The leaked tapes appear to show one high-speed train was given clearance to move at normal speed, even though another up ahead had stalled.

A temporary ceasefire has brought rare quiet to Kherson, offering its residents a glimpse of normal life before fighting resumes.

Google spooked investors so badly that its stock hit a six-month low, after it revealed its AI search summaries were affecting ad revenue.

Poundland's bosses are filing a notice of intention to appoint administrators to the business.

BERLIN — Berlin mayoral candidate Elif Eralp is facing accusations of hypocrisy from political opponents after private remarks about “people with connections to Hamas” raised questions about her party’s approach to policing and the Middle East conflict. The controversy risks complicating efforts by Eralp’s Left Party to form a coalition with the Social Democrats and Greens after winning the Sept. 20 Berlin election. The far-left party’s pro-Palestinian stance helped mobilize voters, but Jewish organizations have accused it of antisemitism. The party denies this. The remarks appeared in internal comments accidentally included when Eralp’s office returned an annotated transcript of an interview to Der Spiegel, as per customary German journalistic practice. Der Spiegel asked Eralp about antisemitism within her party. Eralp acknowledged that boundaries had been crossed at some campaign events. The journalists then asked whether she was referring to Ibrahim Ibrahim, a pro-Palestinian agitator who attended the Left Party’s election-night celebration. Eralp answered “yes,” according to Der Spiegel, but later sought to remove the exchange from the interview transcript. In private comments apparently to her assistants, inadvertently included in the returned transcript, Eralp referred to advice she said she had previously received from Berlin’s State Criminal Police Office (LKA) about publicly naming individuals linked to organized crime: “The LKA said at the time that they recommend never naming specific individuals. Back then, it was about organized crime. Now it’s about people with connections to Hamas.” She added: “I cannot put myself and my family in danger for SPIEGEL. What do we do now? Cancel the entire interview?” In a statement through his lawyers earlier this month, Ibrahim said he was not a member of the Left Party and said he rejected antisemitism. “I categorically reject the accusation of supporting terrorism,” his statement said. In another private comment on the Ibrahim Ibrahim question, Eralp referred to an unidentified man by his first name, saying he “does not want to name specific individuals, neither does my husband, nor do I. He is afraid of these people, and so am I.” Der Spiegel did not identify the unknown man or explain his relationship to Eralp. The CDU’s mayoral candidate, Stefan Evers, who placed second in the vote, said the remarks exposed a contradiction between Eralp’s concerns and her party’s position. The Left Party has called for reducing police numbers, while Evers alleged that members were working with the people Eralp feared. “If the woman who is supposed to govern Berlin in the future is so afraid for herself and her family that she hesitates to publicly name terrorist sympathizers, while parts of her own party are working hand in hand with those very circles, then reasonable voices within the Greens and [Social Democrats] must finally pull the emergency brake,” Evers told POLITICO. Former Berlin Mayor Michael Müller, a Social Democrat, warned that Eralp could be vulnerable to blackmail. Eralp said Thursday she still wants to become Berlin’s mayor. Asked about the report, she told journalists: “I will not comment because private, internal information has been published. But what I can say very clearly is that, as governing mayor, I will ensure the safety of all Berliners.”

