Free Republic

France's Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has resigned, less than a day after his cabinet was unveiled. "The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry on as prime minister," Lecornu said on Monday morning, and criticised the unwillingness by political parties to reach compromises. The Elysée palace made the announcement after Lecornu met President Emmanuel Macron for an hour on Monday morning. The shock move comes only 26 days after Lecornu was appointed prime minister following the collapse of the previous government of François Bayrou. Parties across the board in the National Assembly had fiercely criticised the composition of Lecornu's...

US President Donald Trump has said he will try to get some territory back for Ukraine during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. "Russia's occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They occupied prime territory. We're going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine," he told a news conference. Trump said the talks in Alaska would be a "feel-out meeting" aimed at urging Putin to end the war, and that there would be "some swapping, changes in land". It is not the first time he has used the phrase "land-swapping", though it is unclear...

Four people have died after a mountain cable car cabin plunged to the ground near Naples in southern Italy, emergency services say. Another person was "extremely seriously injured" in the crash at Mount Faito and airlifted to hospital, officials said. Italian media outlets reported that the cabin had been near the top of the mountain when one of the cables supporting it snapped. A second cabin was also on the line at the time but located near the bottom of the valley - 16 people were rescued from it and winched to safety. Prosecutors have launched an investigation as officials...

Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine are to end on Wednesday, when a five-year deal between Ukraine's gas transit operator Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom expires... (had given the EU a year to prepare)... ...The European Commission said the continent's gas system was "resilient and flexible" and that it had sufficient capacity to cope with the end of transit via Ukraine... ...Russia has transported gas to Europe through Ukraine since 1991... ...Once the Ukrainian transit route is cut off, the Black Sea's TurkStream - which reaches Turkey, Hungary and Serbia - will be the only (pipeline) Russian gas supply to...