Kazakh billionaire Timur Turlov did not set out to run world chess. In late June the founder of Freedom Holding Corp, the Nasdaq-listed financial services group, agreed to stand as deputy to Arkady Dvorkovich, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) president seeking a third term. Then on July 23»»»

Grants from the European Union and other partners now cover more than a fifth of Ukraine’s budget revenue, masking a wartime financing gap that widened to $20bn in the first half of 2026. Kyiv’s headline deficit tells a reassuring story. After counting $13.1bn in grants, the central budget shortfal»»»

Kazakh billionaire Timur Turlov did not set out to run world chess. In late June the founder of Freedom Holding Corp, the Nasdaq-listed financial services group, agreed to stand as deputy to Arkady Dvorkovich, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) president seeking a third term. Then on July 23»»»

France's constitutional council struck down a proposed ban on social media for children under 15 on Friday, citing freedom of expression. President Emmanuel Macron tasked Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu with re-working ​the draft legislation to take the Constitutional Council's concerns into accou»»»

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has prepared a diplomatic protest note over the case of Iva Mihaylova in North Macedonia, Prime Minister Rumen Radev told a briefing in Pleven on Friday. The trial against Mihaylova, who is charged with a serious offence related to road traffic safety in North Macedon»»»

Rumen Radev's government will hit its hundredth day this weekend and the numbers behind it are still remarkable. Progressive Bulgaria won 131 of 240 seats in April, forming only the second single-party government since 1990. Radev became the first Bulgarian to hold both the presidency and the premi»»»

Russia is stitching together a web of new railway corridors that reach from the South Caucasus to the Indian Ocean, redirecting freight away from Europe and towards Asia and the Global South as it makes a pivot to the east. More than 93% of Russian Railways' (RZD) international traffic already runs»»»

Bulgaria is becoming an increasingly important source of electricity for Romania after drought and record-low Danube levels forced the shutdown of both reactors at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant. The loss of 1,400 MW of nuclear capacity has put additional pressure on Romania's electricity system»»»

Russia's economy bounced back to 1.3% growth in the second quarter, beating official forecasts after a rare contraction at the start of the year. Preliminary data from Rosstat, the state statistics service, put second-quarter GDP up 1.3% y/y, above the 0.8% the central bank had forecast and the 0.9»»»

Israeli settlers have taken control of a freshwater spring that Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank have relied on for generations, diverting its water to create a pool at an archaeological site advertised as a tourist attraction and leaving crops to wither. It is estimated that Israeli s»»»

Zambia's electoral commission on Friday suspended vote counting from Thursday's presidential and parliamentary elections for at least 24 hours due to “violence targeted at poll staff” and reported instances of theft of marked ballot papers. Former minister Brian Mundubile, the main challenger to Pr»»»

Japan’s foreign minister summoned the Russian ambassador in Tokyo to lodge a “strong protest” against President Vladimir Putin’s surprise visit to the Kuril islands on Thursday. Tokyo maintains its claim to the disputed islands near Japan's northernmost Hokkaido island since they were seized by the»»»

Former Agriculture Minister Ivan Hristanov has announced that he will run for president in Bulgaria's upcoming presidential election, saying his candidacy has been in preparation for more than a year. Hristanov confirmed his decision in an interview with Nova TV, explaining that the initiative was »»»

Bulgaria's Central Election Commission (CEC) has approved the official schedule for the country's presidential and vice-presidential election, setting October 25, 2026 as election day and establishing the key deadlines leading up to the vote. The chronogram, adopted on August 13, formally launches »»»

A reconnaissance drone has washed ashore near Primorsko, while another drone-related object was found on the nearby beach area of Lozenets. The discoveries have prompted questions about the origin of the unmanned aircraft, with BIRD.BG claiming that the drone found near Primorsko is Russian-made. B»»»

A specialized operation by Bulgaria's General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP) is underway in the Botevgrad area, targeting two alleged criminal groups known locally as “Peevite” and “Inket.” Three people have so far been detained on suspicion of usury, coercion and pimping. The op»»»

