SARAJEVO (Reuters) -The parliament of Bosnia’s Serb Republic appointed Ana Trisic Babic as an interim president on Saturday, acknowledging officially for the first time that former President Milorad Dodik is stepping aside after a state court banned him from politics.
Trisic Babic, Dodik’s close ally, will hold the position for one month until new presidential elections are held in the Serb Republic on November 23.
The parliament also annulled a series of separatist laws that were passed over the past year after Dodik had been indicted for defying decisions of the international envoy and the constitutional court.
Dodik, a pro-Russian nationalist who wants the Serb Republic to secede and join Serbia, had so far refused to step down and continued to perform duties and travel abroad in the capacity of president. He is appealing the state court’s verdict at the constitutional court.
The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it has removed four Dodik allies from a sanctions list, in a move praised by Dodik who has been campaigning to get U.S. sanctions against himself lifted.
He has been sanctioned by the U.S. and Britain for obstructing the terms of the Dayton peace deal that ended Bosnia’s war in the 1990s, as well as by several European countries that say his separatist policies endanger peace and stability in Bosnia.
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Writing by Renee Maltezou, Editing by Franklin Paul)
ZURICH (Reuters) -The Swiss government received a boost in its efforts to pass the biggest overhaul of Swiss economic relations with the European Union in more than two decades when a centre-right political party, which could prove crucial, gave its backing on Saturday.
The package of measures that covers anything from electricity to state aid, transport and freedom of movement, as well as Bern’s financial contribution to the bloc, was agreed last December and signed off in June by the Swiss cabinet.
It faces a referendum in Switzerland with the biggest group in parliament, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, or SVP, firmly opposed to it on the grounds it is inimical to national sovereignty, Swiss identity and control of borders.
The SVP’s main rival on the right of the political spectrum, the business-friendly Liberals, or FDP, has been split on the question of Europe but in a ballot to set the party’s stance, three-quarters of delegates voted to support the EU accord.
Concern about neutral Switzerland eroding its independence and unique status within Europe by getting too close to the EU is a potent political issue in the country, and eurosceptics have tended to look towards the United States as an alternative.
However, U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose 39% tariffs on Switzerland – far higher than the rate he set on the EU – has weakened the allure of the United States.
The Swiss government has pitched the EU accord as one that will help anchor the economy in uncertain times.
An opinion poll published last month showed that Swiss voters were twice as likely to back the EU deal as reject it.
A Swiss referendum on the deal is unlikely before 2027 and could be later still.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; editing by Barbara Lewis)
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Two people have been killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian-occupied part of Kherson region in southern Ukraine, Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo said via his Telegram channel on Saturday.
Both victims lived in a temporary accommodation centre for evacuees, Saldo said.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Three people were killed and five injured in a blast at the Avangard explosives plant in the city of Sterlitamak, Bashkortostan region, regional governor Radiy Khabirov said on Saturday via his Telegram channel.
The explosion at the plant occurred on Friday evening.
Forensic experts are investigating the cause of the blast, Khabirov said, denying that it was caused by Ukrainian drone strikes.
The emergency services said on Saturday that they had completed search and rescue operations at the Sterlitamak plant, which had continued throughout the night.
The Avangard plant manufactures industrial explosives and dismantles ammunition.
Since 2022, the plant has been controlled by the Russian state industrial conglomerate Rostec.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
WASHINGTON—President Trump is betting that one more round of personal diplomacy will deliver a breakthrough in the more than three-year-long war in Ukraine after months of failed peace negotiations.
Behind the scenes, Trump’s team is working to back up the president’s leader-to-leader negotiations with more diplomatic leverage than he exerted in his August summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Those efforts will be put to the test when Trump meets with Putin in Budapest in the coming weeks.
Nicolas Puech says his wealth manager isolated him from friends and family and siphoned away a massive fortune. Then came the clue that began to reveal the deception.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. jury on Friday returned a historic verdict against BNP Paribas, finding the French bank helped Sudan’s government commit genocide by providing banking services that violated American sanctions.
The federal jury in Manhattan ordered BNP Paribas to pay a combined $20.5 million to three Sudanese plaintiffs who testified about human rights abuses perpetrated under former President Omar al-Bashir’s rule.
Lawyers for the three plaintiffs, who now reside in the U.S., said the verdict opens the door for over 20,000 refugees in the U.S. to seek billions of dollars in damages from the French bank.
“Our clients lost everything to a campaign of destruction fueled by U.S. dollars, that BNP Paribas facilitated and that should have been stopped,” said Bobby DiCello, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
A BNP Paribas spokesman said the verdict should be overturned on appeal, adding that the bank believes it is specific to the three individual plaintiffs and should not have broader application.
