CNN – Europe/Mideast/Africa

By Rob Picheta and Katharina Krebs, CNN (CNN) — Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko claims he convinced Russian leader Vladimir Putin not to “destroy” the Wagner group and its chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, talking up his role in halting the mercenaries’ military insurrection that caused crisis in Russia at the weekend. Lukashenko on Tuesday described his view

By Mick Krever, Mariya Knight, Ben Wedeman and AnneClaire Stapleton, CNN (CNN) — Russian missiles struck the busy city center of the east Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk and a nearby village on Tuesday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens, according to Ukrainian officials. A 17-year-old girl was among those killed, and an eight-month-old

By Kareem El Damanhoury, CNN (CNN) — At least five people, including a child, have died and four others were injured after a building collapsed in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Monday, state newspaper Al-Ahram reported. A fifth victim, identified as Mohamed Hussein, 28, was retrieved from the rubble Tuesday, Al-Ahram reported. Search operations

By Nimi Princewill and Stephanie Busari, CNN (CNN) — Sierra Leone’s President Maada Bio was sworn into a second term on Tuesday, just hours after the country’s electoral authority certified his victory at the polls over the protests of rivals. Bio’s Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) won nearly 1.6 million votes – 56.1% of the total ballots

By Mariya Knight, Anna Chernova, Rob Picheta and Tara John, CNN (CNN) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin have both broken their silence, after the paramilitary group’s short-lived and chaotic insurrection at the weekend threw the country into uncertainty, in what the Russian leader described as a betrayal of the country.

By Nimi Princewill and Stephanie Busari, CNN (CNN) — Sierra Leone’s President Maada Bio has taken an early lead in the country’s presidential election, provisional results showed. The Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) said it had so far tallied around 60% of the total vote and expects to declare a winner in the next

By Inke Kappeler and Sana Noor Haq, CNN (CNN) — A candidate from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won a local leadership post for the first time on Sunday in a resounding victory for a group whose anti-migrant, Euroskeptic and anti-Muslim agenda is under surveillance by German authorities. The AfD’s Robert Sesselmann triumphed

By Caolán Magee, CNN London (CNN) — A new suspect has been named in the racist murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence in southeast London over 30 years ago. Matthew White, who died in 2021, was named by London’s Metropolitan Police Service (Met) in a statement Monday which apologized for a “significant and regrettable error,”

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN (CNN) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has just survived his biggest ever challenge – but has largely remained out of the spotlight since then. The long-time Russian leader has not addressed his country since delivering a somber speech on Saturday morning, at the height of an insurrection led by his former

By Elinda Labropoulou, CNN Athens, Greece (CNN) — Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the leader of Greece’s center-right New Democracy party, has comfortably won a second four-year term as prime minister, on a night that also saw gains for the far right. Mitsotakis is set to return to the prime minister’s office in a stronger position with his

By Matthew Chance and Mitchell McCluskey, CNN Moscow (CNN) — Some Russians greeted the weekend’s armed insurrection led by the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, with sympathy, appearing to welcome the mercenary fighters. In the southern Russian city Rostov-on-Don, which was briefly occupied by Wagner troops, videos showed residents cheering them on,

By Sahar Akbarzai and Jonny Hallam, CNN (CNN) — Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has undergone surgery after being diagnosed with breast cancer, she revealed in an episode of her “Tea Talks” podcast released Monday. During the podcast, which was recorded last week before her surgery, Ferguson said, “Tomorrow I’m going in for a mastectomy.”

By Jessie Yeung, CNN (CNN) — Russia glimpsed the threat of armed insurrection over the weekend, with Wagner Group mercenaries marching toward Moscow as President Vladimir Putin vowed retribution – all before a sudden deal seemed to defuse the crisis as rapidly as it had emerged. The immediate risk of bloodshed appears to have dissipated,

By Eyad Kourdi and Hafsa Khalil, CNN (CNN) — Nine people have been killed and dozens injured after Russian fighter jets bombed a city in Syria’s rebel-controlled northwestern Idlib province, according to the local White Helmets emergency response group. A fruit and vegetable market was impacted in the Sunday attack on the city of Jisr

