US envoy Steve Witkoff says President Putin has agreed to European negotiators joining the next round of Ukraine talks.

The attack is thought to be the first time Ukrainian drones have attacked a Russian ship in an open stretch of the Baltic Sea.

US lawmakers now want to question Huang over whether one of his alleged relationships was with a Chinese spy.

Within days, Huang's status as a seemingly untouchable figure leading the global tech race has crumbled.

SEVILLE, Spain — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez officially launched his long-shot reelection bid in Seville on Thursday, appealing to Socialist loyalists in Andalusia, the southern region that for decades served as his party’s political heartland. But even here, the center-left is now is on the ropes — in a stark sign of how improbable a Sánchez win now looks on Nov. 29. Surrounded by Socialist supporters waving red party banners and Andalusian flags and shouting “¡Guapo!” — “Handsome!” — the undaunted prime minister took the stage in Seville, dancing to the upbeat strains of a romantic pop song, chosen to underscore his progressive message of love in the face of the politics of hate. “We’re here to vote, we’re here to win, we’re here to govern,” Sánchez told the adoring crowd, which had been shown videos of the prime minister reciting poems by Federico García Lorca, the celebrated Andalusian poet and playwright murdered by Francoist forces in 1936. Sánchez’s decision to launch his campaign in Seville is laden with historic symbolism. For 36 years, the Socialists dominated Andalusian politics, controlling the regional government and many of the region’s biggest cities.  That hold on power ended in 2018, after years of declining support and a string of corruption scandals paved the way for the center-right People’s Party to take control. Since becoming regional president in 2019, Juanma Moreno has established himself as a steady, pragmatic leader, winning a landslide victory in 2022 and securing the most votes in snap elections earlier this year. His success in Andalusia has also elevated his profile nationally, making him one of the leading figures of the PP’s moderate wing. Despite the PP’s consolidation of power in Andalusia, the Socialists are not ready to relinquish their claim on the region. Francisco Toscano, a Socialist candidate for congress in Seville, told POLITICO the party still considered Andalusia to be its bastion. “This is an eminently progressive region, and one whose voters believe in progressive government,” he said. Electorally, he added, Andalusia is crucial to the Socialists’ grander ambitions. “This is the most populous autonomous community in Spain, so its weight at the national level is very important,” he continued, noting that the region elects the largest number of lawmakers to the parliament in Madrid, making up 60 of the 350 seats. But while Sánchez’s campaign launch struck an optimistic note about the prospect of an Andalusian comeback, the latest polling suggests the Socialists could suffer disastrous results across the region. According to the latest GAD3 poll, the center-right People’s Party is ahead of the Socialists in most Andalusian provinces — including Seville, where Sánchez’s party has never previously lost in a general election. A rout in Andalusia would be more than a regional setback for Sánchez. It would further narrow his slim path to reelection, making a fresh national mandate look all the more out of reach. Reversal of fortune The Socialists’ decline in Andalusia is, in many ways, a consequence of their own success. When the party first came to power in the region in 1982, Andalusia was one of Spain’s poorest areas. But under leaders such as Manuel Chaves — who ruled the region for 19 years — it underwent a profound transformation. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Socialist regional governments used EU structural funds to spur economic development, funding infrastructure projects such as the Madrid-Seville high-speed railway. Between 1982 and 1996, Socialist Prime Minister Felipe González — a proud native son on Seville — championed the region from Madrid, helping secure major investments and backing landmark events such as the Expo ’92 World’s Fair, which brought a fresh wave of investment to Andalusia. But as regional living standards improved, voters’ expectations rose too — and the party increasingly struggled to meet them. “There was a paradox of satisfaction,” said Ángel Cazorla, a political scientist at the University of Granada. “Although Andalusians felt the Socialists had overseen decades of progress, and personally felt their lives had improved, the great recession exposed how much remained unfinished or unresolved.”  By 2018, frustration over persistent problems such as unemployment and strained public services, and corruption cases involving high-ranking regional grandees, ultimately led to the Socialists’ ouster. Cazorla said the two deadly train accidents that rocked Spain this year, both of which occurred on the iconic Madrid-Seville rail line, were emblematic of the party’s decline.  “In addition to the human toll, we can list Curro as a victim of these tragedies,” he said, referring to the colorful cartoon bird that served as the mascot of the 1992 Seville World’s Fair and which many Andalusians associate with the prosperity of the Socialist era. “The deadly accidents are in a lot of ways representative of a social-democratic project that gradually ran out of steam, and that successive governments have failed to look after what had been achieved not only with infrastructure, but public goods and overall quality of life,” he added. The generational gap Socialist candidate Toscano is not blind to the reasons the Socialists have lost ground.  After decades in power, he acknowledged, the party had faced growing pressure from the right, corruption scandals and a failure to adapt its message to changing living standards. “We had shortcomings in our management in recent years,” he said, while arguing the Socialists had nonetheless remained electorally competitive in parts of the region. Cazorla argued the party’s difficulties go beyond its record in government: It also faces a generational problem. Younger electors who grew up in an already-transformed Andalusia feel little identification with the Socialists or with a regional leadership associated with the discredited administrations of the past.  “A young left-wing voter is paying attention to a different message — one the old guard is incapable of projecting,” he said, adding Adelante Andalucía, a regionalist party that advocates in favor of greater self-government and left-wing policies, is more likely to seduce local electors. Toscano, however, remained hopeful that Andalusian voters would turn out for the Socialists in an election he frames as a choice between Sánchez’s progressive agenda and the global conservative wave.  “We’ve seen public services deteriorate under Giorgia Meloni in Italy, and Javier Milei wielding his ‘chainsaw’ to dismantle Argentina’s welfare state,” he said. “In this election, Spaniards must choose whether to remain a country that continues to make social progress or follow the path of regression we are seeing elsewhere.”

