Europe

Washington — As North Korean troops prepare to join Russian forces in the war on Ukraine, Kyiv is stepping up a psychological warfare campaign to target the North Korean soldiers, a high-ranking Ukraine official said. The effort is liable to get a boost from a team of South Korean military observers that Seoul’s defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, said this week will be going to Ukraine to …

A shadowy Russian political operator with close ties to the notorious Wagner Group and its late founder Yevgeny Prigozhin is detained in Chad on unexplained charges, adding a fresh chapter to his long career of mystery and intrigue.   Russian officials and state-controlled media maintain that Maxim Shugaley, who was detained on September 19 along with two other Russians, is an innocent sociologist who was …

Turkey is seeing a boom in winemaking, with hundreds of new producers emerging over the last few years. The trend runs counter the Islamist, conservative policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that have included restrictions and taxes on alcohol. Dorian Jones reports from Manisa, Turkey. …

Russia has fined Google an amount larger than the entire world’s gross domestic product over restricting Russian propaganda channels on YouTube. Russian business newspaper RBC reported this week that legal claims brought by 17 Russian TV channels against Google in Russian courts, which have imposed compound fines on Google, had reached $20 decillion — an incomprehensible sum with 34 zeros. By comparison, the International Monetary …

ISTANBUL — Hundreds gathered Thursday in Istanbul to protest the arrest and removal from office of a mayor from Turkey’s main opposition party for his alleged links to a banned Kurdish militant group. Ahmet Ozer, mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district and a member of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, was detained on Wednesday by anti-terrorist police over his alleged connection to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, …

TBILISI, GEORGIA — Standing side by side with Georgia’s prime minister, Hungary’s Viktor Orban was among the first to congratulate the ruling Georgian Dream party on its recent electoral victory. This endorsement came as much of the Western world raised questions about the legitimacy of the election and tens of thousands of Georgians were in the streets to protest it. Orban’s swift acknowledgment underscored his bond …

LONDON — The European Union is investigating Chinese online retailer Temu over suspicions it’s failing to prevent the sale of illegal products, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm said on Thursday. The European Commission opened its investigation five months after adding Temu to the list of “very large online platforms” needing the strictest level of scrutiny under the bloc’s Digital Services Act. It’s a wide-ranging rulebook designed …

The Vatican tribunal said Wednesday it convicted a cardinal of aggravated fraud and other charges because of his “objectively inexplicable behavior” in paying a self-styled intelligence analyst over a half-million euros in Vatican money that she then spent on luxury items and vacations. The city-state’s tribunal issued 816 pages of written motivations from its Dec. 16 verdicts in the Vatican’s “trial of the century.” The …

BERLIN — The United States’ European allies are bracing for an America that’s less interested in them no matter who wins the presidential election — and for old traumas and new problems if Donald Trump returns to the White House. The election comes more than 2 1/2 years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in which Washington has made the single biggest contribution to Kyiv’s defense. …

BARRIO DE LA TORRE, Spain — Survivors of the worst natural disaster to hit Spain this century awoke to scenes of devastation on Thursday after villages were wiped out by monstrous flash floods that claimed at least 95 lives. The death toll could rise as search efforts continue with an unknown number of people still missing. The aftermath looked eerily similar to the damage left by …

State prosecutors in the country of Georgia said Wednesday that they had initiated an investigation into Saturday’s parliamentary election amid claims that the vote was rigged.   The Georgian Dream ruling party won the election with 54% of the vote, according to the electoral commission, a figure that would give the party a clear majority in Parliament. The opposition alleged the election was rigged. Western …

There are growing fears that Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of aging oil tankers, which it uses to bypass the Western price cap, poses an environmental threat. A new report from the Kyiv School of Economics warns that an oil spill is “only a matter of time” and urges the international community to do more to take the vessels out of operation. Henry Ridgwell has more. …

WASHINGTON — Reports that billionaire Elon Musk has been talking on a consistent basis with Russian President Vladimir Putin are still reverberating among current and former U.S. officials, almost a week after news of the conversations first surfaced. Musk, who owns electric car maker Tesla and the X social media platform, also owns SpaceX, a commercial spaceflight company that has numerous contracts with the U.S. government, …

LONDON — Britain has detected its first case of new mpox variant clade Ib, the country’s health security agency (UKHSA) said Wednesday, adding that the risk to the population remained low.   The clade Ib variant is a new form of the virus that was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in August after an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo …

China’s response to Russia’s growing influence over North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Un, likely combines “exasperation” and “panic” as Beijing appears to be losing control over its client state, according to former U.S. policy and intelligence officials. They noted that the explicit security partnership between China’s two neighbors —Russia and North Korea — could undermine China’s strategic position in East Asia and has …

London — Thousands of Russians, including soldiers, have fled their country to seek asylum in the West since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, although only a fraction of asylum applications has been approved. However, in a landmark case, France has allowed several Russian army deserters to enter the country to seek refugee status. Anti-war activists hope it will prompt more Russian soldiers to flee. Alexander, who …

MADRID — Several bodies have been recovered by emergency service workers in Spain’s eastern region of Valencia after torrential rains triggered flash floods, the head of the regional government said Wednesday. “We can confirm that some bodies have already been found,” Carlos Mazon told reporters, without saying how many. Authorities could not give further details until relatives had been informed, he added. Heavy rain lashed much …

TBILISI, Georgia — For some Georgians who supported the ruling Georgian Dream party in Saturday’s disputed parliamentary election, the aspiration to go West toward the European Union had to be balanced by the brutal reality of the need to keep the peace with Russia. The opposition and foreign observers had cast the election as a watershed moment that would decide if Georgia moves closer to Europe …

WASHINGTON — As Ukraine braces to face North Korean troops who are believed to be in the Russian border region of Kursk, analysts say China should be concerned about stronger pressure and responses from NATO, which sees Beijing as an enabler of Pyongyang and a supporter of Russia’s war against Ukraine. South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency said on Tuesday it has obtained information that North Korean …

The outcome of the U.S. election and the possible changes in Washington’s foreign policy are of special significance to the 3 million American expatriates eligible to vote in next week’s U.S. presidential elections. In few places is that outcome more tangible than in Ukraine, where a few thousand Americans have, for various reasons, chosen to live after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Lesia Bakalets speaks to …

Thousands of Russians, including soldiers, have sought asylum in the West since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — though only a fraction of their applications have been approved. This month, however, France allowed several Russian army deserters to enter the country to seek refugee status. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

washington — Investigations into the death in Russian custody of Viktoria Roshchyna are being hampered by Moscow’s refusal to return the body of the 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist. Ukraine earlier this month announced that Roshchyna had died in Russian custody on September 19. She had been due to be returned as part of a prisoner release. Petro Yatsenko, from the Ukrainian Coordination Center for the Treatment of …

brussels — The European Union has decided to increase tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles to as much as 45.3% at the end of its highest profile investigation that has divided Europe and prompted retaliation from Beijing. Just over a year after launching its anti-subsidy probe, the European Commission will set out extra tariffs ranging from 7.8% for Tesla to 35.3% for China’s SAIC, on top of …

TBILISI, GEORGIA — Georgians flooded the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, late Monday, protesting what they see as a fraudulent election that secured another term for the ruling Georgian Dream party. Tens of thousands gathered outside the parliament building on Rustaveli Avenue, with Georgian, U.S. and European flags waving and voices calling for new elections. The rally, which opposition leaders called a show of defiance, came …