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Poland scrambles aircraft as Russia attacks Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles – Europe live | Europe

Poland scrambles aircraft as Russia fires hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine Polish and allied aircraft were deployed early on Saturday to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched airstrikes targeting western Ukraine near the border with Poland, armed forces of the Nato-member country said. “Polish and allied aircraft are operating in […]

3 mins read

Russia has shown ‘full extent of contempt for international law’, says von der Leyen, as EU proposes new Russian sanctions – Europe live | Europe

Russia ‘has shown full extent of contempt for diplomacy and law,’ EU’s von der Leyen says The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in her statement that Russia “has shown the full extent of its contempt for diplomacy and international law” over the last month, as she criticised the largest-scale drone and missile […]

4 mins read

Outgoing MI6 chief says Putin has ‘bitten off more than he can chew’ in Ukraine | Espionage

The outgoing head of MI6 has issued a damning indictment of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that Vladimir Putin has “bitten off more than he can chew”. Richard Moore, known within MI6 as C, used his farewell speech in Istanbul to say that while Russia was unlikely to win on the battlefield, his agency was […]

4 mins read

China, India and Belarus line up for Russia’s rival version of Eurovision | Russia

Russia is gearing up to revive its Soviet-era alternative to Eurovision – the Intervision song contest – which begins in Moscow on Saturday, with performers from 23, mostly allied, countriesto take the stage. But sequinned bodysuits, camp theatrics and Europop bangers will be in short supply. Instead, the Kremlin’s version of the spectacle promises “traditional […]

5 mins read

For comedians around the world, the laughs often end as democracy fades | Freedom of speech

  The exiled Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef has experienced firsthand how intolerant governments can silence political satire. And he had a short message this week for those living in an age of Donald Trump’s free speech clampdown: “My Fellow American Citizens,” he wrote on X. “Welcome to my world.” In his attacks on the most […]