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The US would "welcome" Finland and Sweden into Nato if they sought to join, US ambassador to Nato Julianne Smith said Tuesday. Other Nato allies would "be generally enthusiastic", she said. "If they apply, I expect that 30 allies will welcome them," Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said. Finnish and Swedish foreign ministers will take part in a Nato meeting Wednesday amid renewed national debates on joining up.

The EU Commission will launch the so-called conditionality mechanism against Hungary which links EU funds to the respect of rule of law, commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced on Tuesday in the European Parliament. The commission has been under pressure to trigger the mechanism over concerns of fraud and corruption of EU funds and worries over democratic backsliding. The commission will now send a letter to the Hungarian authorities.

European Parliament president Roberta Metsola announced on Tuesday she will impose a fine against Bulgarian MEP Angel Dzhambazki from the group of the European Conservatives and Reformists over the Nazi salute incident that took place in mid-February. Dzhambazki will lose his entitlement to the daily subsistence allowance for a period of six days, equivalent to some €2,000.

More than 100 Russian-speaking men were involved in a military operation in March in Moura, Mali, in which some 300 civilian men were executed, according to a Human Rights Watch report out Tuesday. The Russians were suspected mercenaries from the Kremlin-linked Wagner group, it added. The EU stopped training Malian soldiers in late March for fear they would fall under Wagner's command. Germany urged Mali to investigate the Moura killings.

Russian nationals in Germany faced 308 attacks, including 15 violent ones, since the end of February, German interior minister Nancy Fraser said in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper Tuesday. Ukrainian nationals faced 109 attacks, including 13 violent ones. Most involved property damage and verbal threats. "This is [Russian president Vladimir] Putin's criminal war. It is not the war of people with Russian roots who live here in Germany," Fraser said.

The European Commission is planning to propose a mandatory phase-out on coal imports from Russia, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The coal ban would be added to existing sanctions, and a new package aimed at correcting loopholes. The details and timing will be discussed by EU ambassadors on Wednesday. The commissIon is not expected to extend the ban to oil or gas for now.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell will travel to Kyiv this week to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, an EU official said Tuesday. The trip comes after the visit of European Parliament president Roberta Metsola, and, separately, the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia. Von der Leyen and Borrell will attend a Saturday crowdfunding event in Warsaw for Ukraine.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created political momentum for the expansion of gas import capacity in Europe, but Europe already has more than enough, experts find.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created political momentum for the expansion of gas import capacity in Europe, but Europe already has more than enough, experts find.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created political momentum for the expansion of gas import capacity in Europe, but Europe already has more than enough, experts find.

With a new package of sanctions high on this week's agenda, pressure is mounting on the EU to halt imports of Russian energy.

After winning a landslide election, Orbán is expected to harden his pro-Putin position, entrench his conservative views and continue eroding democracy at home.

After winning a landslide election, Orbán is expected to harden his pro-Putin position, entrench his conservative views and continue eroding democracy at home.

After winning a landslide election, Orbán is expected to harden his pro-Putin position, entrench his conservative views and continue eroding democracy at home.

Global greenhouse-gas emissions must peak by 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43 percent by 2030, to keep temperatures to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned on Monday. The IPCC report found that it is "almost inevitable" that global temperatures will exceed the 1.5-degrees threshold. Coal must be phased out and methane emissions reduced by a third, it adds.

Lithuania on Monday said it will expel Russia's ambassador, and recall its envoy in Moscow, in response to indications that Russian forces may have committed war crimes in Ukraine, AP reported. "Lithuania strongly condemned the atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces in occupied Ukrainian cities, including the brutal massacres in Bucha," foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said in a statement.

More than 50 percent of the 300,000 refugees that arrived in the Czech Republic are children, and 80 percent of all adult refugees are women. More is needed for employment for women and access to nurseries for children.

The EU has reoriented money in pre-existing funds so that member states can have access to up to €17bn to help refugees from Ukraine. The money will be sourced from cohesion policy funds and the "fund for European aid for the most deprived". The money will be used to help EU member states deal with housing, education and healthcare for the refugees.

France has amassed millions of DNA profiles used for criminal probes. The collection comes amid criticism of state led surveillance and heavy handed police.

France has amassed millions of DNA profiles used for criminal probes. The collection comes amid criticism of state led surveillance and heavy handed police.