CNN – Europe/Mideast/Africa

By Rob Picheta, Artemis Moshtaghian, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh, CNN Iran’s World Cup defeat to the United States was met by cheers and celebrations in Tehran and other Iranian cities on Tuesday evening, as protesters hailed the country’s exit from the tournament as a blow to the ruling regime. The nation was eliminated from

By Heather Chen, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Seb Shukla and Jack Guy, CNN Pope Francis has described two of Russia’s ethnic minority groups, the Chechens and Buryats, as some of the “cruelest” troops fighting in Ukraine. The pontiff was speaking in an interview with a Jesuit magazine, America, which was published on Monday but took place on November 22, according to

By Rob Picheta and Olga Voitovych, CNN The mayor of Kyiv has said the city “cannot let Putin steal our Christmas” as Ukrainians prepare to tentatively celebrate the festive season with darkened trees while Russian airstrikes knock out power and wreak havoc on critical infrastructure. Christmas trees will be erected across the Ukrainian capital to

By Heather Chen and Sana Noor Haq, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at Somalia, an impoverished, war-torn eastern African country that borders the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, Ethiopia and Kenya. About Somalia (from the CIA World Fact Book)Area: 637,657 sq km (slightly smaller than Texas) Population: 12,386,248 (2022 est.) Median age: 18.5 years Capital: Mogadishu Ethnic groups: Somali 85%,

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Omar Nor, CNN The al Qaeda linked terror group al-Shabaab has carried out a suicide attack and stormed a central Mogadishu hotel frequented by Somalia’s ministers and members of parliament, Somali police said Sunday. Al-Shabaab stormed the Villa Rose hotel near Somalia’s presidential palace following a suicide bombing at the gate at 8 p.m.

By Katharina Krebs, CNN The Foreign Minister of Belarus Vladimir Makei has died suddenly at the age of 64, the country’s foreign ministry said Saturday. “Vladimir Makei, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, has suddenly passed away today,” the Foreign Ministry said in its official Facebook account, without providing more details about

By Chris Liakos, Manveena Suri and Jack Guy, CNN Italy has declared a state of emergency after at least one person was killed as heavy rain caused a landslide on the Italian holiday island of Ischia on Saturday. As of Sunday morning, 10 people remain missing, eight people have been rescued and 209 more evacuated

By Angus Watson and Sophie Tanno, CNN Iran’s Supreme Leader has praised the country’s Basij paramilitary force for its role in the deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters. Meeting with Basij personnel in Tehran Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the popular protest movement as “rioters” and “thugs” backed by foreign forces and praised “innocent” Basij fighters

By Yulia Kesaieva, Jo Shelley and Jack Guy, CNN One of Ukraine’s largest state hospitals was “on the verge of evacuating” some patients after it lost water supply because of Russian air strikes on Wednesday, a regional official told CNN. Moscow has sent a barrage of missiles to target energy “generation facilities” in its latest

By Raja Razek, Artemis Moshtaghian, Sana Noor Haq and Jennifer Deaton, CNN An Iranian-Kurdish footballer has been arrested on charges of “incitement against the regime” as Tehran cracks down on anti-government protesters, according to state-aligned news agency Tasim. Voria Ghafouri, who plays as a defender for the Khuzestan Foolad soccer team, was also arrested on

By Kathleen Magramo, Amy Woodyatt, Ed Upright and Adrienne Vogt, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By CNN’s Uliana Pavlova Russia’s lower house of parliament passed in the third reading amendments to a law on so-called “LGBT propaganda” on Thursday, expanding liability to all ages. The discriminatory law proposes to ban all Russians from promoting or “praising” homosexual relationships or publicly suggesting that they are “normal.” The original version of the

By Tara Subramaniam, Sophie Tanno and Ed Upright, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Vasco Cotovio, Sam Kiley, Peter Rudden and Olha Konovalova, CNN Two Russian soldiers walked down a street in Kherson on a spring evening in early March, just days after Moscow captured the city. The temperature that night was still below freezing and the power was out, leaving the city in complete darkness as the

