British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned on Sunday after admitting he had advised the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, a decision criticised over his past links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

A Ukrainian-born Russian man suspected of shooting and seriously wounding Vladimir Alekseyev, a senior Russian military intelligence officer, has been arrested in Dubai and extradited to Russia, the FSB security service said Sunday. The incident comes amid a series of attacks on high-ranking Russian officials since the start of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

Lindsey Vonn's Winter Olympic dream ended in screams of pain on Sunday after she crashed out of the women's downhill won by her American teammate Breezy Johnson.

From the star-studded opening of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics to deadly storms ravaging the Iberian Peninsula, FRANCE 24 looks back at the week's most striking images.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party appears to have regained its majority in the country's powerful lower house, national broadcaster NHK reported Sunday. Ultraconservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who was a heavy metal drummer in her youth, has proved especially popular among young voters.

The biggest event in American sports kicks off Sunday as the New England Patriots take on the Seattle Seahawks at a Super Bowl tinged by controversy over Bad Bunny's half-time show.

More than 11,000 people have been driven from their homes in Spain's southern Andalusia region as Storm Marta hammers the Iberian Peninsula with heavy rain, snow and gales. Farmers say that the storm has already caused millions of euros of damage to crops across Spain and Portugal.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared Sunday that his country was not intimidated by the US naval deployment in the Gulf, two days after talks with Washington's envoy. US President Donald Trump's lead Iran negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Saturday visited the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.

Centre-left Socialist candidate Antonio Jose Seguro is expected to win the second round of Portugal's presidential election Sunday after far-right populist Andre Ventura failed to unite the country's right wing behind his candidacy following the first round of voting last month.

Thais voted Sunday in an election pitting the popular reformists who came first last time against the conservative who ended up as prime minister, with ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra looming large from his prison cell.

Japan voted in snow-hit snap elections Sunday with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hoping to turn a honeymoon start into a resounding ballot box victory that could rile China and rattle financial markets.

Haiti’s presidential transitional council on Saturday handed over power to US-backed Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as the country prepares for its first general elections in a decade. The council was created two years ago, but has been unable to quell the gang violence plaguing the Caribbean nation.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said Washington has proposed that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators meet in the United States next week to discuss a possible peace deal. “They say they want to do everything by June,” Zelensky said of the US mediators. 

Jack Lang, France’s former culture minister, on Sunday “offered” to resign as head of the prestigious Arab World Institute in Paris after he and his daughter Caroline were mentioned in the latest batch of documents related to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Earlier in the day, France’s financial crimes prosecutors announced they had opened a probe into the Lang family’s ties with Epstein. Lang is also due to appear before Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot after being summoned.

Saudi Arabia on Saturday agreed to make major investments in war-torn Syria, including a jointly owned low-cost airline and a new $1 billion telecoms infrastructure project. 

Swiss skier Franjo von Allmen claimed the first gold medal at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics with a swift victory in the men's Olympic downhill on Saturday. The Swiss racer was closely followed by Italians Giovanni Franzoni and Dominik Paris.

France’s iconic bars-tabacs are closing in droves, stripping communities of a key social lifeline and influencing their politics, according to a study that links the decline of neighbourhood bars with the rise in support for the far-right National Rally.

The United States wants Kyiv and Moscow to end the nearly four-year war by June, and has offered to host talks between the two sides next week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. If the June deadline is not met, the Trump administration will likely put pressure on both sides to meet it, he added. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments.

A tiny Bermudan snail once threatened by pesticides, habitat loss and the cannibalistic "wolf snail" has been saved from the edge of extinction after six colonies of the re-wilded molluscs were found to have successfully settled on the archipelago.

France's former culture minister Jack Lang and his daughter Caroline are being investigated by the country's financial crimes prosecutors for "laundering of aggravated tax-fraud proceeds" after the latest release of documents showing the depth of the family's links to late US financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Cuban government on Friday announced emergency measures to address a crippling energy crisis worsened by US sanctions, including the adoption of a four-day work week for state-owned companies and fuel sale restrictions.

Ukraine's Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal on Saturday said Kyiv had requested emergency assistance from Poland after what the state grid operator called a "massive attack" by Russia on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Two power plants in western Ukraine were among the targets hit in the attack.

The Islamic State group has said it was behind a deadly suicide bombing that killed at least 31 people during Friday prayers at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad. Pakistan's Shiite minority have been targeted in sectarian violence in the past, including by the Sunni Islamic State group.

US President Donald Trump on Friday described the latest round of indirect talks between Washington and Tehran as "very good", saying that the discussions would like resume "early next week". The Oman talks are the first since the US joined Israel's bombing campaign of Iran in June last year during the previous round of negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.

The Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics opened Friday with a glittering ceremony at the San Siro stadium featuring US pop diva Mariah Carey, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and Chinese pianist Lang Lang…