France, once again, is on the verge of chaos. The subject of the discontent is the adoption of a law reforming the pension system in a minimal way: the legal retirement age in France has been set at 62 since 2010; the law raises it two years, to 64. Neither …

Russia accuses Ukraine and the opposition of involvement but Kyiv says ‘the spiders are eating each other in a jar’. Vladlen Tatarsky, a Russian pro-Kremlin war blogger with a criminal history, was killed in a bomb attack in a St Petersburg cafe on Sunday. Thirty others were also wounded in …

Russian group claims advance but Ukraine says its forces are still holding out as fighting remains ‘particularly hot’. Russia’s Wagner Group has claimed “legal” control of Ukraine’s Bakhmut, but Kyiv said its forces still held the eastern town, describing the fighting there as “particularly hot”. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of …