When a volcanic eruption buried the ancient city of Pompeii, the last desperate moments of its citizens were preserved in stone for centuries.

Observers see stories in the plaster casts later made of their bodies, like a mother holding a child and two women embracing as they died.

But new DNA evidence suggests things were not as they seem — and these prevailing interpretations come from looking at the ancient world through modern eyes.

“We were able to disprove or challenge some of the previous narratives built upon how these individuals were kind of found in relation to each other,” said Alissa Mittnik of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. “It opens up different interpretations for who these people might have been.”

Mittnik and her colleagues discovered that the person thought to be a mother was actually a man unrelated to the child. And at least one of the two people locked in an embrace — long assumed to be sisters or a mother and daughter — was a man. Their research was published Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

The team, which also includes scientists from Harvard University and the University of Florence in Italy, relied on genetic material preserved for nearly two millennia. After Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the Roman city in 79 A.D., bodies buried in mud and ash eventually decomposed, leaving spaces where they used to be. Casts were created from the voids in the late 1800s.

Researchers focused on 14 casts undergoing restoration, extracting DNA from the fragmented skeletal remains that mixed with them. They hoped to determine the sex, ancestry and genetic relationships between the victims.

There were several surprises in “the house of the golden bracelet,” the dwelling where the assumed mother and child were found. The adult wore an intricate piece of jewelry, for which the house was named, reinforcing the impression that the victim was a woman. Nearby were the bodies of another adult and child thought to be the rest of their nuclear family.

DNA evidence showed the four were male and not related to one another, clearly showing “the story that was long spun around these individuals” was wrong, Mittnik said.

Researchers also confirmed Pompeii citizens came from diverse backgrounds but mainly descended from eastern Mediterranean immigrants – underscoring a broad pattern of movement and cultural exchange in the Roman Empire. Pompeii is located about 241 kilometers from Rome.

The study builds upon research from 2022 when scientists sequenced the genome of a Pompeii victim for the first time and confirmed the possibility of retrieving ancient DNA from the human remains that still exist.

“They have a better overview of what’s happening in Pompeii because they analyzed different samples,” said Gabriele Scorrano of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, a co-author of that research who was not involved in the current study. “We actually had one genome, one sample, one shot.”

Though much remains to be learned, Scorrano said, such genetic brushstrokes are slowly painting a truer picture of how people lived in the distant past. 
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LONDON — America’s allies in Europe are debating what Donald Trump’s win in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election could mean for their security and prosperity amid concerns that the next four years may once again be characterized by a turbulent transatlantic alliance.

European interests

About 50 European leaders met in Budapest on Thursday for a summit of the European Political Community, which was set up in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe must stand up for itself as it prepares for the next Trump presidency in the United States.

“There is a geopolitical situation where it is clear that we have two blocs: the United States of America on one side and China on the other, which above all seek their own interests,” Macron told the other European leaders.

“I think that our role here in the European Union is not to comment on the election of Donald Trump, to wonder if it is good or not. He was elected by the American people, and he is going to defend the interests of American people and that is legitimate and that is a good thing,” he said.

“The question is, are we ready to defend the interests of Europeans? That is the only question that we should ask ourselves. And for me, I think that is our priority,” he said.

NATO

The NATO alliance remains the bedrock of Europe’s security.

“The first implication for the alliance is how to continue support for Ukraine if there’s an expected drawdown of military assistance from the U.S.,” said Ed Arnold, senior research fellow for European security at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.

“That can either be delivered through NATO — and there were some steps taken in this summer to sort of formalize those structures — but still significantly less than where it needs to be. It can also be done through the EU as well, which might increase slightly but probably not enough. Or it can be done bilaterally,” Arnold told VOA.

“I think actually the mechanisms are probably largely irrelevant. It’s more about the cost to individual nations, and that’s going to have to ramp up pretty quickly if they’re going to be able to have that impact,” he said.

Shortfall

Does Europe have the capacity to make up any shortfall from a U.S. withdrawal of support for Kyiv?

“Yes, but it would take a lot more effort than Europe is making now,” according to analyst Ian Bond of the Center for European Reform. “And I think there will be some, perhaps in Germany, perhaps elsewhere, who will say the Ukrainians are just going to have to put up with losing some of their territory.

“I think for the Baltic states, for the Nordic states, Poland — they will look at this and they will say, ‘Russia is going to be an existential threat to us if it is allowed to control Ukraine. And therefore we must step up our efforts,'” Bond said.

On the campaign trail, Trump said he would end the Russia-Ukraine war on day one, although he didn’t elaborate on how that would be achieved. In the past he has boasted of a good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

Peace deal?

Ukraine fears being forced into an unfavorable peace deal — and Europeans might change their calculations, said analyst Arnold of RUSI.

