Police in Spain arrested 12 people and were looking for 12 more after a group of passengers fled a plane onto the runway at Palma de Mallorca airport on Friday night, causing the closure of the airport for several hours. The Air Arabia Maroc flight from Casablanca to Istanbul made …

Russia on Saturday said it does not expect progress in talks in the coming weeks with the US on issues including visas and the size and functioning of their embassies, Russian news agencies reported. With ties already at post-Cold War lows, Moscow and Washington are in a dispute over the …

A knife attack on a high-speed train in Germany has injured several people, police confirmed Saturday morning. Local police told The Associated Press that they received a call about the attack around 9 a.m. local time on Saturday. The train in question, one of Germany’s high-speed ICE trains, was traveling …

A European Parliament delegation that is on an official visit to Chinese Taipei has called for more “high-level concrete steps” to strengthen relations between the European Union and the Chinese territory, defying Beijing’s warnings against direct ties with the self-ruled island. French member of the European Parliament Raphael Glucksmann, who is …

Russia has left military units near the Ukrainian border after exercises, with the number of Russian troops in the area now totaling 90,000, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. Russian armed forces recently held a series of large-scale drills, including with airborne troops, the ministry said late on Tuesday. After the …

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison attacked the credibility of French President Emmanuel Macron as a newspaper quoted a text message that suggested France anticipated “bad news” about a now-scuttled submarine deal. An Australian newspaper cast doubt on President Joe Biden’s explanation to Macron last week that the US leader thought …

Russia has accused Ukraine of trying to create a “provocative situation” aimed at dragging Moscow into a conflict in the country’s eastern region of Donbass, amid an escalation between the Kiev government forces and pro-Russia separatists in the volatile region. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the comment against the …

Bulgaria on Monday deployed 350 soldiers to the border with Turkey to help police cope with the growing influx of migrants, the defense minister announced. “Soldiers arrived at the Bulgarian-Turkish border since today to back up the border police,” Georgi Panayotov told the private bTV channel. The 350 troops deployed …

French President Emmanuel Macron said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison lied to him over the cancellation of a submarine building contract in September and indicated more efforts were required to rebuild trust between the two allies. In Rome for the G20 summit, the two leaders were meeting for the first …