LUXEMBOURG — Europe’s energy ministers are running out of ideas to protect citizens from surging energy prices as winter approaches. But at a summit in Luxembourg on Thursday, they were clear on one thing: Demanding voters cut back on power use is not an option.   European gas prices soared above €100 per megawatt-hour on Wednesday for the first time since 2022, as last-minute panic-buying to fill European gas reserves added to supply pressures linked to the war in the Middle East.   But at the Thursday summit, EU energy ministers broadly acknowledged that both Brussels and national capitals had run out of ideas to contain price pressures. “We’ve exhausted most of our short-term options,” said one senior European energy official, granted anonymity to offer a candid perspective. “What’s left is really crisis management.” For the past year, government attempts to cushion price rises with renewables schemes, windfall taxes and costly fuel subsidies have ultimately failed to contain anxieties that have since boiled over into widespread protests across the continent. “The EU and member states don’t have a magic wand to make the price increases go away,” Irish Energy Minister Darragh O’Brien, whose government holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, told reporters. “There’s a lot of measures that have been taken already in the short term. What today is about is actually seeing how we can move to more sustainable measures.” But even crisis management is proving politically difficult. Despite calls by EU energy chief Dan Jørgensen earlier this year to encourage consumers and businesses to cut energy use, European ministers are reluctant to make such a move official policy. “I don’t want to see that we will limit people,” said Mika Nykänen, the state secretary to Finland’s energy ministry. Instead, he called for policy designed to “change behavior” and reduce energy consumption less painfully. “Industry does it naturally. Normal households, normal families — they sometimes need encouragement,” he said. “For instance, subsidies to invest in the energy efficiency of houses, windows.” Demand reduction “has an impact on industry, it has an impact on business, and in a difficult situation, it could be the way to do that. But it does not … solve the long-term,” Polish Secretary of State for Energy Wojciech Wrochna told reporters. High prices “will regulate demand by itself,” Swedish Energy Minister Ebba Busch told reporters. Fossil fuel subsidies Such was the opposition to demand reduction measures on Thursday, Jørgensen — who was at the summit warning of a “difficult” winter of soaring fuel prices ahead — gave up even proposing it, focusing instead on subsidies. He reluctantly accepted that such subsidies could include fossil fuels as well as clean alternatives, but urged that they be “targeted and temporary.” Since the war started, governments have paid €18 billion for tax relief on fossil fuel products, including a controversial move by Rome earlier this month to reduce the impact of gas prices on electricity costs. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned national leaders against this tendency, urging them at a summit this month to keep policies temporary and targeted to avoid inadvertently increasing fossil fuel demand and distorting the EU single market, according to two EU diplomats familiar with her comments. That remains a point of contention among EU leaders, with some, including Greece, calling for greater fiscal space to increase energy subsidies while others warn of the dangers of subsidizing fossil fuels. “Our concern is to make sure that we don’t create conditions where different member states go very far in different national decision-making,” said Lithuanian Energy Minister Lukas Savickas in a separate interview. Jørgensen did not respond to POLITICO’s question at a subsequent press conference when asked whether new fiscal flexibilities were being considered. Other ideas have gone by the wayside. Von der Leyen rejected calls by countries to establish an EU-wide tax on windfall profits of oil and gas companies at this month’s summit, the diplomats cited above said even as European oil companies like Shell, TotalEnergies and Repsol rake in their biggest profits since 2022. Member countries also questioned the value of a Commission proposal to coordinate the purchase of energy supplies. Such a scheme would work in theory but be hard to implement for “big players” with established supply chains, Wrochna said. Neither has the EU’s commitment to hastening the release of strategic crude oil and diesel reserves earlier this month — in response to what EU officials described as U.S. “blackmail” — done much to ease fuel costs. Even so, the EU’s commitment will now include over 40 million barrels on top of the 10 million pledged by Paris, France’s economy minister Roland Lescure told reporters on Thursday. A parallel push to delay methane monitoring requirements — a plank of the EU’s 2024 Green Deal that industry argued was poorly designed and would disrupt supplies — also had no impact on prices. Slow pay-off To be sure, measures designed to lower electricity prices and encourage consumers to switch away from imported fossil fuels are starting to work, with soaring sales of heat pumps and electric vehicles in Europe this year. “There’s no silver bullet, but when you add all of these things up, it can actually matter,” said Jørgensen. But even longer-term efforts to encourage the switch to cleaner energy are facing backlash as countries resist ceding power to Brussels. One example is a Commission proposal to make electricity bills more affordable and speed up electrification, including by ensuring electricity is not taxed more heavily than natural gas. Member countries pushed back against the proposal’s taxation provisions on Thursday, arguing that Brussels is overstepping EU treaties requiring that tax changes be approved unanimously, risking higher costs for households and industry. Busch, the Swedish energy minister, said the proposal’s taxation provisions went too far, warning it would face “a lot of pushback” from countries concerned about EU interference in national tax policy. Germany and Poland also raised concerns about the proposal’s potential impact on industry and national tax systems, while Italy warned that changing tax rates could make energy more expensive rather than encourage electrification.

An Icelandic web company, FlokiNET, has defended the data's publication as satisfying a 'legitimate' public interest.

As Israel renews a ban on Al-Aqsa imam, Islamic Waqf officials warn of shrinking authority at Muslim holy site.

Spain has begun three days of mourning to commemorate the 69 people who died in a high-speed rail collision. The trains – one from Spain's state-owned Renfe and the other from the private rail company Iryo – were heading from Madrid to to the southern region of Andalucía on the same line when they collided. The deadly crash came just 10 months after 46 people were killed when two trains collided on the same line. The disaster has raised fresh questions about safety on Spain's large, modern high-speed rail network. The Guardian's Laure Boulinier explains how it unfolded Continue reading...

Tankers, tracked by Greenpeace, are first phase of Trump-Putin deal – but there is uncertainty over whether they will unloadSeven oil tankers carrying an estimated 288,000 tonnes of Russian diesel are now sailing towards the US, though it is uncertain if the vessels will be able to unload amid a political row about the legality of the shipments.The transport, tracked by the pressure group Greenpeace, is the first phase of a contentious supply deal negotiated between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin earlier this month, reversing years of sanctions on Russia oil. Continue reading...

Mikie Sherrill calls Trump’s deal with Putin ‘corrupt and illegal’ as she weighs moves to stop shipment to east coast port

After a shaky start, the outgoing president leaves the ECB in solid shape

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will step down from her post several months early, in order to have more "freedom to engage on matters that are not monetary policy." The comments will fuel speculation about her future plans, ahead of a presidential election in her native France. The resignation also sparks a succession race, as Europe faces a turbulent fiscal future. Also in the show - oil giant TotalEnergies reports record profits as the EU warns on household energy bills.

The British actor Patrick Stewart has died at 86, a statement released on Thursday said. Stewart was an acclaimed actor in Britain with the Royal Shakespeare Company before he starred in the beloved sci-fi TV show "Star Trek" in the 80s and later in the "X-Men" franchise.

In Cameroon, the “Bring Back Our Sons and Brothers” collective organised a peaceful march on Wednesday, 28 October, to the Russian embassy. They are calling on Russia and the Cameroonian government to work together to dismantle networks recruiting Cameroonians clandestinely into the Russian army.

Libya's central bank on Thursday said unidentified individuals raided its headquarters in Tripoli, hours after parliament said it had accepted a request from its governor to resign.