“There might be a bit of a worry where there’s some within Europe who say, “Why would we ramp up aid now if there’s going to be a negotiated settlement fairly soon? And I think the real risk for Europe as a whole — the EU but also NATO — is that actually the U.S. and Russia might start to do these negotiations without them,” Arnold said.

Leverage

There are deeper concerns that the U.S. might withdraw wider support for European security. Former government officials say Trump considered pulling the U.S. out of NATO altogether in his first term.

“One of the very few consistent beliefs that Trump has held to since he entered politics has been the idea that the United States is being taken advantage of by its allies,” said Jonathan Monten, a U.S. foreign policy analyst at University College London.

“At times, Trump threatened to withdraw from the alliance altogether but was ultimately held back. So the million-dollar question … is whether or not he will actually act on that threat,” Monten told VOA.

“I think he likes the idea that he’s keeping foreign allies as well as adversaries guessing as to his ultimate intentions. I think he sees that as a source of leverage, as a source of power,” he said.

NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, who took over the role October 1, has struck a more upbeat tone, praising Trump for getting allies to spend more on defense.

“When he was president, he was the one in NATO who stimulated us to move over the 2% [of GDP spending target],” Rutte told reporters in Budapest on Thursday.

Tariffs

It’s not only security fears that are haunting European capitals. America’s allies could also face economic turbulence when Trump enters the White House.

“The [Trump] claims of putting about 60% or more tariffs on all imports from China will have to have a major disruptive impact on world trade, and there will be repercussions on the EU, on Europe, on the U.K. and elsewhere. We can expect also tariffs on imports from the EU as well,” said Garret Martin, co-director of the Transatlantic Policy Center at American University in Washington.

“One element that I think is going to be absolutely critical for Europe, for the EU, is to work on protecting its unity and its unanimity. Trump, I think, is likely to try to adopt a divide and rule approach,” Martin said.

Unpredictability

Trump’s unpredictability means there is little Europe’s leaders can do to prepare, said Monten.

“They can try flattery,” he said. “They can try to offer him deals that benefit him personally, but it’s unclear what exactly they would have to offer. They can offer him the kind of stature or respect that comes along with a big grand summit or trade deal. He seems to crave that kind of respect.

“But when it comes to actual tangible concrete results, it is unclear what levers they have either to threaten him with or to cajole him with,” Monten told VOA.
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Allies in Europe are debating what Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential election could mean for their security and economy. Trump’s first term in office was characterized by often turbulent relations with EU and NATO partners. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has amplified Europe’s concerns over the transatlantic alliance.
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International observers reported that Moldova’s well-organized presidential runoff provided voters with a real choice, despite legal shortcomings, biased media coverage and the effects of Russian interference.
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Malawi, with help from the World Food Program, has received its first shipment of more than 19,000 tons of maize from Ukraine. The food aid will help feed millions of Malawians currently dealing with food shortages exacerbated by El Nino-induced drought. Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre.
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Berlin — Germany has arrested a U.S. citizen suspected of offering intelligence on the U.S. military to China that he had acquired while working for troops stationed in Germany, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Thursday.

The man, identified only as Martin D. under German privacy law, is accused of having declared himself ready to work as an agent for a foreign intelligence agency, the statement said.

The accused had worked for U.S. armed forces in Germany until recently, according to prosecutors.

In 2024, he is said to have contacted Chinese state positions and offered to share with them sensitive information to pass on to Chinese intelligence. He had gathered the information through his work for the military, prosecutors said.

Germany has warned of an increased risk of espionage from Beijing and arrested a number of people this year for alleged spy activities.

This includes three Germans arrested in April on suspicion of working to hand over technology that could strengthen China’s navy, as well as a European Union staffer of a far-right politician accused of working with Chinese intelligence.
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The British government said on Thursday it had imposed its biggest sanctions package in 18 months against Russia, targeting people involved in the Ukraine war, African mercenary groups and a nerve agent attack on British soil.

The foreign ministry said it had sanctioned 56 entities and individuals, aiming to hurt Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort and Russia’s “malign activity globally.”

Among them were 10 entities based in China said to be supplying machinery and components for the Russian military.

“Today’s measures will continue to push back on the Kremlin’s corrosive foreign policy, undermining Russia’s attempts to foster instability across Africa and disrupting the supply of vital equipment for Putin’s war machine,” British foreign minister David Lammy said.

The Russian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Most of the measures were aimed at companies based in Russia, China, Turkey and Kazakhstan accused of aiding the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the supply of machine tools, microelectronics and components for drones.

They include firms that European intelligence sources believe to be part of a Russian attempt to establish a weapons program in China, according to a Reuters report in September.

Britain also said the latest sanctions would address Russian activity in Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic by targeting three private mercenary groups with links to the Kremlin, including the Kremlin-controlled Africa Corps, and 11 individuals.

Amongst the individuals sanctioned was Denis Sergeev, whom British police have charged over the murder attempt on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripaland his daughter Yulia in the southern English city of Salisbury in March 2018. 