By Tamara Qiblawi, Nima Elbagir and Barbara Arvanitidis America’s top diplomat for Iran has highlighted CNN’s investigation into sexual violence that revealed sexual assaults on male and female activists, describing the reports as “unspeakable.” Robert Malley, the US special envoy for Iran, said the the regime would not succeed in its efforts to crush protests

By Kathleen Magramo, Sana Noor Haq, Aditi Sangal and Adrienne Vogt, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Hadas Gold, Shira Gemer and Alex Stambaugh, CNN Two explosions shook Jerusalem early Wednesday, killing a teenager and injuring 18 others in a suspected “combined terror attack,” authorities said. The first explosion occurred at a bus station near the entrance to Jerusalem at 7:06 a.m., injuring 12 people, including the teen who later died,

By Frederik Pleitgen, Claudia Otto and Ana Archen, CNN November and December are known as the most depressing months in Moscow. The days are short and dark, and the weather is too cold and wet to be outdoors much but still too warm and rainy to enjoy the real Russian winter. This year, the feeling

By Tara John and Sugam Pokharel, CNN Iran has begun producing uranium enriched up to 60% in its underground Fordow nuclear facility, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday, bringing the country closer to weapons grade material. “Iran had started producing high enriched uranium — UF6 enriched up to

By Rob Picheta, CNN Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed France was “in denial” about the prospect of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, and accused the German government of initially favoring a quick Ukrainian military defeat over a long conflict. Johnson told CNN’s partner network CNN Portugal on Monday that the attitudes of

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at Liberia, a West African nation, which borders the North Atlantic Ocean and lies between Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire. About Liberia (from the CIA World Factbook)Area: 111,369 square kilometers, a little larger than Tennessee Population: 5,358,483 (2022 est.) Median age: 18 years Capital: Monrovia (named for US President

By Kathleen Magramo, Sana Noor Haq, Aditi Sangal and Adrienne Vogt, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Vasco Cotovio, Sam Kiley, Peter Rudden and Olga Konovalova, CNN Mangled metal, charred debris and shattered glass cover the floor as a Ukrainian reconnaissance unit storms a Russian command center on the outskirts of the recently liberated city of Kherson. “Come on over here,” one of the Ukrainian troops suddenly shouts. “Get the stretcher

By Kathleen Magramo, Jack Guy and Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Radina Gigova and Joshua Berlinger, CNN Powerful explosions rocked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine this weekend, renewing concerns that fighting so close to the facility could cause a nuclear accident. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said that whoever was responsible for the attacks was “playing with

By James Frater and Xiaofei Xu, CNN Finland, one of the few NATO countries sharing a border with Russia, has announced a proposal to spend 139 million euros ($143 million) on building barrier fences on its eastern border with Russia in 2023, the Finnish Border Guard said Friday. “In the assessment of the Finnish Border

By Darya Tarasova, Lauren Kent, Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler, CNN Hopes rose on Friday for a potential prisoner exchange between the US and Russia that could free two detained Americans, after a top Russian official said he foresaw the swap talks one day becoming “a concrete agreement.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN Ukraine’s pavilion at the COP27 UN climate conference in Egypt is built of austere, dark gray walls. It feels like a bomb shelter, a bit out of place among all the brightly colored structures erected by other countries that are showcasing climate solutions and celebrating natural beauty. The contrast is intentional.

By Jack Guy, Yulia Kesaieva, Jo Shelley, Denis Lapin and Tim Lister, CNN More than 10 million Ukrainians were without power after another wave of Russian strikes on critical infrastructure, as concerns over Ukraine’s power supply grew as winter began to set in across the country. Temperatures have plummeted in Ukraine this week, putting the

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Nic Robertson, CNN Oleksander’s restless pale blue eyes speak as loudly as his words. He is on edge, and with good reason, as he returns to the jail in the newly liberated city of Kherson where he says Russian guards beat him daily. We pass cell blocks and rusting outdoor exercise cages, move through

By Ibrahim Dahman and Philip Wang, CNN At least 21 people, including whole families and children, were killed when a fire broke out at a residential building in a refugee camp in northern Gaza on Thursday, according to Palestinian authorities in Gaza. The fire broke out in Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza’s Interior Ministry said. A

