UK Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng returned today from a business trip to a country where pressure is increasing on the government to break with economic policies causing turmoil in financial markets. Liz Truss fired Kwarteng, who was Britain's shortest-serving Chancellor of the Treasury since 1970, the BBC reported.more
While observing the parades and counting the tanks, President Vladimir Putin believed in his own propaganda of the invincible leader. Now, however, he has understood that the situation is different, and Russia is no longer a superpower - noted British Defense Minister Ben Wallace in an interview with the Evening Standard.more
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted a resolution condemning Russia's attempt to annex Ukrainian territory. 143 countries were in favor of the resolution, while only 5 were against, including Russia itself.more
An Post, the postal service in the Republic of Ireland, has launched a new digital stamp. Customers will receive a 12-digit unique code via the company's app which they can write onto their envelope where the traditional stamp would go.more
A British businessman who helped Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska evade sanctions has been arrested in London at the request of the U.S., the U.S. Justice Ministry said in a press release.more
Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly told billionaire Elon Musk that he could use nuclear weapons if Ukraine made an "invasion" of Crimea, Eurasia Group hub CEO Ian Bremmer reported, citing a conversation with the businessman. Musk himself denied this on Twitter.more
Since Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the EU has been reorganizing; its center is shifting further east - notes the portal of the "Welt" daily. Germany was yesterday, now comes the eastern EU, which has become the new center of the continent - he emphasizes.more
NATO is considering organizing a special virtual summit in connection with Russia's missile attacks, its threats to use nuclear weapons and additional mobilization of soldiers, Reuters reports, citing a European diplomat.more
Larry the cat, who serves as chief mouser to the Cabinet Office, has been captured on camera chasing a fox from outside the prime minister’s residence.more
British Prime Minister Liz Truss in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky strongly condemned the Russian attacks on civilian areas and assured that they would not reduce the determination to continue providing aid to Kiev.more
About the outbreaks, among others In Odessa and Kryvyi Rih, as well as in the Kiev and Vinnytsia oblasts of Ukraine, local authorities and Ukrainian channels in the Telegram messenger reported this morning.more
King Charles’ plans to have a smaller, more stripped-back Coronation than his mother would be a wasted opportunity to ‘promote’ Britain on the global stage, historians claim.more
Russia uses state terrorism; I appeal to the democratic world to immediately recognize it as a terrorist country - informed Ukrainian ambassador to Poland Vasyl Zwarycz. As he emphasized, Ukraine will not be intimidated, it will continue its counteroffensive and increase its efforts to achieve a full victory.more
Unable to stem the losses of his troops on the battlefield, Vladimir Putin has chosen to terrorize and kill ordinary Ukrainians as proof that Russia will not concede defeat in the seven-month war, writes The Guardian newspaper's Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth.more
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden spoke on the phone yesterday and agreed that Vladimir Putin's recent nuclear threats are "irresponsible" and that the partial mobilization ordered by the Russian leader is a "serious mistake," the German government said.more
Billionaire Elon Musk, who caused outrage recently with his proposal to end the Russian-Ukrainian war by, among other things, recognizing the annexation of Crimea, has now suggested that tensions between China and Taiwan could be resolved by giving Beijing some control over the island.more
The government has decided not to launch a public information campaign on reducing energy use this winter after the prime minister's office raised objections, the BBC has been told. more
A member of Putin's inner circle of associates lashed out at the president for criticizing the war in Ukraine and the mistakes being made in it, the Washington Post reported yesterday, citing intelligence service information. This is supposed to be a signal of growing tensions within the Russian government's inner circle.more
The process of awarding new licenses for exploration and production of oil and gas from the North Sea began yesterday in the UK. As expected, around 100 licenses will be awarded.more
The winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 are the head of the Belarusian Center for Human Rights Viasna Ales Bialiatski, the Russian organization investigating Stalinist crimes Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced today.more
British Prime Minister Liz Truss has finally decided that she believes French President Emmanuel Macron is a friend, not an enemy. Asked about this in August, she said that "it's still an open question."more
"Putin has been in power for more than 22 years, and this has chased away all institutions in Russia. Before he was a spy, he was a gangster. What do gangsters do? They make sure there are no new people except the ones they grew up with. There are no institutions in Russia to replace this gangster system." - says John Sweeney author of "Killer in the Kremlin", published this year.more
Actually, no one should be compared to Hitler, not even Putin. But the parallels in Hitler's fall to Putin's current situation are striking, notes Nikolaus Blome in the Spiegel weekly. Are these the last days not in Hitler's bunker in Berlin, but somewhere in the Kremlin? - the author wonders.more
In less than two weeks after Vladimir Putin announced mobilization, some 700,000 people left Russia, 200,000 of whom went to Kazakhstan, Forbes magazine reported in its Russian edition. It is unclear how many plan to return.more
The government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Tuesday that free rail travel on medium-distance and suburban routes will be in effect in the country in 2023.more
