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    Today

    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policy agenda has a very Labour feel.

    Fewer aristocrats: Starmer lays out left-wing vision

    The supposedly cautious UK PM is proposing taxpayer funds for green energy, nationalising the railways and rolling out new workers’ rights.

    • Updated
    • Hans van Leeuwen

    Yesterday

    Anne Hidalgo takes a dip in the Seine.

    Paris mayor dives into Seine River to prove it’s safe for the Olympics

    The big question on French lips is not whether the chronically polluted waterway will host sports, but whether President Emmanuel Macron will also take a dip.

    • Hans van Leeuwen
    A damaged Russian tank in the town of Trostsyanets, about 400 kilometres east of Kyiv.

    Russia’s vast stocks of Soviet-era weapons are running out

    The much-vaunted offensive against Kharkiv in the north that began in May is fizzling out. Advances elsewhere have been strategically trivial and at huge cost.

    • The Economist

    This Month

    French President Emmanuel Macron has failed to counter the far-right narrative.

    French government to resign but stay on in caretaker role, sources say

    The caretaker government will run current affairs in France, including the start of the Olympics, but cannot pass laws.

    • Elizabeth Pineau
    Craig Wright, the UK-based, Australian-born tech entrepreneur who claims to be bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.

    Aussie who says he invented bitcoin faces UK crime probe

    Australian inventor Craig Wright has claimed for a decade that he created bitcoin but now faces perjury allegations in a UK criminal court.

    • Sam Tobin
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    Olivier Faure: “We will take our time, don’t worry.”

    France’s left-wing parties struggle to unite, Socialists’ leader says

    The New Popular Front, an alliance ranging from socialists and Greens to the communist party, won the parliamentary election but fell well short of a majority.

    • Sudip Kar-Gupta
    Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised to increase inheritance taxes on foreigners living in Britain.

    Britain’s ultra-rich ‘non-doms’ prepare to flee Labour tax rise

    Living in the UK but not legally domiciled, they pay more than £8 billion in taxes a year, and now Keir Starmer’s new government plans to increase their levies.

    • Ben Stupples
    Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal, right, celebrates with Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal, left, after scoring his side’s second goal during the final match between Spain and England at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament .

    Spain beat England for record fourth European title

    Mikel Oyarzabal’s 87th-minute goal clinched a 2-1 victory over England, whose painful decades-long wait for a major trophy goes on.

    • Updated
    • Mitch Phillips
    The King with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

    King Charles, Queen Camilla to visit Australia in October

    The royal couple will make the trip en route to a CHOGM summit in Samoa, but the King’s fragile health means it’ll be shorter than the epic visits of years gone by.

    • Hans van Leeuwen
    Giorgia Meloni’s nuclear push comes as her government imposed new restrictions on the rollout of solar power.

    Meloni seeks to bring nuclear power back to Italy

    Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said Rome plans to introduce legislation to enable investments in small modular nuclear reactors.

    • Amy Kazmin
    Unilever headquarters in London. The company plans to cut as many 3200 in Europe.

    Unilever to slash a third of office jobs in Europe

    The cuts are part of Unilever’s “productivity program” and will slash as many as 7500 roles globally.

    • Madeleine Speed
    Armin Papperger, chief executive of Rheinmetall.

    Russia behind plot to kill Europe’s top defence CEO: NATO officials

    The German company produces artillery shells and tanks that Ukraine has used in its war against Russia.

    • Julian E. Barnes, Lara Jakes and Christopher F. Schuetze

    Putin is meeting a lot of world leaders for a ‘global outcast’

    In the two months since he began his fifth presidential term in May, Vladimir Putin has held more than 20 meetings with leaders. He has also made six foreign visits.

    • Henry Meyer
    Newly elected members of the Socialist party, with former French president Francois Hollande, pose outside the parliament.

    Macron coalition talks shaky as left ‘behaves like children’

    While French leftists demand the premiership, the president faces fissures in his own camp.

    • Leila Abboud, Adrienne Klasa, Sarah White and Ian Johnston

    France says adieu to the centre

    Australia too faces a drift to minority government, polarisation and identity politics at the next election, which France showed how easily can go off course.

    • The AFR View
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    Narendra Modi and Vladimir Putin during an informal meeting near Moscow this week.

    Zelensky blasts Modi’s visit to Russia as blow to peace

    The Ukrainian president said the visit was a “devastating blow to peace efforts”. His comments came on the same day as a missile strike on Kyiv hit a children’s hospital.

    • Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Dan Strumpf
    La Defense business district in Paris. Corporate heads have responded to the election result with a mix of relief and fear.

    Corporate France bids adieu to Macron’s pro-business agenda

    Many business leaders are relieved to see extremes neutralised, but political gridlock and the rise of the left has sparked concern.

    • Anne-Sylvaine Chassany, Adrienne Klasa, Leila Abboud and Sarah White
    Emergency workers search for survivors at the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital hit by Russian missiles.

    Putin uses stealth missiles in Ukraine children’s hospital attack

    Ukraine accused Russia of using missiles that fly low to the ground to avoid radar and cause maximum damage to target the country’s biggest children’s hospital.

    • Updated
    • Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov
    The centre ground in French politics is shrinking – and with it the authority of President Emmanuel Macron.

    Europe now leaderless as global threats rise

    President Emmanuel Macron’s authority in Europe has shrunk after chaotic national elections, while the UK’s influence has been hobbled by Brexit.

    • Gideon Rachman
    Populist-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon wants to play kingmaker.

    Markets on tenterhooks as French politicians jostle for power

    France’s left-wing parties are scrambling for a way to break the political impasse created by President Emmanuel Macron’s snap parliamentary election.

    • Hans van Leeuwen