By Richard Allen Greene, Hadas Gold, Mostafa Salem and Oren Liebermann, CNN CNN has obtained exclusive images showing the damage and debris from a self-detonating drone attack against an oil tanker off the coast of Oman on Tuesday evening. The two images, provided by a Western defense official, show a hole in what appears to

By Sophie Tanno, CNN A Dutch court on Thursday found two Russians and a separatist Ukrainian guilty of mass murder for their involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. Igor Girkin, a former colonel of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), and Sergey Dubinskiy, who worked for Russia’s GRU

By Tim Lister, Katharina Krebs and Anastasia Graham-Yooll, CNN Russia’s first mobilization since World War II may be complete, but the deployment of thousands of soldiers to the battlefields of Ukraine is generating dissent and protest on the front lines — and back home. With the Russian government touting that at least 50,000 of the

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN The crowd was loving what Bhekumuzi Bhebhe had to say, cheering loudly as he yelled “don’t gas Africa!” into the megaphone. Standing under the baking Egyptian sun at the COP27 UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, Bhebhe, a South Africa-based climate campaigner, was protesting against what he says is

By Mohammed Tawfeeq and Tara Subramaniam, CNN Poland’s ambassador to the United Nations says the country acted with “full restraint” after a suspected Russian-made missile fell inside its border on Tuesday, killing two Polish citizens and sparking fears of an escalation in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Speaking at the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday,

By Jack Guy, Eliza Mackintosh and Kathleen Magramo, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world. Egypt is located in North Africa and is bisected by the Nile River. It shares a border with Israel, Sudan and Libya. It also borders the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. About Egypt (from the CIA World Fact Book)Area:

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at South Sudan, a landlocked country in east-central Africa. In 2011, South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan. About South Sudan (from the CIA World Factbook)Area: 644,329 sq km, slightly smaller than Texas Population: 11,544,905 (2022 est.) Median age: 18.6 years Capital: Juba Ethnic Groups: Dinka (Jieng) approximately 35-40%,

By Hadas Gold, Mostafa Salem, Oren Liebermann and Jack Guy, CNN Israel on Wednesday accused Iran of launching a drone attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman, with one official describing it as “an Iranian provocation in the Gulf” linked to the World Cup in Qatar. A self-destructing drone attacked the Pacific

By Phil Mattingly, Kevin Liptak, Radina Gigova, Jim Sciutto and Sophie Tanno, CNN The leaders of Poland and NATO said the missile that killed two people in Polish territory on Tuesday was likely fired by Ukrainian forces defending their country against a barrage of Russian strikes, and that the incident appeared to be an accident.

By Tara Subramaniam, Sana Noor Haq and Ed Upright, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Hadas Gold, Michael Schwartz and Mohammed Najib, CNN At least three Israelis were killed and another three wounded when a Palestinian man went on a rampage near an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. The attack took place in multiple locations near the Israeli settlement of Ariel. The Israel Defense Forces

By Tim Lister, Tara John, Antonia Mortensen, Anna Chernova, Emmet Lyons and Rhea Mogul, CNN World leaders gathering at the G20 summit in Bali are attempting to diffuse a potential escalation in the months-long Ukraine war after a “Russian-made” missile struck NATO-member Poland killing two people. The missile landed outside the rural Polish village of

By Sahar Akbarzai, Xiaofei Xu, Hadas Gold, Michael Callahan and Evan Perez, CNN A top Israeli official has confirmed the existence of a US investigation into the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh but said Israel’s government would not cooperate with the American probe, calling it a “mistake.” Defense Minister Benny Gantz revealed details

By Tara Subramaniam, Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Mike Hayes, Jack Guy and Maureen Chowdhury, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Katharina Krebs, Tim Lister and Josh Pennington, CNN Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose Wagner Group is heavily involved in the fighting in Ukraine, has applauded a video in which a former member of the group is brutally murdered. The video surfaced over the weekend on the Grey Zone Telegram channel, which frequently showcases the

By Adam Pourahmadi, CNN An Iranian court has issued the first death sentence linked to recent protests, convicting the unnamed person of “enmity against God” and “spreading corruption on Earth,” state media reports. It comes following weeks of nationwide demonstrations, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in September. Iran’s Revolutionary Court issued the sentence