Dubai: UAE students who achieved top A-level grades have shared how they adapted to an unprecedented assessment process after formal examinations were cancelled earlier this year. In April, Cambridge, Pearson Edexcel and OxfordAQA cancelled all IGCSE and A-level examinations in the UAE for the May/»»»

Russia is stitching together a web of new railway corridors that reach from the South Caucasus to the Indian Ocean, redirecting freight away from Europe and towards Asia and the Global South as it makes a pivot to the east. More than 93% of Russian Railways' (RZD) international traffic already runs»»»

Empty produce shelves and hand-printed apology notices have appeared in Kyiv's supermarkets, as Russia retaliates for Ukraine’s targetting of some of Russia’s biggest retail companies in an effort to bring the confict into the frontroom of ordinary Russians. Ukrainians are being a taste of the sam»»»

Russia is rebuilding its drone war around the jet-powered Geran-4, a faster machine built to slip past the cheap interceptors now knocking down its slower first generation Geran-2 drone, based on the Iranian-designed Shahed-136 loitering munition that Moscow bought from Tehran at the start of the U»»»

Ukraine’s drone warfare on Russian ecommerce giant Wildberries is burning holes in the pockets of Uzbek export businesses. Enterprises in Uzbekistan have informed government officials of a marked decline in exports made through the Russian online marketplace – often described as “Russia’s Amazon” –»»»

Ukraine, a country with no navy, has driven Russia's Black Sea Fleet out of its home in the Crimea to Novorossiysk, the largest functioning port on the Russian Black Sea coast, where it has now struck warships in the Kremlin’s last naval refuge. Ukrainian forces hit the naval base at Novorossiysk, »»»

Russia's defence ministry has put its winter plan for Ukraine on Telegram: a photograph of attack drones in flight, captioned "just like snow on your head". Beneath the picture the ministry added a second line - "In winter you will get a 'freeze'" - and pinned the post to its own earlier message ab»»»

Russia is stitching together a web of new railway corridors that reach from the South Caucasus to the Indian Ocean, redirecting freight away from Europe and towards Asia and the Global South as it makes a pivot to the east. More than 93% of Russian Railways' (RZD) international traffic already runs»»»

Ukraine, a country with no navy, has driven Russia's Black Sea Fleet out of its home in the Crimea to Novorossiysk, the largest functioning port on the Russian Black Sea coast, where it has now struck warships in the Kremlin’s last naval refuge. Ukrainian forces hit the naval base at Novorossiysk, »»»

Ukraine’s drone warfare on Russian ecommerce giant Wildberries is burning holes in the pockets of Uzbek export businesses. Enterprises in Uzbekistan have informed government officials of a marked decline in exports made through the Russian online marketplace – often described as “Russia’s Amazon” –»»»

Americans unexpectedly cut their spending in July as a boost from government tax refunds faded. Retail sales slipped 0.6% last month, the biggest drop since May 2025, from a revised gain of 0.2% in June, according to Commerce Department data released Friday. There was a notable bump in spending in »»»

The health of Bulgaria's forests deteriorated in 2024, the Ministry of Environment and Water said in its annual environment report published on Friday. The Ministry released the full 2024 National Report on the State and Protection of the Environment and an accompanying summary. The document contai»»»

Damascus, Aug. 14 (SANA) Syria on Friday strongly condemned Iran’s targeting of two tankers belonging to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, calling the attacks a flagrant violation of international law and freedom of maritime navigation. In a statement»»»

Vladimir Zelensky has made an unusually specific claim about what Ukraine needs to defend itself against Russian ballistic missiles. In an interview with CNN, Zelensky said Ukraine currently has enough Patriot interceptors to amount to roughly 1% of America’s existing stockpile – itself reportedly »»»

Cairo: The Arab League condemned Iran's targeting of two UAE-flagged oil tankers as they transited the Strait of Hormuz, describing it as a blatant and unacceptable violation of international law and UN Security Council Resolution 2817. In a statement issued on Friday, the League emphasized that th»»»

The anti-immigrant Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage beat comic opponent Count Binface on Friday as was expected, regaining the seat in Parliament he quit a month ago to trigger the widely mocked by-election in the seaside town of Clacton.  Reform UK leader Nigel Farage regained his parliame»»»