By Jessie Yeung, CNN (CNN) — In the end, the uprising was short-lived. But for a brief and chaotic 36 hours, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power appeared to be under serious threat, as thousands of Wagner fighters led by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin closed in on the country’s capital. With the private mercenary group

By Kareem Khadder, Hadas Gold and Sana Noor Haq, CNN Jerusalem (CNN) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stark warning Sunday instructing Jewish settlers not to “grab land illegally” in the occupied West Bank, after humanitarian bodies raised the alarm over a series of deadly attacks on Palestinian villagers. At the same time,

By Luke McGee, CNN (CNN) — Ever since President Vladimir Putin gave the order for Russian troops to invade Ukraine, the international response has understandably focused on how best to end the land war. That has meant sending conventional military hardware – tanks, missile systems, artillery – and training Ukrainian soldiers.   Not bad for an organization France’s President Emmanuel Macron warned in 2019

By Tara John, Ivana Kottasová and Rob Picheta, CNN (CNN) — Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, has agreed to leave Russia for Belarus, the Kremlin said Saturday, in a deal apparently brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that ends an armed insurrection, which marked the gravest threat to Russian President Vladimir

By Hadas Gold, CNN Jerusalem (CNN) — In the hushed, ornate St James cathedral in the Armenian Quarter, one of Jerusalem’s most famous photographers Garo Nalbandian is at work, straddling a ladder as he photographs a massive Armenian carpet from above. As his camera flash illuminates the hundreds of hanging lanterns and precious paintings on

By Sophie Tanno, CNN (CNN) — Yevgeny Prigozhin is the founder and bombastic leader of Russia’s private military group Wagner. His organization is now in the midst of an apparent insurrection, after claiming control of military facilities in two cities and threatening to march on Moscow. Prigozhin was once a close ally of Russian President

By Rob Picheta, Simone McCarthy, Tara John, Mariya Knight, Lauren Kent, Katharina Krebs, Josh Pennington and Uliana Pavlova, CNN (CNN) — Vladimir Putin is facing the greatest threat to his authority in two decades after the head of the Wagner paramilitary group launched an apparent insurrection, claimed control of military facilities in two Russian cities,

By Jerome Taylor and Tara John, CNN (CNN) — The armed insurrection launched by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the bombastic chief of private paramilitary group Wagner, appeared to end as abruptly it started Saturday when the Kremlin said the mercenary agreed to leave Russia for Belarus in a deal apparently brokered by the country’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko.

By Tim Lister, Kareem Khadder, Hadas Gold and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN (CNN) — The United Nations human rights chief and the European Union have expressed alarm over ongoing violence in the occupied West Bank, and over attacks by settlers on Palestinian villagers. But a prominent member of the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

By Florence Davey-Attlee, Elinda Labropoulou, Jomana Karadsheh, Gianluca Mezzofiore and Katie Polglase, CNN (CNN) — The hull of the fishing trawler lifted out of the water as it sank, catapulting people from the top deck into the black sea below. In the darkness, they grabbed onto whatever they could to stay afloat, pushing each other

By Kostan Nechyporenko, Victoria Butenko, Anna Chernova and Sana Noor Haq, CNN Yevgeny Prigozhin has denied a report that he proposed sharing Russian intelligence with Kyiv in exchange for ceded territory around the besieged city of Bakhmut — a denial that came days after the Wagner chief issued a series of criticisms revealing deep fissures

By Nadeen Ebrahim and Abbas Al Lawati, CNN Until Sunday, Sinan Ogan was a fringe, ultranationalist Turkish politician virtually unknown outside Turkey. But for the next two weeks, he may become the most important figure in Turkish politics, potentially deciding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s political fate. Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) on Monday said neither

By Tamara Qiblawi, Jomana Karadsheh, Gul Tuysuz and Sana Noor Haq, CNN Turkey will have a runoff election on May 28 after longtime leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced into a second round with only a narrow lead over his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Neither candidate achieved the required 50% to take the presidency outright,

By Rob Picheta, CNN Sweden’s Loreen has won the Eurovision Song Contest for a second time, earning a historic triumph at an extravagant and crowd-pleasing show held in Liverpool, United Kingdom, on behalf of Ukraine. She became just the second performer to win the competition more than once, clinching victory with pop ballad “Tattoo” and