Sergeev, who Britain said was acting under the alias Sergey Fedotov, was one of three Russians said by Britain to have been GRU military intelligence officers suspected of carrying out the attack.

Last month, a public inquiry into the death of a woman who was accidentally poisoned by the nerve agent heard that Skripal believed Putin himself had ordered the Novichok attack.

Moscow has repeatedly rejected British accusations that it was involved.
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Ukrainian officials reported damage to residential buildings Thursday after overnight Russian drone attacks, while South Korea’s president said he would not rule out sending weapons to Ukrainian forces.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that the Russian attack damaged houses and apartment buildings in five districts in the Ukrainian capital.

Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said Ukrainian air defenses shot down more than three dozen drones over the Kyiv region, and that two people were injured.

In the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, Governor Oleh Kiper said Thursday falling drone debris damaged several buildings and injured one person.

Serhiy Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, reported on Telegram that Russian drone attacks damaged five houses overnight, but did not cause any injuries.

Officials in Cherkasy, Kherson and Mykolaiv also said Thursday that air defenses shot down Russian drones in their regions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed two Ukrainian aerial drones over Voronezh, where officials said there were no reports of damage or casualties.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said at a news conference Thursday in Seoul that his government will “gradually adjust our support strategy in phases” depending on how much North Korea becomes involved in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“This means we are not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons,” Yoon said.

South Korean and U.S. officials have said North Korea has more than 10,000 troops deployed to Russia’s Kursk region.

On Wednesday, foreign ministers from the Group of 7, along with South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, issued a joint statement expressing “grave concerns” over “DPRK’s direct support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” referring to North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). 

 

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the increasing military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia, including the DPRK’s export and Russia’s unlawful procurement of DPRK ballistic missiles in breach of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs), as well as Russia’s use of these missiles and munitions against Ukraine,” the ministers said, warning that this could dangerously expand the conflict with serious implications for European and Indo-Pacific security.

They also voiced serious concerns about any potential transfer of nuclear or missile-related technology from Russia to North Korea.

Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Associated Press.

 
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Moscow — Russia plans to significantly tighten the rules governing the income received by those deemed “foreign agents” and of those who speak negatively about Russia after leaving the country, the speaker of the Russian parliament said on Thursday.

Russian law requires any person or organization receiving support from outside Russia or who is under foreign influence to register as a “foreign agent,” a label that has negative Soviet-era connotations and brings onerous bureaucratic requirements.

Russia says the law is less strict than the 1938 U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, though the Russian law has been applied to almost all of the leaders of the divided opposition and is considered by some dissidents to be a badge of honor.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, said that the Duma was working on tightening the rules over copyright and intellectual rights payments to foreign agents by forcing them to use special ruble accounts for such payments.

The rules would cover all income from intellectual activity and brands, including works of science, literature and art, performances, broadcasting, inventions and trademarks.

“Those who destroy Russia by insulting its citizens, the participants of the special military operation, should not enrich themselves at the expense of our country,” Volodin, who often floats Kremlin-backed initiatives, said on Telegram.

Russia officially presents the war in Ukraine as a “special military operation,” though many Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin often also refer to it as a war.

Volodin added that Russia was working on measures to tighten the rules over the income of those people not classed as foreign agents but who have left Russia and speak negatively about Russia.

A total of 881 people and organizations are listed as foreign agents by the Russian justice ministry, including former billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Nobel prize winner Dmitry Muratov and prominent YouTube blogger Yuri Dud.

Supporters of Putin say the foreign agent law is necessary to counter Western attempts to meddle in Russia’s domestic affairs amid what Putin casts as a proxy war in Ukraine between Russia and the West.

Russian officials say that the pro-Western cultural elite which grew up after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union is being cleared out and replaced by patriotic singers, writers and artists who will ensure Russia remains sovereign.

Opponents of Putin say the law is part of an intricate system of repression which has turned Russia into a brittle authoritarian state in which legendary Russian artistic and scientific creativity is stifled.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among the first world leaders to congratulate newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump. On the streets of Ukraine’s capital, many Ukrainians say they fear that Trump may fulfill a campaign promise to end the war by forcing them into a settlement that will favor Moscow. For VOA, Anna Chernikova reports from Kyiv.
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London — U.S. allies in Europe have congratulated President-elect Donald Trump following his comprehensive victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, despite deep concerns across the continent over what his second term may mean for transatlantic relations.

In Britain, the so-called “special relationship” with America has long been treasured. However, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer got off to a difficult start with the Trump team last month after officials in his Labour Party offered election advice to his rival, Kamala Harris, on the campaign trail.

Nevertheless, Starmer was among the first of the world leaders to congratulate Trump in the early hours of Wednesday.

“I look forward to working with you in the years ahead. As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise. From growth and security to innovation and tech, I know that the U.K.-U.S. special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come,” Starmer said.

