Fear that confrontation is on the cards as policing of ships becomes more aggressive and Russia challenges Europe
The “shadow fleet” used by Russia, Iran and Venezuela to avoid western sanctions and ship cargo to customers including China and India is “exploding” in its scale and scope, and there are concerns that efforts to counter it are drawing closer to dangerous military confrontations.
Complicating the issue is that Russia has begun putting its own flag on some former shadow fleet tankers, in an open challenge to Europe.
As rising seas salinise the soils of the Venice lagoon, scientists and chefs are turning to long-forgotten wild herbs
On the scrubby banks of the rural swathes of the Venice lagoon, an evening chorus of cicadas underscores the distant whine of farmers’ three-wheeled minivans. Dotted along the brackish fringes of the cultivated plots are scatterings of silvery-green bushes – sea fennel.
This plant is a member of a group of remarkable organisms known as halophytes – plant species that thrive in saltwater. Long overlooked and found growing in the in-between spaces – saltmarshes, coastlines, the fringes of lagoons – halophytes straddle boundaries in both ecosystems and cuisines. But with shifting agricultural futures, this may be about to change.
En Ukraine, la question des cessions territoriales est toujours centrale aux discussions menées en Floride par les États-Unis, séparément avec la délégation ukrainienne et celle envoyée par la Russie. Alors que Washington avait proposé des pourparlers entre Américains, Ukrainiens, Russes et « possiblement » des Européens, selon Volodymyr Zelensky, Moscou a toutefois écarté une telle réunion. De son côté, le président russe Vladimir Poutine s'est déclaré prêt au dialogue.
En Ukraine, la question des cessions territoriales est toujours centrale aux discussions menées en Floride par les États-Unis, séparément avec la délégation ukrainienne et celle envoyée par la Russie. Alors que Washington avait proposé des pourparlers entre Américains, Ukrainiens, Russes et « possiblement » des Européens, selon Volodymyr Zelensky, Moscou a toutefois écarté une telle réunion. De son côté, le président russe Vladimir Poutine s'est déclaré prêt au dialogue.
The chancellor is pursuing a risky quest for European leadership, and last week’s setback over Russian reparations is unlikely to knock him off course
Friedrich Merz’s three-month bid to catapult Germany into the role of undisputed leader of Europe has come unstuck.
His call for Europe to hand Ukraine access to €201bn (£176bn) in frozen Russian central bank assets via a reparations loan was rejected at a decisive European Council meeting in Brussels.
PostNord’s decision to end service on 30 December comes after fear over ‘increasing digitalisation’ of Danish society
The Danish postal service will deliver its last letter on 30 December, ending a more than 400-year-old tradition.
Announcing the decision earlier this year to stop delivering letters, PostNord, formed in 2009 in a merger of the Swedish and Danish postal services, said it would cut 1,500 jobs in Denmark and remove 1,500 red postboxes amid the “increasing digitalisation” of Danish society.
Results of Sunday’s snap election in Extremadura are seen as key test of Pedro Sánchez and his PSOE party
Spain’s beleaguered prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, faces a key test on Sunday when voters in the south-western region of Extremadura cast their ballots in the first major election to be held since a series of corruption and sexual harassment allegations enveloped his inner circle, his party and his administration.
Extremadura, once a stronghold of Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE), has been in the hands of the conservative People’s party (PP) since 2023, when the latter managed to form a short-lived coalition government with the far-right Vox party, despite finishing just behind the socialists.
Kyiv continues campaign of attacks on Russia-linked maritime targets; latest US idea is three-way peace talks. What we know on day 1,397
Ukrainian drones hit an oil rig at Russia’s Filanovsky field in the Caspian Sea – more than 700km (435 miles) from Ukraine’s nearest border, as well as the military patrol ship Okhotnik and other facilities, Ukraine’s military general staff said in a statement on Saturday. It said the ship was patrolling near the platform. The extent of the damage was being assessed. The attack continues Kyiv’s recent campaign of strikes on Russia-linked maritime targets far from Ukrainian territory.
Ukrainian drones struck a radar system in the Krasnosilske area of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed two Russian fighter jets were also destroyed at an airfield in occupied Crimea.
Since Thursday, Russian forces have at least five times hit a bridge on the Dniester River near the village of Mayaky, south-west of Pivdennyi in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to the deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba. The bridge, which connects parts of the region divided by the river and sea inlets, is the main transport route westward to border crossings with Moldova, and is not operational now. The route accounted for about 40% of fuel supplies to Ukraine, Kuleba said. Ukrainian authorities have set up a pontoon bridge and re-routed logistics through other regions, securing civilian and freight logistics.
The death toll rose to eight from a Russian strike on Pivdennyi port. Geneva-based vegetable oil producer Allseeds said three tanks storing sunflower oil at the site were set ablaze in Pivdennyi, and one of its workers was killed while two were injured.
The Ukrainian military said its forces on Saturday fought back more than 60 attacks on Pokrovsk, which is under heavy Russian siege. Across the combat zones in Ukraine, “the Russian invaders carried out 42 airstrikes, dropping 101 guided bombs. In addition, they used 1,684 kamikaze drones and carried out 2,467 attacks on our military positions and settlements.” In the Kharkiv region city of Izium, two people were killed by guided bomb strikes, said the state emergency service.
Russia reported Ukrainian drone attacks on its Belgorod region as well as an attack on facilities in the Kursk region that left about 5,000 people without electricity.