“BNP Paribas believes that this result is clearly wrong and there are very strong grounds to appeal the verdict, which is based on a distortion of controlling Swiss law and ignores important evidence the bank was not permitted to introduce,” the spokesman said.
The verdict followed a five-week jury trial conducted by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who last year denied a request by BNP Paribas to get the case thrown out ahead of trial.
The trial focused on whether BNP Paribas’s financial services were a “natural and adequate cause” of the harm suffered by survivors of ethnic cleansing and mass violence.
Hellerstein wrote in his decision last year that there were facts showing a relationship between BNP Paribas’ banking services and abuses perpetrated by the Sudanese government.
The ruling came in a proposed class action lawsuit brought by U.S. residents who had fled non-Arab indigenous black African communities in South Sudan, Darfur, and the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan.
The U.S. government recognized the Sudanese conflict as a genocide in 2004.
BNP Paribas had in 2014 agreed to plead guilty and pay an $8.97 billion penalty to settle U.S. charges it transferred billions of dollars for Sudanese, Iranian and Cuban entities subject to economic sanctions.
The October evening sales brought the London auction houses their highest totals in years. Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Sales aren’t just buoyant at Frieze this week—London’s auction houses also saw their strongest results in years, signaling renewed confidence at the top of the market. Kicking off the action, Christie’s 20th/21st Century London Evening Sale on October 15 achieved a robust £106,925,400 ($142,852,000), marking the auction house’s best Frieze Week evening sale in more than seven years. The total was up 30 percent from last year, with 92 percent sold by lot and 90 percent sold by value. Katharine Arnold and Keith Gill, vice-chairmen of 20th/21st century art, Christie’s Europe, reported entering the week with confidence and “carefully priced material,” noting a “spirited and well-attended” public viewing at King Street. “We are proud to have realized such a solid outcome during Frieze Week, a moment that highlights the energy and cultural vitality of London’s art scene,” they told press.
Leading the sale was Peter Doig’s monumental Ski Jacket (1994), which sold for £14,270,000 ($19,064,720) against a £6,000,000-8,000,000 estimate after more than 13 minutes of fierce bidding between six contenders. Carrying a third-party guarantee, the painting had been acquired in 1994 by Danish collector Ole Faarup, and 100 percent of the proceeds will now go to his foundation. This unusual arrangement also helped Christie’s secure two additional Doigs, despite the artist having become a rare presence at auction.
With an extensive exhibition history, Doig’s Country Rock (1998-1999) nearly hit seven figures in sterling—though it comfortably did so in dollars—achieving £9,210,000 ($12,304,560). A third, more abstract and heavily textured work, also acquired by Faarup in 1994, sold a few lots later just shy of its high estimate at £635,000. The strong results coincided with the opening of Doig’s new show at the Serpentine in London, further fueling demand.
Christie’s evening opened with a standout result for Domenico Gnoli, whose hyperrealistic painting fetched £977,000, doubling its low estimate. Immediately after, a more impressionistic landscape by René Magritte landed at £762,990—well above expectations—reinforcing both continued momentum for the artist and the broader strength of surrealism. Later in the sale, Magritte’s drawing La veillée (The Vigil) exceeded its £500,000 high estimate, selling for £812,800.
The 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale at Christie’s resulted in several new artist records. Photo: Guy Bell | Courtesy of Christie’s
Picasso, as usual, delivered dependable results, with several works selling above or within estimate, including the £2,002,000 oil and ink on panel Chevalier, pages et moine. The modern and impressionist offerings also performed within expectations, largely due to the quality of the material: a Marc Chagall painting fetched £2,246,000, while a lyrical bucolic scene by Nabis painter Maurice Denis sold for £1,697,000. Meanwhile, a horizontal abstract work by Hurvin Anderson exceeded expectations, fetching £3,222,000.
The sale also set several new world auction records, underscoring the ongoing momentum for women artists and long-overlooked names being rediscovered. Paula Rego’s Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (1995) soared to £3,466,000 ($4.63 million), setting a new landmark record for the artist. Suzanne Valadon’s Deux nus ou Le bain (1923) followed with a £1,016,000 ($1.36 million) record. Contemporary sculptor Annie Morris’s Bronze Stack 9, Copper Blue (2015) achieved £482,600 ($644,754), while Danish artist Esben Weile Kjær set his first auction record with Aske and Johan upside down kissing in Power Play at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND (2020), which sold for £25,400 ($33,934).
