The captain of the Tagor, a tanker suspected of belonging to Russia’s “ghost fleet” that was boarded in the Atlantic Ocean by the French Navy, was taken into custody on Tuesday, announced Brest prosecutor Stéphane Kellenberger.

Ukrainian drone attacks in St. Petersburg targeted military and energy infrastructure overnight into Wednesday, setting ablaze a Russian warship and oil depots on the Baltic coast. This attack deep in Russian territory came on the opening day of Putin's three-day economic forum held in the city and as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said in Kyiv on Wednesday that Russia was growing desperate as it faced mounting military and economic difficulties in its four-year-long invasion of Ukraine. Earlier, Kyiv launched drone attacks on the Russian city of St. Petersburg where officials and visiting dignitaries were gathering for a flagship economic forum. Read about the day’s events as they unfolded on our liveblog.

Protesters in the southern British city of Southampton on Tuesday attacked police at the site of the murder of an 18-year-old student who was handcuffed as he lay dying in December from stab wounds after his killer falsely alleged a racist attack. Far-right firebrand figure Tommy Robinson addressed the crowd, with many of them waving Union Jack and England flags.

Eight bottles of Chateau d'Yquem – one of the world's most expensive white wines – were among a collection of 136 bottles discovered under a Czech castle floor that were hidden by the owners after the end of World War II. They have now been restored by the original French winemakers in what the cellar master called a "magical experience" of preserving "liquid memory".

The European Union on Monday agreed a deal to allow countries to send migrants ordered to leave the bloc to third-country "return hubs". The legislation, which still requires formal approval by EU governments and the European Parliament, has drawn criticism from human rights groups.

Russian air strikes hit several major Ukrainian cities early on Tuesday, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 100, authorities said. Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv were among the hardest hit, with residential buildings damaged and thousands of residents sheltering underground amid ongoing air raid alerts.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced on Monday that she has formed a new left-leaning minority coalition after months of negotiations following inconclusive elections in March. The agreement secures her third term in office, bringing together four parties that hold a slim parliamentary majority.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar on Monday threatened legal action and said the government would use its two-thirds parliamentary majority to amend the constitution to ​force President Tamas Sulyok from office. Sulyok, who was appointed under former prime minister Viktor Orban, has refused to resign before his term ends in 2029. 

Drones piloted by artificial intelligence are now being deployed on the Ukrainian front lines, and while there has been much talk about them, there is still much that remains unknown. The US-made Hornet Drone, which is partially guided by AI, is at the centre of a new Ukrainian strategy to target Russian logistics.

Ukrainian drones struck targets across several Russian regions overnight from Saturday, including an oil pumping station, a refinery and a fuel depot, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said Sunday. Kyiv however denied Moscow's claims that a Ukrainian drone struck the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

Former title holders crashed out at Paris's Roland-Garros tennis stadium and PSG faced off with Arsenal in Budapest to win their second Champions League final in a row as a heatwave shattered European temperature records for the month of May: FRANCE 24 looks back at some of the week's most striking images.

Maltese ⁠Prime Minister Robert Abela ​claimed a record-breaking, fourth successive general election victory ​for his Labour Party on Sunday after campaigning on the strength of a thriving economy and calling for a strong mandate to shield the tiny island state from the crisis in the Middle East. 

Parliamentary elections in Malta began on Saturday as voters cast their ballots in elections likely to secure a record-setting fourth term for the Labour government, according to opinion polls, despite concerns about over-construction and corruption in the tiny Mediterranean nation. Preliminary results are expected on Sunday afternoon.

The European Union will unlock more than €16 billion in frozen funds for Hungary, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Friday, praising what she described as "long overdue reforms" by newly elected Prime Minister Peter Magyar. The EU had frozen the funds while the country was under the leadership of nationalist premier Viktor Orban, accusing Budapest of corruption and democratic backsliding. 

French officials and analysts are raising the alarm after former RT France chief Xenia Fedorova began appearing regularly on major conservative media outlets in the country. They warn that Kremlin-aligned narratives are gaining visibility ahead of crucial elections, testing the limits of free speech in France. 

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Friday that Paris had asked the public prosecutor to investigate the treatment of nationals on board the recent flotilla ‌heading for Gaza. This comes after reports that activists were subjected to abuse while in detention, including humiliation, rape and acts of torture. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday questioned if the drone that crashed ‌into an apartment block in ‌Romania earlier in the day was from Russia, as Bucharest has said, suggesting instead that it could have been a Ukrainian ‌drone. He called for the debris to be handed over to Moscow for what he described as an independent investigation. Read our liveblog to see how the day's events unfolded.

A drone struck a residential building in Romania’s city of Galati near the Ukrainian border, injuring two people and triggering a fire after impact, authorities said on Friday. While Bucharest condemned the strike as an "irresponsible escalation" by Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin maintained that there was no evidence that the drone was Russian rather than Ukrainian. 

With the US bogged down in its war against Iran, Ukraine has been urging Europe to step up and play an active role in negotiations on bringing the Russian invasion to an end. But EU officials say the bloc first needs to be aligned on what it wants to say to Moscow – and who would be best placed to serve as a mediator.