To seasoned diplomatic observers, US President Donald Trump’s furious dressing down of Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office was a planned political mugging, a trap set by the Trump administration to discredit the Ukrainian leader and remove him as an obstacle to whatever comes next.

Minutes before it was scheduled to launch, the first commercial mission of Europe's new heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 was called off on Monday due to an "anomaly" on the ground.

Turkey appears to be one of the big winners from last week’s White House meltdown and Europe’s realisation that, with Nato looking dead, it’s time to massively build up its defence industry to counter the possible existential threat of an imperial-like Russia.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday it had "neutralised" a man who was planning "terrorist attacks" on the Moscow metro and a Jewish religious institution in the Moscow region.

These events are fatally reminiscent of events of 30 years ago, when the bloody war in Bosnia led Europe to proclaim the “hour of Europe,” which went nowhere. It was only through the active political and military intervention of the United States that this war was finally terminated and that peace was achieved, via the 1995 Dayton accords.

Despite the recent flurry of diplomatic activity, analysts say that the prospects of a cease-fire agreement, let alone a peace deal, are still hard to reach and that the three-year war looks set to keep grinding on.

Europe's new heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 is set to carry out its first commercial mission on Monday as Europe seeks to secure independent access to space amid a shock rapprochement between Moscow and Washington.

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, declared yesterday that “we are at a crossroads in history,” and announced that European countries would assemble a “coalition of the willing” to defend Ukraine against Russia. Read more here.

Europe's new heavy-lift rocket, Ariane 6, is to carry out Monday its first commercial mission as European nations seek to secure independent access to space amid a shock rapprochement between Moscow and Washington.