Europe
Science
Astronomers find a star circling our galaxy's black hole at 25,000 kilometres a second
The numbers are hard to hold in the mind. S301 is a newly discovered star orbiting Sagittarius A* at roughly 25,000 kilometres per second, making it the fastest known star in the Milky Way, moving at about 8 per cent of the speed of light, fast enough to cross Australia's entire east coast in a
Geopolitics
Croatia arrests second Ukrainian diver over Nord Stream blasts
The Nord Stream blasts in September 2022 were, by volume of gas lost and by political consequence, the most disruptive act of sabotage to European energy infrastructure in living memory.
Geopolitics
Sacked Ukraine defence chief demands wartime election
Ukraine's former defence minister has called for a presidential election to be held during the war, the first such demand by a senior political figure since Russia's 2022 invasion.
News
Italian police recover 9 million euro Cezanne, Renoir and Matisse stolen in three-minute heist
Two masked burglars needed less time to strip three masterworks from a Parma-area museum than it takes to boil an egg. Italy's art-crime specialists needed five months to get them back.
Geopolitics
NATO jets shoot down drones over Latvia and Romania
NATO fighters shot down a foreign drone over eastern Latvia, then scrambled again as another crossed into Romania, back-to-back live tests of the alliance's eastern air defences.
Geopolitics
Russia fires nearly 1,900 drones at Ukraine in one week
Russia hit Ukraine with about 1,900 drones, nearly 1,600 guided bombs and 144 missiles in a single week, Volodymyr Zelensky says, damaging more than 1,500 sites across 16 regions as Kyiv presses allies for faster Patriot deliveries.
News
Greece contains Athens wildfire on day five after two crew die
For four days, the fire west of Athens had the upper hand. On the fifth, the wind dropped. Greek firefighters exploited that lull to strengthen containment lines around the seaside resort of Porto Germeno and bring multiple fronts under control.
Geopolitics
Inside Ceuta: the narrow court ruling that changed a border
Spain's Supreme Court drew a line between migrants who climb Ceuta's fences and those who swim around them. Five weeks later about 60,000 people were in the water and 72 were dead.
Sport
Inside the five days that killed FIFA's $20bn World Cup sale
Gianni Infantino pitched a USD 20 billion vehicle for the World Cup's commercial rights, and within five days three confederations had forced him to bury it. How the revolt built, day by day.