The White House offered to chair face-to-face talks between officials of the US, Russia and Ukraine, as the Trump administration continued to cast about for a peace deal. “America is now proposing a trilateral meeting with national security advisers – America, Ukraine, Russia,” said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine would back the proposal, he said, if it facilitated more exchanges of prisoners and paved the way for meetings of national leaders.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine stood for proposals that would leave the frontline where it is without Ukraine having to give up territory it still controls in the industrial region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine. “For me, the fair version is we stand where we are now standing,” he said. US negotiators met Russian officials in Florida on Saturday, following on from US talks on Friday with Ukrainian and European officials. It was suggested the talks would continue on Sunday.
La police italienne a annoncé samedi 20 décembre avoir saisi près de 1 400 kilos de stupéfiants ainsi que de nombreuses armes à feu. Des centaines d'arrestations ont également été effectuées et 655 plaintes ont été déposées. Une opération qui s'est déroulée sur l'étendue du territoire italien.
La police italienne a annoncé samedi 20 décembre avoir saisi près de 1 400 kilos de stupéfiants ainsi que de nombreuses armes à feu. Des centaines d'arrestations ont également été effectuées et 655 plaintes ont été déposées. Une opération qui s'est déroulée sur l'étendue du territoire italien.
À part l’Antarctique, pas un seul continent n’est épargné. Des « points chauds » inexpliqués sont récemment apparus sur la carte du monde. Les populations qui vivent dans ces régions sont menacées.
À part l’Antarctique, pas un seul continent n’est épargné. Des « points chauds » inexpliqués sont récemment apparus sur la carte du monde. Les populations qui vivent dans ces régions sont menacées.
People torn between craving for peace as conditions worsen and desire to hold strong against Russian military and diplomatic tactics
The ammunition boxes stacked on the stage opened up to reveal figurines of angels and an infant Jesus lying in his manger. Six actors sang plaintive carols, accompanied by readings of the brooding poetry of Kharkiv writer Serhiy Zhadan. The audience sat, transfixed by the almost unbearable intensity of the spectacle.
The nativity play, performed on a recent evening at Kharkiv’s puppet theatre, was a reminder that conflict has seeped into the fabric of almost everything in Ukrainian life over the past four years. “We can’t just put on comedies and escape from reality,” said Oksana Dmitrieva, the nativity play’s 48-year-old director. “The stage is a mirror, and we have to live through our emotions again, but this time from outside ourselves, together with others,” she said.
Les autorités estoniennes sont sur le qui-vive et étudient la réponse à apporter à l’incident qui s’est produit à sa frontière avec la Russie. Mercredi 17 décembre, trois gardes-frontières russes sont entrés à bord d’aéroglisseurs en territoire estonien sur la rivière Narva, que se partagent les deux pays. Ils y sont restés une vingtaine de minutes avant de repartir côté russe. Face aux incidents qui se multiplient, les autorités estoniennes n’excluent pas, à l’avenir, de fermer tout ou partie de la frontière avec la Russie.
Aiden Aslin, a British volunteer who joined Ukraine’s marines, was captured and tortured by Putin’s forces in 2022 and is now back fighting the Kremlin. He tells his story to the ‘World of Trouble’ podcast with world affairs editor Sam Kiley in eastern Ukraine
Funding to tackle misinformation and cyber-attacks, and boost democracy, cut from £40m to £24m
Keir Starmer’s raid on overseas aid has led to a 40% cut in funds for countering Russian aggression and misinformation in a region of Europe described by the prime minister as vital to the UK’s national security.
British funding committed to bolstering the western Balkans, where Russia has been accused of sowing division and creating destabilisation, has been cut from £40m last year to £24m for 2025-26.
Cyclist and road safety groups argue proposed alternative route away from traffic-free Le Piétonnier is unsafe
On an unseasonably mild winter’s day, people are gathering at Le Piétonnier, the pedestrian zone in the heart of Brussels. Tourists buy mulled wine and churros at the Christmas market outside the Bourse, the old stock exchange, now repurposed as a beer museum. A few people drink coffee on cafe terraces. Up and down the length of the 650-metre-long space, people come and go, bikes and scooters weaving in and out of the crowds.
Next year, this scene will look somewhat different: bikes and scooters will be banned from this 18,000-sq-metre pedestrian zone for most of the day. People on two wheels will be allowed to ride only between 4am and 11am. At all other times, they must dismount and push their vehicle up the street, or face a fine.
European legislators may ban plant-based products from using the name to prevent ‘confusion’. Just don’t mention beef tomatoes or buffalo wings
Most of what you eat is sausages. I mean, if we’re going to get literal about it. Sausage derives from the Latin salsicus, which means “seasoned with salt”. You might think of a sausage as a simple thing, but on this reading it is everything and nothing, a Borgesian meta-concept that retreats as you approach it.
From another perspective, a sausage is an offal-filled intestine, or the macerated parts of an electrocuted or asphyxiated pig or other animal – generally parts that you wouldn’t knowingly eat – mixed with other ingredients that, in isolation, you might consider inedible. For some reason, it is seldom marketed as such.
Beatriz Bernal’s pioneering novel features brave, chivalrous women who ride dragons and her adapter wants his illustrated version to reach young readers
Sixty years before a gaunt and deluded nobleman from La Mancha was overdosing on tales of derring-do, visiting his madness on those around him – and single-handedly rewriting the rules of fiction – the deeds of another heroic knight had already made literary history.
Though completely eclipsed by Don Quixote, Cristalián de España, which was first published in 1545, has a unique claim to fame. Its 800 pages, bristling with swords, sorcerers, dragons and damsels, make up the earliest known work by a female Spanish novelist.
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