The centre-left D66 has almost tripled its seats in parliament, while the far-right Freedom Party suffered a sharp decrease in its representation from its record win in 2023. The centre-left D66 party has made huge gains in the Netherlands' general election, with it likely taking the lead in government formation talks as the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) haemorrhaged support among voters. With 90 percent of the votes counted early on Thursday, D66 and PVV were both projected to take 26 seats
Europe is unprepared to counteract a new chapter of Russian military and intelligence activities in the Baltic and North Seas, experts have told Al Jazeera. At the same time, they said, a growing rift between European and United States intelligence services is leaving the continent unsupported. Last week's European Union summit was a case in point. Belgium obstructed a plan to use Russian money to finance Ukraine's defence and turbocharge Europe's defence industry.
We are holding Pokrovsk, Ukraine's army chief Oleksandr Syrskii said on Facebook on Saturday. A comprehensive operation to destroy and dislodge enemy forces from Pokrovsk is ongoing. Home to more than 60,000 people before the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022, Pokrovsk lies on a major supply route for the Ukrainian army. Taking control of the city would be the most important Russian territorial gain inside Ukraine since Moscow took over Avdiivka in early 2024 after one of the bloodiest battles of the conflict.
A Polish court has blocked the extradition of a Ukrainian diver wanted by Germany in connection with the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions, a handover that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said earlier this month was not in his country's best interests. The Warsaw District Court rejected the extradition of the man, only identified as Volodymyr Z, on Friday and ordered his immediate release.
Every day I see cars that ran out of fuel and were left on the curb, Ayder, a resident of Simferopol, Crimea's administrative capital, told Al Jazeera. His car runs on natural gas, which is more available these days. There are long lines and fistfights at gas stations after a limit of 20 litres (5.3 gallons) per car was introduced, he said, withholding his last name out of fear of punishment for talking to foreign media.
Russian forces have struck a hospital and a United Nations convoy in Ukraine, officials say, in attacks likely to bolster President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's pitch for long-range Tomahawk missiles when he meets his United States counterpart later this week. Officials said on Tuesday that overnight attacks involving drones and glide bombs struck a hospital in Kharkiv, injuring 57 people and forcing the evacuation of 50 patients.
William Bill Fobister remembers when things changed, seemingly overnight. The 79-year-old had grown up fishing across the sprawling English-Wabigoon River system. And the deep blue waters that lap the shores of his Ojibwe community - Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek, better known as Grassy Narrows - had fed his people since time immemorial. [My dad] was a commercial fisherman, and I helped him. That's how we survived, Bill recalls, sitting at a yellow picnic table in his backyard on a rainy August morning.
Despite concerns about United States President Donald Trump's proposed plan to end the war on Gaza, which calls for a transitional authority ultimately headed by the US leader, Jamal said there was an immense sense of relief. A sea of red and green, the colours of the Palestinian flag, formed along the embankment of the River Thames in central London, where the largely peaceful march began.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has alleged that drones and missiles fired by Russia against his country are filled with parts sourced from Western companies. In a social media post on Monday, Zelenskyy said the hundreds of weapons used in Russian attacks over the previous two nights contained tens of thousands of components produced by firms in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Taiwan and China.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin said his forces are prevailing in what he described as a righteous battle in Ukraine. Our fighters and commanders go on the attack, and the entire country, all of Russia, is waging this righteous battle and working hard, he said. President Putin signed a decree ordering the conscription of 135,000 men for military service, the official government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports.
Moldova's pro-Western ruling party has decisively won a parliamentary election which was plagued by claims of Russian interference and was widely seen as a definitive choice between staying in Europe's orbit or lurching into Moscow. With nearly all polling station reports counted on Monday, electoral data showed the pro-European Union Party of Action and Solidarity had 50.2 percent of the vote, while the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc has 24.2 percent, according to the Associated Press News agency.
More than 100,000 people rallied in Berlin, protesting against German support for Israel's genocide in the Gaza Strip. Demonstrators marched from Berlin's City Hall to the Grosser Stern on Saturday, following a call from a broad coalition of some 50 groups, including pro-Palestinian organisations, Medico International, Amnesty International, and the opposition Left Party, for a large demonstration. Organisers of the All Eyes on Gaza Stop the Genocide rally demanded an end to German complicity in Israel's genocidal war in the Palestinian enclave.
Slovakia has approved a constitutional amendment to limit the rights of same-sex couples. The country's parliament on Friday approved the change, which states that male and female will be the only recognised genders, and that school curricula must respect the cultural and ethical positions set out in the constitution. The amendment was approved with the minimum necessary 90 votes in the 150-seat lower house with the help of some conservative members of the opposition.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said his country's navy will join Italy in sending warships to protect the Global Sumud Flotilla, which has come under drone attack in international waters en route to deliver aid to Gaza. Speaking to reporters in New York on Wednesday, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Sanchez said international law must be respected and the citizens of 45 nations participating in the aid mission had every right to sail in the Mediterranean unharmed.
Alleged Russian violations of Estonian and German airspace after its drone incursion in Poland have put NATO on edge. In the past week, Russia has ramped up a diplomacy of intimidation in the Baltic Sea using planes, drones and words aimed at Ukraine's European allies. After threats towards Finland earlier in September, Russia violated Estonian airspace on Friday and German airspace on Sunday, days after it had flown two dozen drones into Poland.
Just four men who crossed the English Channel in small boats from France to the United Kingdom have been deported back to France under a migrant-swap scheme signed between the two countries in July. The deportations, which have taken place over the past week, were carried out under a one-in-one-out migrant deal signed between the UK and France. A fifth, Eritrean, man has won a High Court ruling placing a temporary block on his deportation.