Changes ahead

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said Europe should expect changes.

“Many things will certainly be different under a government led by Donald Trump. Donald Trump has always made that clear publicly. Our messages are clear,” Scholz told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday. “Firstly, Germany will remain a reliable transatlantic partner. We are aware of the contribution we make to this partnership and will continue to make in the future. This also applies with regard to the threat that all NATO allies believe Russia poses to security in the Euro-Atlantic area.”

Russian reaction

Russia gave a muted reaction to Trump’s victory.

“It is almost impossible to worsen [U.S.-Russia ties] further — the relationship is at its historically lowest point. And then it will depend on the next leader of the United States,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday during a phone call.

Trump has frequently criticized U.S. support for Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion, and there are fears he could end military and financial aid for Kyiv.

NATO

In his first term in office, Trump threatened to pull the United States out of NATO, claiming allies were taking advantage of the U.S. security umbrella by failing to share the burden of defense spending.

However, in a statement Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte focused on Trump’s positive contributions to the alliance, claiming he had “turned the tide on European defense spending, improved transatlantic burden sharing, and strengthened alliance capabilities” during his first term.

EU agenda

During Trump’s first term in office, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was the defense minister of Germany, a country then frequently berated by the U.S. president for failing to meet NATO defense spending targets.

In a statement issued Wednesday, von der Leyen said she looked forward “to working with President Trump again to advance a strong transatlantic agenda.”

“Let us work together on a transatlantic partnership that continues to deliver for our citizens. Millions of jobs and billions in trade and investment on each side of the Atlantic depend on the dynamism and stability of our economic relationship,” von der Leyen added.

‘Shining victory’

Hungary’s President Viktor Orban made no secret of his preference for a Trump victory during the campaign. In a video posted online, Orban said Trump’s victory would resonate in Europe.

“I see a shining victory, perhaps the biggest comeback of the history of Western politics. It’s been a huge fight. He was threatened with prison, his wealth was confiscated, they wanted to kill him, the whole media world turned against him in America, and he still won,” said Orban.

“For the world, it means the hope of peace. At the start of the year, we hoped that by the end of the year the pro-peace forces will be in the majority, and we will defeat the pro-war forces. Now, there is a huge chance for this,” he added.

Macron relationship

French President Emmanuel Macron has had a volatile relationship with Trump since the latter’s first election win in 2016. Macron invited Trump as guest of honor for the Bastille Day parade in Paris in 2017, but the two men frequently clashed in online exchanges.

Macron said Wednesday he was ready to work together “with your convictions and mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity.”

Tension ahead

Despite the warm words, European allies are preparing for a stormy ride, said Garret Martin, co-director of the Transatlantic Policy Center at the American University in Washington.

“The four years where Trump was in office were rather tumultuous. There were moments of constant bickering, a lot of disunity, a lack of cohesion. So, I think that was already at a time which was less arguably dangerous than it is now.

“We’re now in the midst of a major war in Europe that’s been going on for two-and-a-half years. So, at the very minimum, we can assume it’s the case that we will see a repeat of the tension,” Martin told VOA.

Climate talks

Europe is also deeply concerned over the possible impact of a second Trump term on global efforts to combat climate change, with next week’s crucial COP29 summit in Azerbaijan likely to be overshadowed by his election victory.

Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2017, claiming the commitments to cut emissions were unfair to his country.

Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, rejoined the deal on his first day in office in 2021. There are fears Trump will once again quit the agreement, even as scientists warn of catastrophic global warming without immediate action.
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Over 160,000 Ukrainians fled their home country and came to the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia since the Russian invasion. Physicians were among the 50 thousand or so refugees who came to Latvia. Vladislavs Andrejevs spoke with some of them in Riga. Anna Rice narrates his story. (Camera: Vladislavs Andrejevs ; Produced by
Yuriy Zakrevskiy)
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The FBI said more than 50 election sites across five battleground states received hoax bomb emails on Election Day in the U.S., and the emails in four of these states came from a Russian domain.

None of the threats sent to polling sites in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona were deemed credible, and while causing a brief disruption, they did not affect the voting, the FBI said.

“We identified the source, and it was from Russia,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a news conference, adding that the Russians “don’t want us to have free, fair and accurate elections, and if they could make us fight among ourselves, they could count that as a victory.”

Russia denied involvement, claiming to “never” have interfered in elections in the U.S. or elsewhere. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Russian Embassy in the U.S. used similar language, calling the FBI allegations “malicious slander.”

That belies a well-documented decades-long history of Russian attempts to meddle in the domestic affairs of numerous nations across continents, including systematic efforts against the United States, ranging from malicious cyberattacks to multimillion-dollar disinformation campaigns.

Just last week, German officials said Russia organized bomb threats targeting polling stations during the presidential elections in Moldova, where the Kremlin is accused of trying but failing to replace the pro-Western president, Maia Sandu, with a more amenable candidate.

