The biggest danger we face is not a straightforward revival of fascism, but rather a creeping shift in traditional conservatism towards the extreme populist right, says Michael Burleigh.

By Christopher Jasper and Chiara Albanese

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar miscalculated by continuing to back his mentor Frances Fitzgerald, meaning the country was left on the brink of an election as he played a game of chicken with Fianna Fáil, writes Political Editor Daniel McConnell.

A receiver has been appointed by the High Court over shares in three Irish-registered aviation firms allegedly linked to a fugitive Russian businessman.

A receiver has been appointed by the High Court over shares in three Irish-registered aviation firms allegedly linked to a fugitive Russian businessman.

Another Australian politician said he may have to quit Parliament because of dual citizenship, days after a High Court ruling was thought to have ended the crisis.

Australia's High Court has disqualified the country's deputy prime minister and four senators from sitting in Parliament in a unanimous ruling that could cost the government its slender majority.

Turkey's government will ask parliament to extend for a fifth time the state of emergency that was declared following last year's failed military coup.

Catalonia's leader has called for dialogue with Spain and a meeting with the country's prime minister, complying with a Monday deadline to respond to a request from the central government to state explicitly whether he had declared independence.

Spain's prime minister Mariano Rajoy has formally asked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont to clarify whether independence has been declared, saying that is needed before he can decide what steps to take.

Catch up on this morning's headlines...

Belgium is taking Ryanair to court.

Vietnam is bracing for Typhoon Doksuri, which is expected to be the most powerful tropical cyclone to hit the Southeast Asian country in several years.

An Australian senator who a month ago provoked an angry backlash by wearing a burka in Parliament has urged politicians to ban full-face Islamic coverings in public places.

The former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his wife have described the moment they had to tell their eldest son he had blood cancer as one of the "toughest things" for their family.

Japan's deputy prime minister has retracted a comment that seemed to praise the motives of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Crude headed for its longest run of gains this year as Libya’s biggest oil field suffered another outage while Russia signalled it is weighing an extension of Opec-led production cuts.

Police have been able to confirm the identity of Kim Jong Nam, who was killed last month at Kuala Lumpur's airport, using a DNA sample from one of his children, a Malaysian official said.

North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia faces a deadline to leave the country after authorities moved to expel him and accused Pyongyang of trying to manipulate the investigation into the poisoning of Kim Jong Nam.

A Turkish Airlines cargo plane has crashed into a residential area just outside Kyrgyzstan's main international airport, killing at least 37 people.

Update 1.25pm: Turkish police are closing in on the gunman who killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, a senior official said, insisting his possible whereabouts and contacts had been established.

Twin attacks by a suicide bomber and a car bomber near an Istanbul football stadium have killed 38 people.

Turkish opposition groups protested on Saturday in Istanbul after the Interior Ministry halted operations for 370 civic groups on terrorism-related charges - organisations that included professional associations and women's and children's rights groups.

A suspected suicide bomber today crashed a car through the entrance of the Chinese Embassy in the Kyrgyzstan capital of Bishkek, detonating a bomb that killed the attacker and wounded three embassy employees.

Update 10.36am: A bomb attack on an outdoor wedding party in south-eastern Turkey that killed 50 people and wounded dozens of others was the work of the so-called ‘Islamic State’ group, the country's president said.

Turkey sought to assure its citizens and the outside world that there would be no return to the deep repression of the past, even as President Tayyip Erdogan imposed the first nationwide state of emergency since the 1980s.

Warplanes are patrolling Turkey's skies days following the failed coup, in a sign that authorities fear the threat against the government is not yet over.

Australia’s deputy prime minister boasted that he had got into Johnny Depp’s head like fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter after the Hollywood actor quipped that the ruddy-faced lawmaker appeared to be “inbred with a tomato.”

As Poland braces for a credit review by Moody’s Investors Service, the only question for economists is how bad the news is going to be.

Turkey’s president has condemned a car bomb attack in the capital which killed at least 28 people, saying it exceeds all “moral and humane boundaries”.

New Zealanders know what their new potential national flag will look like, except that they’re not quite set on the colour.

Egyptian police were questioning employees of Sharm el-Sheikh hotels as they investigated whether a bomb may have been planted in the luggage of unsuspecting holidaymakers who boarded the doomed Metrojet flight.

The Spanish government has vowed to take immediate legal action against the regional parliament of Catalonia if it approves a proposal to formally start a bid for independence.

Greece emptied an emergency IMF holding account to repay €750m due to the international lender, a Greek central bank official said, avoiding default but underscoring the dire state of the country’s finances.

Sweden’s deputy prime minister has apologised for comparing the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean to the horrors of the Holocaust.

David Cameron has promised the UK “we are on the brink of something special” as he returned to Downing Street as a Prime Minister with a Tory Commons majority for the first time.

Global lenders’ negotiations with Greece, which have been moving at a crawl recently, have gained some momentum but remained a long way from the finish line, the IMF’s European head has said.

Greece has said it will not renege on election pledges to end austerity measures as creditors pressed for a deal to free financing and avert a widening crisis.

Nick Clegg said he was confident of remaining an MP despite a poll putting Labour ahead by two points in his constituency.

David Cameron’s general election campaign ran into its first setback within hours of his visit to Buckingham Palace to inform the Queen of the dissolution of parliament as a respected economic think tank challenged his claim that a Labour victory would result in tax rises of more than £3,000 (€4,100) for every working family.