India is snapping up discounted crude from Russia, refining it and selling it, becoming a key supplier to Europe as it reshapes global fuel flows more than a year into Moscow's war in Ukraine.. According to a Bloomberg report published in February, India's role will "only become more central to a global oil map that's been redrawn by Vladimir Putin's year-long war in Ukraine" as Europe ramps up its sanctions.
Pope Francis spent a peaceful second night in hospital for treatment of bronchitis, a Vatican source said Friday, after doctors reported a "marked improvement" in the 86-year-old's condition.. "Last night also passed peacefully," the source said on Friday morning.
As violent protests sweep crisis-hit France, the prospect of far-right leader Marine Le Pen coming to power is being taken more seriously than ever -- to her evident delight. . While researching a new politics book entitled "We will have tried everything...", author and pollster Chloe Morin noted that "almost all" French politicians she spoke to said they feared Le Pen coming to power.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin, centre-right National Coalition Party leader Petteri Orpo, and far-right head Riikka Purra are the top contenders for the post of prime minister in Finland's general election on Sunday.. - Gentle conservative - Orpo, the 53-year-old head of the centre-right National Coalition Party, is the longest-serving politician of the three main contenders.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen began a visit to Guatemala and Belize on Friday to shore up ties with dwindling allies following a trip to the United States that angered China.. Washington had said there was no reason for China to "overreact" to the "normal, uneventful" trip, while Beijing warned the United States was "playing with fire."
Montenegro is girding for a closely watched presidential run-off on Sunday, when a young upstart could upend the Balkan nation's political landscape, dominated for decades by incumbent Milo Djukanovic.. "Milatovic is too ambitious and too young and I don't trust that he will have the political skills to resist the influence of Serbia" and the Serbian Orthodox Church, she said.
Bulgarians took to the streets in 2020 in the biggest protests since the end of communism, aiming to push out longtime premier Boyko Borisov who was mired in corruption claims.. She has pinned her hopes on a new coalition of anti-corruption parties, We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria, to bring out voters against Borisov's GERB. Vasilev said the couple would continue to push for change no matter the result.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg became the first prosecutor in US history to charge a former or sitting president when he filed his indictment against Donald Trump. . The former president has repeatedly lashed out at Bragg, calling him a "racist" and a "radical left" district attorney.
Finland votes Sunday in a nail-biting election with Prime Minister Sanna Marin's centre-left government fighting to hold on to power.. When Marin came to power in 2019 -- Finland's third female prime minister -- pictures of her five-party coalition, all headed by women, made headlines around the world.
Bulgarians head to the polls on Sunday for the fifth time in two years, with the EU's poorest member -- traditionally close to Moscow -- divided over the invasion of Ukraine.. The ultra-nationalist Vazrazhdane party, which is rising in the polls, and the Socialist BSP, heir of the former communists, have defended the Kremlin since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