As it became clear that former U.S. President Donald Trump was poised to return to power, Russian officials and state media signaled their satisfaction with the result.

Vice President Kalala Harris, the Democratic candidate, “is finished,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev posted on social media platform X. “The objectives of the Special Military Operation [Russia’s war in Ukraine] remain unchanged and will be achieved.”

The Kremlin-owned Sputnik News branch in India posted on X a short AI-generated video showing a laughing Harris against a background of exploding bombs and destroyed towns in Ukraine. Harris is leaving behind a “rich foreign policy legacy,” the post said.

Russia-linked accounts shared posts saying goodbye to nearly all officials in the current U.S. administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whom they called a “butcher” for his support to Ukraine.

Russia’s state-controlled news network RT [formerly Russia Today] published an election night story featuring its U.S. correspondent Valentin Bogdanov’s experience among Trump’s “most loyal supporters” near his Mar-a-Largo residence in Florida.

Bogdanov described the affairs in the U.S. as “a deep people against a deep state,” and predicted a civil war in a “dysfunctional state.” He painted a picture of a chaotic, fraudulent election with officials at polling sites in Michigan, Arizona and Maryland among other states faking technical issues to cast Trump votes for Harris.

None of those claims proved credible. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency described the elections as “free, fair and safe.”

Russia’s meddling efforts are not limited to its alleged role in the hoax bomb threats on Election Day. On November 1, the Office of the Direction of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint statement from the U.S. Intelligence Community stating that “Russian influence actors” created a fake video falsely showing people claiming to be from Haiti voting illegally in various Georgia counties.
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Ukraine’s military said Wednesday it shot down 38 of the 63 aerial drones that Russian forces launched in overnight attacks.

The Ukrainian air force said it intercepted the drones over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zhytomyr and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, said on Telegram that Russia’s attack damaged energy infrastructure, but did not hurt anyone.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it destroyed two Ukrainian drones over the Kursk region and another drone over Oryol.

Russian officials said there were no reports of damage or casualties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that his country’s forces have engaged in battle with the North Korean troops that were deployed to Russia to assist in its war on Ukraine.

“The first battles with North Korean soldiers open a new page of instability in the world,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday in his daily address — his first official acknowledgement of the encounter between the two forces.

Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defense minister, has also confirmed the arrival of the North Korean forces. In an interview with South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS, he said the Ukrainian and North Korean forces have engaged in “small-scale” fighting.

“The first North Korean troops have already been shelled in the Kursk region,” said Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

According to a U.S. official quoted by The New York Times late Tuesday, a “significant number” of North Korean troops had been killed, though the report said it was not clear when the fighting had occurred.

Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Associated Press. 
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berlin — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition faces a make-or-break moment on Wednesday as leaders of the three parties convene to forge compromises between their differing visions on rescuing the economy from decline.

Relations between Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and free-market Free Democrats (FDP) have sunk to new lows over the past week as they aired their respective strategies without consulting one another.

The FDP, long the odd-one-out in the ideologically mismatched and fractious coalition, has doubled down on its ultimatum: that some key deals must be reached in what the party has called an “autumn of decisions,” or the coalition is finished.

“We need a real change in direction,” FDP parliamentary chief Christian Duerr said on Tuesday.

Scholz, Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the FDP and Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens are set to hold two crisis meetings on Wednesday, in addition to attending a cabinet meeting with a packed agenda.

Then they will join a broader gathering of parliamentary and party leaders from the three camps at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT) that could extend into the night.

The chancellor and his two top ministers hope to reach a preliminary agreement on how to plug a multi-billion-dollar hole in the budget and forge a compromise on economic policies that they can present to their respective parties.

“It’s clear it is possible,” Scholz told reporters on Tuesday.

A coalition collapse could leave Scholz heading a minority government and relying on ad hoc parliamentary majorities to govern, or trigger an early election – which surveys suggest would be disastrous for all three coalition parties.

The SPD and Greens are polling well below their scores in the 2021 election, while the FDP could be ejected from parliament altogether.

The three parties are at odds over how best to rescue Europe’s largest economy, which is now facing its second year of contraction and a crisis in its business model after the end of cheap Russian gas and amid increasing competition from China.

The FDP has proposed public spending cuts, lower taxes and less regulation as the answer to this malaise. It also wants to slow down Germany’s shift to a carbon-neutral economy.

The SPD and the Greens, meanwhile, while at odds on a host of other issues, agree that targeted government spending is needed.

Still, Habeck made a major concession towards the FDP on Monday, saying the funds earmarked as subsidies for a new Intel chip factory could now be used to plug the hole in the budget.
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In Turkey, listeners of Acik Radyo are protesting after regulators revoked the Istanbul-based station’s license. For nearly 30 years, Acik sought to bridge the country’s divides. Analysts say the action against it is part of a wider government media crackdown. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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NOVI SAD, Serbia — Protesters threw flares and red paint Tuesday on the City Hall building in the Serbian city of Novi Sad in rage over last week’s collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station that killed 14 people. Police responded by firing tear gas canisters. 

