Europe

Greece’s parliament on Wednesday elected the first female president in the country’s history. She is 63-year-old Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou, a senior judge with an expertise in environmental and constitutional law. A cross-party majority of 261 MPs voted in her favour, parliament chief Costas Tassoulas said. “Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou has been elected president of the...

Ursula von der Leyen will meet the Prime Minister on Wednesday in Number 10 to discuss the opening positions of the EU and the UK in the upcoming negotiations. The visit comes ahead of Britain’s expected exit from the EU on January 31 and will provide the first opportunity for...

President Tayyip Erdogan indicated on Wednesday that elections will be held on May 14, sticking to his previous plan for the vote. The date indicated for the election is just over three months after a devastating earthquake killed more than 45,000 people in Turkey. “This nation will do what is necessary...

FULL ADDRESS BY QUEEN ELIZABETH II ON COVID-19 PANDEMIC "I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. "A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily...

French unions were, on Tuesday, gearing up for a show of force as strikes against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plans went into a sixth day running. The hardline unions have called for the second day of mass protests as Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was due to outline the government’s...

Queen Elizabeth II will make a rare special broadcast this weekend to Britain and the Commonwealth on the coronavirus pandemic, Buckingham Palace said on Friday. “The televised address will be broadcast at 8 pm (1900 GMT) on Sunday 5th April 2020. The address was recorded at Windsor Castle,” a statement...

President Emmanuel Macron on Friday urged the French to limit visits to elderly people who are most vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus that has already left nine dead in the country and made hundreds ill. Macron, who shook up his agenda this week to focus on efforts to...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said Ukrainian forces had recaptured 6,000 square kilometres (2,320 square miles) of territory from Russia in a counter-offensive this month. “Since the start of September, our soldiers have already liberated 6,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory in the east and south, and we are...

The Home Office is considering fitting asylum seekers arriving in the UK via unauthorised means with electronic tags, it has been reported. The Times said officials are mulling it as a way to prevent migrants who cannot be housed in limited detention sites from absconding. The Illegal Migration Act places a...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was still in hospital on Monday suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus, although Downing Street said he remained in charge of the government. “The PM is still at hospital,” a British government source said. “He spent the night in...