DUBLIN — It was supposed to all be about how Europe faces up to the challenges posed by artificial intelligence. Not for the first time at a summit of EU leaders, more pressing concerns are getting in the way. And, as has so often been the case since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it’s that conflict which is set to dominate proceedings in Dublin. The EU is at odds over who should represent it in any peace talks. When officials from Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. met in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, Europe was only on the fringes. Most European leaders say that must change ― but working out how and with whom is easier said than done. Friday is the second day of meetings in the Irish capital. Thursday’s gathering of 50 leaders under the banner of the European Political Community included several discussions involving smaller groups, chats with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and a debrief from Donald Trump’s envoys who had earlier met Putin in Moscow.We’ll bring you the best of the action, from the latest on the Ukraine arguments to the AI discussions and other items which might crop up, like the race to succeed Christine Lagarde at the head of the European Central Bank and the never-ending back-and-forth over the EU’s next seven year budget.

Prosecutors say the woman shared security details with Ukraine, while her lawyers argue the information was not secret.

Michael Olise gives France the lead, but double from Pio Esposito and one from Davide Frattesi secure win for Italy.

Russian president says he would target any foreign troops sent to Ukraine and refuses to soften territorial demandsVladimir Putin warned US negotiators that Russia would target any foreign troops deployed to Ukraine, in a series of hardline remarks that came as the Ukrainian military faced renewed disruptions to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service.During the talks at the Kremlin with the US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff on Thursday, the Russian president refused to soften his territorial demands, insisting on full control over four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to have annexed. Continue reading...

Prime minister says reset could be a deal ‘like the Brexit people thought they were voting for in 2016’ Andy Burnham has said he believes a “win-win” deal could be done with the EU that could be “more like the Brexit that people thought they were voting for in 2016”.The prime minister was meeting fellow leaders at the European Political Community summit in Dublin, ahead of a keenly anticipated EU-UK summit next week, where he hopes to bring Britain closer to Europe. Continue reading...

British premier insists that ‘no one is talking’ about rejoining the bloc as summit nears 

Carmaker has also warned that plant closures are an option in escalating stand-off with unions over bid to reduce labour costs

Eight people, including two children, were killed when a residential building collapsed into an adjacent construction site in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Firefighters spent hours searching the rubble overnight before declaring the operation over on Thursday, as authorities launched an investigation into the disaster.

There are mounting concerns across Europe that recent hoax threats and cyber attacks could be part of a massive hybrid warfare campaign. FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney speaks with Elisabeth Braw, Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative. She says that Russia's aim is to "increase its power at the expense of European countries and the easiest way to do that is to constantly wage this dirty war against European countries, using illegal and unethical means, because Russia knows that we are not going to use the same means back".

Newly elected US lawmakers gathered on Capitol Hill on Thursday 12 November for a traditional group photograph ahead of the opening of the 120th Congress. The incoming House members are attending orientation following the November midterm elections.

The Gambia’s electoral commission has confirmed five candidates for next month’s presidential election. They include incumbent Adama Barrow who is running for a third term despite initially promising not to do so. It’s not clear whether more candidates are still to be named.