Europe

Ruling parties often have an advantage in elections. But in history’s biggest election year so far, incumbents of all political stripes found that presiding over a period of economic inflation carries a heavy price at the ballot box. …

Amid conflicting reports about Russia’s future in Syria, Russian military assets are on the move in Latakia, the home province of fallen dictator Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad, known locally in death as “the immortal leader.” VOA’s Heather Murdock reports. Videographer: Yan Boechat …

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine quickly is triggering concerns among Russia’s neighbors. In Estonia, some fear a deal to end the war may strengthen Moscow. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina on Estonia’s border with Russia. …

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg to be his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, where Trump has promised to bring a quick end to the war. VOA’s Tatiana Vorozhko looks into Kellogg’s career, his vision for ending the war, and the challenges he might face in his new mission. Rafael Saakov and Andriy Borys contributed.VOA footage by Oleksii Osyka. Video …

London — A lawyer accused of trying to interfere in British politics on behalf of the Chinese government has lost a legal challenge against the U.K.’s domestic intelligence agency MI5. Britain’s Security Service issued a security alert to all lawmakers in January 2022, warning that London-based lawyer Christine Lee was knowingly engaged in “political interference activities in the U.K.” in coordination with the Chinese Communist Party’s …

TALLINN, estonia — Twelve Western countries have agreed to measures to “disrupt and deter” Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of vessels in order to prevent sanctions breaches and increase the cost to Moscow of the war in Ukraine, Estonia’s government said Monday.  The measures were agreed to by Germany, Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, the five Nordic nations and the three Baltic states, said Estonia, where leaders of …

GENEVA  — Migrants play a crucial role in the global economy by filling essential jobs in foreign countries and sending much-needed remittances to their home countries, according to a report released Monday by the International Labour Organization. The report’s release comes as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants from the United States. During his presidential campaign, he accused them of draining …

BERLIN — Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German parliament on Monday, putting the European Union’s most populous member and biggest economy on course to hold an early election in February. Scholz won the support of 207 lawmakers in the 733-seat lower house, or Bundestag, while 394 voted against him and 116 abstained. That left him far short of the majority of 367 …

Washington — Ten countries and the EU called North Korea’s growing involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine a “dangerous expansion” on Monday, in a joint statement released by the United States. Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s war effort, including to the Kursk border region where Ukraine reported Monday that its fighters had killed or wounded at least 30 North Korean soldiers. “Direct …

France’s latest prime minister, Francois Bayrou, gets to work this week to form a new cabinet, push a stopgap budget bill and — more precariously — scout for support for longer-term budget legislation to tackle the country’s fiscal woes — a move that led to his predecessor’s downfall. The task and stakes are enormous for the 73-year-old centrist, a veteran politician and longtime mayor of …

Saint-Denis de la Reunion, France — Rescuers raced against time Monday to reach survivors after a devastating cyclone ripped through the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, destroying homes across the islands, with hundreds feared dead. Images from Mayotte, which like other French overseas territories is an integral part of France and ruled from Paris, showed scenes of devastation, with homes reduced to piles of rubble. …

Norway announced Monday $242 million in new military aid for Ukraine, including help securing access to the country’s vital Black Sea ports. “It is essential to protect the Ukrainian population and Ukrainian infrastructure from attacks by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a statement.  “It is also important to protect exports by sea of grain and other products, which generate …

Istanbul — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Ethiopia and Somalia early next year after brokering a deal to end tensions between the two Horn of Africa neighbors, he said on X Sunday.  “I will visit Ethiopia and Somalia in the first two months of the New Year,” he wrote in a message that referred to the deal between Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and …

Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Sunday that he would provide Syria with grain and other agricultural products on a humanitarian basis, a week after the fall of Moscow’s ally, President Bashar al-Assad. “Now we can help the Syrians with our wheat, flour and oil: our products that are used globally to ensure food security,” he said in his daily address. “We are coordinating …

AJACCIO, Corsica — Pope Francis on the first papal visit ever to the French island of Corsica on Sunday called for a dynamic form of laicism, promoting the kind of popular piety that distinguishes the Mediterranean island from secular France as a bridge between religious and civic society. Francis appeared relaxed and energized during the one-day visit, just two days before his 88th birthday, still displaying …

KYIV — Ukrainian drone strikes on southern Russia killed a 9-year-old boy and set fire to a major oil terminal, officials said Saturday, the day after Moscow launched a massive aerial attack on its neighbor that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was one of the heaviest bombardments of the country’s energy sector in the nearly three-year war. The boy died when a drone struck his family’s …

MOSCOW — A Russian oil tanker carrying thousands of tons of oil products split apart during a heavy storm Sunday, spilling oil into the Kerch Strait, while another tanker was also in distress after sustaining damage, Russian officials said. An emergency rescue operation is now underway, Russian officials told state news outlets Sunday. The Volgoneft-212 tanker, which was carrying a crew of 13 and a cargo …

Berlin — The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Sunday said Germany should reconsider its membership of NATO if the U.S.-led military alliance did not consider the interests of all European countries, including Russia.    “Europe has been forced to implement America’s interests. We reject that,” the AfD’s Tino Chrupalla told German daily Welt.    “NATO is currently not a defense alliance. …

ATHENS, GREECE — Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, a smile spreads across the little girl’s face. Blinking behind her glasses, she inches her wheelchair forward and gently reaches out to stroke the tiny gray horse. Soon, 9-year-old Josifina Topa Mazuch is beaming as she leads Ivi, a specially trained miniature horse, standing no taller than her pink wheelchair, through the school hallway. “I really want them …

LONDON — Britain officially became the 12th member of a trans-Pacific trade pact that includes Japan, Australia and Canada on Sunday as it seeks to deepen ties in the region and build its global trade links after leaving the European Union. Britain announced last year it would join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in its biggest trade deal since Brexit. The accession …

KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Russia has begun deploying North Korean soldiers to storm Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region. Zelenskyy said in his evening address that he had “preliminary evidence that the Russians have begun to use soldiers from North Korea in assaults — a noticeable number of them.” He said that according to his information, “the Russians include [North …

BELGRADE, SERBIA — The United States plans to introduce sanctions against Serbia’s main gas supplier, which is controlled by Russia, Serbia’s president said Saturday. President Aleksandar Vucic told state RTS broadcaster that Serbia has been officially informed that the decision on sanctions will come into force on January 1 but that he has so far not received any related documents from the U.S. There has been …

TBILISI, GEORGIA — Former soccer player Mikheil Kavelashvili became president of Georgia on Saturday, as the ruling party tightened its grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. Kavelashvili, 53, easily won the vote given the Georgian Dream party’s control of a 300-seat electoral college that replaced direct presidential elections in 2017. Georgian …

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — A New Zealand man playing his first-ever competitive Scrabble game in Spanish, a language he doesn’t speak, has won the board game’s Spanish-language world title. Nigel Richards, a professional player who holds five English-language world titles, won the Spanish world Scrabble championships in Granada, Spain, in November, losing one game out of 24. Richards started memorizing the language’s Scrabble word list a …