The protesters surrounded the building in central Novi Sad, breaking windows and throwing stones and other objects despite calls by organizers to remain calm. Special police troops were deployed inside the building. 

Some of the angry protesters wearing masks, believed to be soccer hooligans who are close to the populist government, tried to get inside the building and hand over their demands that those responsible for the canopy collapse face justice. 

Serbia’s autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic said the police are “showing restraint,” but also issued a warning saying “horrific, violent protests are underway.” 

“People of Serbia, please do not think violence is allowed,” he said on X, formerly Twitter. “All those taking part in the incidents will be punished.” 

Protest organizers said they wanted to enter the Hall and submit their demands. 

Miran Pogacar, an opposition activist, said “one glass window can be mended but we cannot bring back 14 lives. People are angry. Serbia won’t stand for this.” 

Bojan Pajtic, an opposition politician, said he believed the violent incidents were stoked deliberately by provocateurs, a tactic used before in Serbia to derail peaceful anti-government protests and paint the opposition protesters as enemies of the nation. 

Thousands first marched through the city streets demanding that top officials step down because of the fatal outer roof collapse last Friday, including President Vucic and Prime Minister Milos Vucevic. 

The protesters first gathered outside the railway station where they held a moment of silence for the victims as organizers read their names. The crowd responded by chanting: “arrest the gang” and “thieves.” 

The protest started peacefully but some demonstrators later hurled plastic bottles and bricks at the headquarters of Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party and smeared red paint on posters of the Serbian president and the prime minister — a message that they have blood on their hands. 

The protesters removed most of the Serbian national red, blue and white national flags that were apparently hung on the headquarters to prevent it from an attack. That triggered an angry reaction from the president. 

“Our Serbian tricolor has been destroyed, hidden and removed by all those who do not love Serbia,” Vucic wrote on X. “Tonight, in Novi Sad, this is being done by those who tell us that they love Serbia more than us, the decent citizens of this country.” 

Critics of Serbia’s populist government have attributed the disaster to rampant corruption in the Balkan country, a lack of transparency and sloppy work during renovation work on the station building which was part of a wider railway deal with Chinese state companies. 

The accident happened without warning. Surveillance camera footage showed the massive canopy on the outer wall of the station building crashing down on the people sitting below on benches or going in and out. 

Officials have promised full accountability and, faced with pressure, Serbia’s construction minister submitted his resignation Tuesday. 

Prosecutors have said that more than 40 people already have been questioned as part of a probe into what happened. Many in Serbia, however, doubt that justice will be served with the populists in firm control of the judicial system and the police. 

Opposition parties behind Tuesday’s protest said they are also demanding the resignation of Vucevic and that documentation be made public listing all the companies and individuals involved. 

The victims included a 6-year-old girl. Those injured in the roof collapse remained in serious condition Tuesday. 

The train station has been renovated twice in recent years. Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work, suggesting this was the reason why it collapsed but giving no explanation for why it was not included. 

The Novi Sad railway station was originally built in 1964, while the renovated station was inaugurated by Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, over two years ago as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest. 
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London — Two new cases of the mpox variant clade 1b detected in the U.K. are the first locally transmitted cases in Europe and the first outside Africa, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed late Monday that the two new cases were household contacts of Britain’s first case identified last week, bringing the country’s total confirmed cases to three.

The WHO warned that European states should be prepared for “rapid action” to contain the latest mpox variant, which spreads through close physical contact including sexual relations and sharing closed spaces.

The two cases are also the first to be locally transmitted outside Africa since August 2024, when the WHO declared the outbreak of the new variant an international public health emergency — its highest level of alarm.

Those affected are under specialist care and the risk to the U.K. population “remains low,” UKHSA said.

The original case was detected after the person traveled to several African countries on holiday and returned to the U.K. on Oct. 21.

The patient developed flu-like symptoms more than 24 hours later and, on Oct. 24, started to develop a rash that worsened in the following days.

Mpox, a viral disease related to smallpox, has two types, clade 1 and clade 2. Symptoms include fever, a skin rash or pus-filled blisters, swollen lymph nodes and body aches.

The WHO first declared an international public health emergency in 2022 over the spread of clade 2. That outbreak mostly affected gay and bisexual men in Europe and the United States.

Vaccination and awareness drives in many countries helped stem the number of worldwide cases and the WHO lifted the emergency in May 2023 after reporting 140 deaths out of around 87,400 cases.

In 2024, a two-pronged epidemic of clade 1 and clade 1b, a new strain that affects children, has spread widely in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The new strain has also been recorded in neighboring Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, with imported cases in Sweden, India, Thailand, Germany and the U.K.
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SEDAVI, Spain — Francisco Murgui went out to try to salvage his motorbike when the water started to rise. 