By Nadine Schmidt and Sophie Tanno, CNN Two police officers and several firefighters were injured in an explosion at a block of flats in western Germany on Thursday as they attended an emergency call. The blast happened at a high-rise building in the western town of Ratingen, police said. A body was discovered in the

By Elliott Gotkine, Ibrahim Dahman, Abeer Salman, Amir Tal, Richard Allen Greene and Sana Noor Haq, CNN A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip hit a residential building in Israel on Thursday, causing the first Israeli death after days of violence between the two sides that had already claimed at least 30 Palestinian lives. The

By Isil Sariyuce, Gul Tuysuz and Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN Turkish presidential candidate Muharrem Ince has pulled out of the race, in a potential boost to the main opposition candidate’s chances of beating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sunday’s vote. Ince had low polling numbers and some opposition figures feared he would split the anti-Erdogan vote,

By Nadine Schmidt and Caolán Magee, CNN A Swiss village has been ordered to evacuate amid warnings a large mass of rock looming overhead could come tumbling down in the coming days. Leaders in Brienz held a town hall event on Tuesday evening and told residents they would have to leave by 6 p.m. local

By Radina Gigova, CNN Authorities are trying to identify 22 women murdered in Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands over the last few decades. Most of the murders are considered cold cases involving women who died 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years ago, according to Interpol, which launched a public campaign on Wednesday to name

By Richard Allen Greene, Ibrahim Dahman, Hadas Gold, Abeer Salman and Elliott Gotkine, CNN Israel’s army and Palestinian militants exchanged heavy cross-border fire on Wednesday, with hundreds of rockets launched from Gaza towards Israel after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out deadly strikes on what it says are Islamic Jihad organization targets along the

By Eyad Kourdi and Hande Atay Alam, CNN At least five people were killed in a shooting attack near a synagogue in Tunisia, Tunisian state news agency TAP reported on Wednesday, citing the country’s interior ministry. The attack, which took place in Djerba, killed three security officers, one of whom died in hospital after sustaining

By Ibrahim Dahman, Abeer Salman, Richard Allen Greene and Hadas Gold, CNN Three Islamic Jihad commanders and multiple family members were among the 13 Palestinians killed as Israeli jets and helicopters struck multiple targets in Gaza overnight in what Israel described as an operation targeting “kingpin terrorists,” leading to threats of retaliation. One of the

By Mostafa Salem, CNN Iran hanged two people on Monday who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy, according to the judiciary news agency Mizan. Yusef Mehrdad and Sadrullah Fazeli Zare were arrested in May 2020 and sentenced to death in April 2021 for running online “anti-Islam groups and channels,” Mizan said. Authorities convicted both

By Nick Paton Walsh, Natalie Gallón, Kosta Gak, and Peter Rudden, CNN In this vacant and damaged village, news of Russia’s evacuation of occupied towns along the southern front cannot come soon enough. Ukrainian-held Mala Tokmachka, just over a mile (2 kilometers) from Russian-held territory in the Zaporizhzhia region, has been left ghostly and battered

By Amir Tal, Hadas Gold and Richard Allen Greene, CNN The European Union canceled a diplomatic reception to celebrate Europe Day in Tel Aviv due to take place on Tuesday to avoid giving a platform to Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the EU delegation to Israel said Monday. “Regrettably, this year we

By Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN At the height of election campaigning and just three weeks before polls were set to open, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated Turkey’s first nuclear plant in a virtual ceremony, in a move that further tethered the two Black Sea neighbors. The event last month saw

By Nimi Princewill and Mitchell McCluskey, CNN At least 400 people have died after floods and landslides hit the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province last week, officials told CNN. Heavy rainfall through last week caused rivers to overflow and created mudslides that devastated the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi in South Kivu’s Kalehe

By Caroline Faraj and Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN The Arab League has re-admitted Syria after an 11-year absence, the organization said Sunday, following an extraordinary meeting at the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The re-entry comes with immediate effect, after Syria was suspended during a violent crackdown on anti-government protests. The Arab League is an

By Tim Lister, Stephanie Halasz and Christian Edwards, CNN Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, has apparently backtracked on a threat to withdraw his forces from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, after Russia’s Ministry of Defense promised to provide more ammunition to his troops. In an explosive, expletive-laden rant this week, Prigozhin