Among the few unsold works of the night were Yoshitomo Nara’s drawing Haze Days, which failed to find a buyer at its ambitious £6.5-8.5 million estimate, and a gray monochrome by Gerhard Richter—even with the artist opening a major survey at the Fondation Louis Vuitton during Paris Art Week. A black Blinky Palermo also went unsold, while a colorful but slightly less iconic Nicholas Party work, Tree Trunks, was withdrawn ahead of the sale.
Notably, Christie’s reported that 56 percent of buyers in the evening sale came from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with only 28 percent from the Americas and 16 percent from the Asia-Pacific region. This confirms revived demand in the regional market, as also evidenced earlier in the day by the heavy attendance at Frieze.
A £17.6M Bacon headlined at Sotheby’s
Led by a £17.6 million Francis Bacon, Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction closed at $63.5 million. While the total was less than half of Christie’s the night before, the comparison needs context: this was Sotheby’s third major London evening sale since March—whereas it was Christie’s first of the season. Sotheby’s has already staged two major white-glove sales this year—the £101 million Karpidas collection auction in September and the £84 million Summer Evening Sale—meaning that with last night’s results, the house has now sold £233 million worth of modern and contemporary art in London since March. Moreover, the £63.5 million total marked the highest October evening sale result since 2023, up 25 percent from the previous year.
Since March, Sotheby’s has sold £240 million worth of Modern and Contemporary art in London. Courtesy Sotheby’s
“Frieze is always a special time for London, with so many collectors in town whose presence we always feel in our sales,” Ottilie Windsor, co-head of contemporary art, Sotheby’s London, told Observer. “It was great to have them with us tonight and to see so much live action in the room, helping sustain the strong momentum we’ve built over the past few seasons here.”
The Francis Bacon result came after 20 minutes of suspense and fierce bidding across multiple phone specialists and a bidder in the room, pushing the final price to nearly double its £6-9 million estimate. In U.S. dollars, the hammer plus fees rose to $17.6 million. For comparison, the last notable Bacon—Portrait of Man with Glasses II—sold at Christie’s in March for £6,635,000 ($8.4 million), and that work was almost a third smaller. Another, smaller Bacon, closer in scale to Christie’s example, sold here for £5,774,000 ($7.3 million). Bacon’s record still stands at $142.4 million, set at Christie’s New York in 2013 with his triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud.
The sale opened strong, with solid results for several younger contemporary artists who have recently drawn both market and institutional attention. At lot one, a painting by Ser Serpas landed at £27,940 ($35,700)—just under estimate but still enough to set a new auction record for the artist. The California-born painter, who studied in Switzerland and gained early recognition there, was recently included in a MoMA PS1 exhibition and held a solo show at Kunsthalle Basel during the June fairs.
Two of the hottest rising names in recent auctions—driven largely by Asian demand and limited primary-market availability—followed. An abstract by Emma McIntyre, now a Zwirner favorite, sold for £50,800 ($65,000), and Yu Nishimura achieved the same price. Both works carried estimates of £40,000-60,000, reflecting the tight competition at this level.
In between, a 2009 painting by Hernan Bas acquired from Perrotin sold just above its low estimate, likely to its guarantor, at £254,000 ($323,000). Momentum continued for Lucy Bull, whose kaleidoscopic abstraction from 2021—originally acquired from Paris gallery High Art—more than doubled its top estimate of £500,000 ($635,000), landing at £1,260,000 ($1.6 million) after being chased by five bidders, most from Asia.
Overall, the auction confirmed the ongoing strength of the market for women artists, all of whom sold above estimate. Sotheby’s also posted strong results for Paula Rego: her pastel on paper Snow White Playing with her Father’s Trophies sold within estimate for £900,000 (about $1.15 million), while Jenny Saville’s charcoal study exceeded its high estimate, selling for £533,000 (around $675,000).
Among other notable six-figure results, a monumental El Anatsui sold just shy of its high estimate at £1,999,000 (about $2.53 million). Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (The Arm) from 1982—a pivotal year in the artist’s rise—landed squarely within estimate at £5,530,000 (approximately $7 million). Andy Warhol’s Four Pink Marilyn (Reversal) followed, selling within estimate for £4,326,000 (about $5.5 million).
The masters also held firm. Both of Auguste Rodin’s monumental sculptures from his seminal series The Burghers of Calais sold within estimate to a collector in the room: Jean de Fiennes, vêtu, Grand Modèle achieved £762,000 ($1 million), while Pierre de Wiessant, vita, Grand Modèle, vêtu sold for £889,000 ($1.2 million).
The market for Lucio Fontana also showed signs of recovery—at least for major works. His rare blue 14-slashed Concetto spaziale, Attese sold just above estimate at £2.8 million (about $3.7 million) following a fierce bidding war among four potential buyers. The deep blue of the canvas was inspired by Yves Klein’s IKB pigment—but Klein’s own Untitled Fire Colour Painting (FC 28), which appeared one lot earlier, surprisingly went unsold after failing to meet its £1.8-2 million estimate ($2.3-2.5 million), despite both an irrevocable bid and a guarantee.