He never came back. 

One week after catastrophic flooding devastated eastern Spain, Maria Murgui still holds out hope that her father is alive and among the unknown number of the missing. 

“He was like many people in town who went out to get their car or motorbike to safety,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press. “The flash flood caught him outside, and he had to cling to a tree in order to escape drowning. He called us to tell us that he was fine, that we shouldn’t worry.” 

But when Maria set out into the streets of Sedavi to try to rescue him from the water washing away everything in its path, he was nowhere to be found. 

“He held up until 1 in the morning,” she said. “By 2, I went outside with a neighbor and a rope to try to locate him. But we couldn’t find him. And since then, we haven’t heard anything about him.” 

At least 218 have been confirmed dead after a deluge caused by heavy rains late on October 29 and the next morning swamped entire communities, mostly in Spain’s Valencia region, catching most off guard. Regional authorities have been heavily criticized for having issued alerts to mobile phones some two hours after the disaster had started. 

Authorities have yet to any give an estimate of the missing seven days on. Spanish state broadcaster RTVE, however, shows a steady stream of appeals by people who are searching for family members who are not accounted for. 

Maria Murgui herself has posted a missing person’s message on social media with a photo of her father, a 57-year-old retiree. 

“This is like riding a roller coaster. Sometimes I feel very bad and sometimes I feel better. I try to stay positive,” she said. “This truly is madness. We don’t know what else to do. Neither does anybody else in town.” 

Relief package 

While many search for their loved ones, the gargantuan recovery efforts in Sedavi and dozens of other communities slowly moved forward. 

To aid those in need, the central government approved a 10.6-billion-euro relief package for 78 communities on Tuesday. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez compared it to the measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The package includes direct payments of 20,000 euros to 60,000 euros to owners of damaged homes, among other financial aid for businesses and municipal governments. 

“We have a lot of work left to do, and we know it,” Sanchez said.  

Sanchez said that he will ask the European Union to help pay for the relief, saying, “it is time for the European Union to help.” 

Many people are still without basic goods amid scenes of devastation. 

Street after street in town after town is still covered with thick brown mud and mounds of ruined belongings, clumps of rotting vegetation, and wrecked vehicles. A stench arises from the muck.

In many places, people still face shortages of basic goods, and lines form at impromptu emergency kitchens and stands handing out food. Water is running again but authorities say it is not fit for drinking. 

The ground floors of thousands of homes have been ruined. It is feared that inside some of the vehicles that the water washed away or trapped in underground garages there could be bodies waiting to be recovered. 

Thousands of soldiers are working with firefighters and police reinforcements in the immense emergency response. Officers and troops are searching in destroyed homes, the countless cars strewn across highways, streets, or lodged in the mud in canals and gorges. 

Authorities are worried about other health problems caused by the aftermath of the deadliest natural disaster in Spain’s recent history. They have urged people to get tetanus shots and to treat any wounds to prevent infections and to clean the mud from their skin. Many people wear face masks. 

Thousands of volunteers are helping out, filling the void left by authorities. But the frustration over the crisis management boiled over on Sunday when a crowd in hard-hit Paiporta hurled mud and other objects at Spain’s royals, Sanchez and regional officials when they made their first visit to the epicenter of the flood damage. 

Sanchez’s national government is set to announce a new package of relief on Tuesday. 
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Ukraine’s military said Tuesday it shot down two Russian guided missiles as well as 48 of the 79 drones that Russian forces used in overnight attacks.

The intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy and Zhytomyr regions, the Ukrainian air force said.

Ivan Fedorov, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, said Tuesday a Russian attack killed at least six people and wounded 16 others. Fedorov said on Telegram that Russia hit an infrastructure facility.

Officials in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region also reported a Russian attack that injured two people and damaged three apartment buildings.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it destroyed six Ukrainian aerial drones over the Kursk region.

The governor of Bryansk, Alexander Bogomaz, said on Telegram there were no reports of damage or casualties.

A spokesperson for the South Korean Defense Ministry said at a briefing Tuesday that there are more than 10,000 North Korea soldiers currently in Russia, including a portion deployed to frontline areas such as in Kursk.

The statement, which spokesperson Jeon Ha-Gyu said was based on intelligence authorities, came a day after a similar assessment from the U.S. Defense Department.

Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that there could be as many as 11,000 to 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia, with most of them in Kursk.

Ryder said the Pentagon could not corroborate reports that the North Koreans were engaged in combat.

Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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washington — Pyongyang may have bet all its chips on its relationship with Moscow by committing the lives of its soldiers to fight for Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine, according to analysts.

North Korean soldiers are gearing up for an anticipated battle in the Russian border region of Kursk.