The drought roasting much of Europe this summer is taking a heavy toll on crops across the continent, from potatoes in the Netherlands to corn in Bosnia. Triodos, a Dutch bank with a focus on sustainability, has warned that this could reduce gross domestic product across the EU by 1 percent for 202»»»

Fighter jets ​on a NATO air defence mission shot down ​a drone that entered Latvia's airspace early Friday, the country's defence ministry confirmed. Latvia's defence ministry on Friday confirmed that NATO jets shot down a drone over eastern Latvian airspace, following an announcement from its»»»

An 83-year-old man in Plovdiv has been taken to a police station after footage appeared on social media showing him aiming a homemade crossbow at an 18-year-old man who was walking his dog. No one was injured in the incident, which happened in the Karshiyaka neighborhood near Dobrotich Street and P»»»

Standfirst: The game has gone from friendly matches on dusty fields and car parks to competitive fixtures and the National Cricket Championship By Rashid Hassan RIYADH: In the 1980s, sporadic friendly cricket matches began popping up on the streets of major Saudi Arabia cities as a weekend pastime »»»

The Danube has dropped to a record low of 31 cm in Budapest, idling nuclear reactors in Romania and Hungary as a fierce drought parches central Europe. The river hit the mark on July 28, Xinhua reported, edging below the 33 cm low set in October 2018. Weeks of heat and thin rainfall have drained th»»»

Bulgaria's transition to the euro has proceeded without major disruption or sharp price shocks, according to the National Revenue Agency (NRA) and the Consumer Protection Commission (CPCoo), which presented the results of their joint work under the Euro Introduction Act and interim figures from the»»»

A gold ring set with 321 diamonds, handed to Donald Trump by Antwerp's diamond traders, has drawn accusations of a “cartoonish bribe” weeks after their gems slipped free of his tariffs. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal have written to the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), whose p»»»

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa and U.S. General Joseph Clearfield met Friday with Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. The discussions focused on the U.S. sponsored framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel. Following his meeting with Berri, Ambassador Issa stated that n»»»

Three new metro stations on Sofia’s Line 3 were officially opened on Friday at a ceremony attended by Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev, Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Pekanov, Sofia Deputy Mayor for Transport Viktor Chaushev, Metropolitan CEO Nikolay Naydenov, and Metropolitan Board member Stoyan Bratoev. »»»

The top U.S. priority now in the Iran war is no longer its nuclear program but to bring gasoline prices down for American consumers, the vice president said Thursday, with the treasury secretary adding that new economic punishment to wear down Tehran is imminent. The comments by Vice President JD V»»»

Sister Mayela wears her black veil and habit as she walks to work near where another Catholic nun was violently attacked in Jerusalem's Old City — but she's now accompanied by a Jewish volunteer for protection. Many Christians in Israel, who make up less than 2% of the country's population, are wor»»»

Romania's Industrial production decreased in the first six months of 2026, year-over-year, by 3.3% unadjusted and by 3.5% seasonally adjusted , according to data published on Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).Between January 1 and June 30, 2026, industrial production unadjusted»»»

Reports of declining mental health and supply issues have been flagged by US sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln deployed to the Middle East, with some attempting to throw themselves into the sea. The ship has so far spent a record 260 uninterrupted days at sea as it supports the war in»»»

Venezuela's interim government and members of opposition parties ended their first round of talks Wednesday with agreements to reform the Supreme Tribunal of Justice and seek access to the country's frozen reserves in order to finance recovery from June's devastating earthquakes. Venezuela's interi»»»

Cuba's Raul Castro made a rare public appearance on Thursday at a celebration marking the centenary of his brother Fidel's birth. The 95-year-old former president received a standing ovation at the secure event in Havana as the island grapples with a deepening economic crisis and frequent blackouts»»»

Mali President Assimi Goïta on Thursday pardoned a French ​national who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Last year, Mali's military-led government accused Yann ​Vézilier, an official from the French embassy, of being involved in a plot ​to destabilise the West ‌African country.&n»»»