According to the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine on Saturday, more than 7,000 North Korean soldiers in the front line near the border were armed with various weapons by Russia. They included 60 mm mortars, AK-12 rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Some North Korean soldiers in the region have already come under fire, according to a message that Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, posted on Telegram on Monday.

The U.S. estimates that 8,000 soldiers are in the Kursk Oblast to fight in front-line operations against Ukraine forces in the coming days.

“There is no more significant and long-term a commitment one country can make to another than sending troops at wartime,” Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told VOA.

“I never believed this was short term, at least from the North Korean perspective,” said Cha, who formerly served as the deputy head of the U.S. delegation to the Six Party Talks with North Korea.

Cha added that Kim could face many risks by deploying troops  thousands of miles away from home and exposing them to fight alongside Russian soldiers.

“What if North Korean soldiers desert or are captured? What is the future of DPRK-Europe relations? What if South Korean weapons [supplied via the U.S to Ukraine thus far] kills North Korean soldiers? What if Ukraine makes a point of targeting North Korean soldiers for propaganda purposes?” he asked.

Long-term commitment

Cha, in an article CSIS published October 23, said that by sending troops, North Korea may have crossed the point of no return in its ties with Russia.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said during a news conference in Washington, held last week after a security meeting, that Seoul is looking to send a team to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops.

When Kim visited Russia last year and began sending munitions the same year, some analysts saw him as largely engaged in a short-term transactional relationship with Moscow.

But after North Korea deployed troops to Russia — a move in line with a mutual defense treaty the two signed this summer — and joined Moscow’s war efforts against Ukraine and, by default, against NATO and U.S. interests, Kim is viewed as engaged in an “all-in” relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin that comes with major risks.

Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, said, “Kim Jong Un’s willingness to take these risks suggests he is ‘all in’ on the relationship with Moscow and prepared to make important sacrifices to show support for his Russian patron, in the hope that doing so will yield the benefits he seeks.”

Revere added, “This tells us a lot about what Kim is prepared to do to receive key military and space technologies. It remains to be seen whether Moscow is prepared to provide all the technologies and support Kim wants. If it does not, it will leave the North Korean ruler in a very difficult position.”

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell held talks Monday in Seoul and condemned North Korea’s troop deployment and possible military technology transfers Russia could make in return.

North Korea launched a Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday in demonstration of what it described as the “world’s most powerful strategic deterrent.”

In addition to technologies Kim might want to further advance Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, North Korea will receive about $200 million from Moscow for its troop deployment, according to an estimate from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

“North Korea is not necessarily wanting to back away from the relationship at the moment because it’s given a lifeline as well as a hedge partner against China,” said Samuel Ramani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Kim is “willing to commit almost anything that Putin is willing to ask him to do at this point,” Ramani said.

Transactional relationship

Whether long term or short term, Dan DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities, said, “Ties are still very much transactional in the sense that Kim expects Russian President Vladimir Putin to compensate him in some way, shape or form.”

However, DePetris said, “it’s unlikely North Korea will be comfortable putting all its chips in Russia’s basket,” as “betting on Russia over the long term would mean handcuffing North Korea to a single power, limiting the flexibility North Korean officials seek to maintain and giving Russia the ability to blackmail North Korea in the future.”

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said Friday, when she met in Moscow with her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that Pyongyang would fully back Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine until victory.

Choe also said Kim had already “instructed” North Korean officials to provide support for the Russian army “without regard to anyone” when Russia launched what she described as “the special military operation” against Ukraine in 2022.

In return, Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow’s “full support for North Korea’s measures aimed at countering the aggressive policies of the U.S. and its partners” and its commitment to implement the mutual defense treaty.

“We’ve long thought of North Korea as a rogue state, but the tight cooperation between Putin and Kim Jong Un now makes Russia look like a rogue state, too,” said Stephen Sestanovich, senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as U.S. ambassador-at-large for the former Soviet Union from 1997 to 2001.
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GENEVA — China has moved forward with a complaint at the World Trade Organization that alleges the European Union has improperly set anti-subsidy tariffs on new Chinese-made electric vehicles. 

The Chinese diplomatic mission to the WTO said Monday it “strongly opposes” the measures and insisted its move was designed to protect the EV industry and support a global transition toward greener technologies. 

The European bloc announced last month it was imposing import duties of up to 35% on electric vehicles from China, alleging the Chinese exports were unfairly undercutting EU industry prices. The duties are set to remain in force for five years, unless an amicable deal can be struck. 

Electric vehicles have become a major flashpoint in a broader trade dispute over the influence of Chinese government subsidies on European markets and Beijing’s burgeoning exports of green technology to the bloc. 

China alleged that the EU move amounted to “an abuse of trade remedies” that violates WTO rules, and amounted to “protectionist” measures, according to the mission’s statement. 

Valdis Dombrovskis, the executive vice president of the EU’s Commission, last week called the steps “proportionate and targeted” and were aimed to underpin fair market practices and support the bloc’s industrial base.
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