Other unsold works of the night included paintings by Frank Auerbach and Daniel Richter. Still, Sotheby’s achieved a healthy 89 percent sell-through rate by lot.
On October 17, Sotheby’s also staged a single-owner sale of 17 iPad drawings by David Hockney from his celebrated series The Arrival of Spring. The results were remarkable: the group doubled its high estimate to reach £6.2 million ($8.3 million), achieving a white-glove sale and setting a new auction record for the artist. With this result, Sotheby’s London has now brought in £240 million (approximately $304 million) since March. Notably, American buyers accounted for 40 percent of the purchasers in the Hockney sale, underscoring the continued global demand for blue-chip British artists.
A £2,374,000 Basquiat tops Phillips’ London Evening Sale
On October 16 at 5 p.m., Phillips hosted its London Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale, achieving a total of £10,332,200 ($13,884,410) across 22 lots. The auction was more modest—and less successful—than the others, posting a 32 percent drop compared to last year after four lots failed to sell and four others were withdrawn before the start. The evening was led by a new auction record for Emma McIntyre: Seven types of ambiguity (2021) sold for £167,700 ($225,355) from a modest £50,000-70,000 estimate, edging past her previous record of $201,600 set in May 2025 at Phillips Hong Kong. The second-highest lot of the night was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (Pestus) (1982), which comfortably met its pre-sale estimate at £2,374,000 ($3,190,181).
An energetic moment from Phillips’s London Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale. Courtesy Phillips
Once again, contemporary women artists confirmed their momentum at Phillips, reaching a high point after Emma McIntyre’s record-setting result when Flora Yukhnovich’s My Body knows Un-Heard of Songs (2017) fetched £1,276,000 ($1,714,689) against a £900,000-1,500,000 estimate.
Opening the sale was a purple-and-pink abstraction by Martha Jungwirth—now a familiar presence across Thaddaeus Ropac’s fair booths—which exceeded expectations at £180,600. A few lots later, an early work by Sasha Gordon sold just shy of its high estimate at £116,100. Demand for Gordon has been reignited by her blockbuster solo debut at Zwirner in New York, which made her the youngest artist represented by the mega-gallery. Painted in 2019 during her studies, Drive Through marks a transitional moment in her shift toward the more discursive, cartoon-inflected style that catapulted her into the global spotlight.
Later in the sale, Noah Davis’s Mitrice Richardson (2012) found a buyer within estimate at £451,500 ($606,726), while Derek Fordjour’s Regatta Pattern Study (2020) fetched £528,900 ($710,736), surpassing its high estimate of £500,000. Other notable results included Sean Scully’s Wall of Light Summer Night 5.10 (2010), which achieved £967,500 ($1,300,127) against a £600,000-800,000 estimate, and Robert Rauschenberg’s Gospel Yodel (Salvage Series), which sold for £709,500 ($953,426), more than doubling its £350,000-550,000 estimate. A 2012 sculpture by Bernar Venet fetched £516,000 ($693,401) from a £250,000-350,000 estimate, reflecting the artist’s rising demand—particularly in Asia.
Not everything landed. A Warhol-inspired Banksy portrait of Kate Moss, estimated at £700,000-1,000,000, failed to find a buyer, while a cacophonic abstract work by Sigmar Polke from 1983-84 also went unsold, likely due to its overly ambitious £600,000-800,000 estimate relative to current market demand for the artist.
For Olivia Thornton, Phillips’s head of modern and contemporary art, Europe, the overall positive auction reflected “the vibrancy of contemporary collecting” and reaffirmed London’s enduring magnetism: “London remains the cultural crossroads of the global art market.”
President Trump demurred Friday on whether he’ll send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, and he clearly hasn’t made up his mind. But the missile threat seems to have captured
Vladimir Putin’s attention, and the U.S. interest in driving a durable peace in Ukraine far outweighs the risks of handing over the missiles.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over without thinking about Tomahawks,” Mr. Trump said during a meeting at the White House with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine’s supporters had hoped for Mr. Trump’s approval to obtain the missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000 miles. But another call with Mr. Putin this week appears to have stayed that decision.
Mr. Trump’s reluctance seems to involve two concerns, and the first is escalation with a nuclear power. But Mr. Putin has been lobbing cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine for years, and there’s nothing escalatory about return fire. Tomahawks could be a force for peace by altering Mr. Putin’s capacity to carry on his grinding war.
The long-range missiles would let Ukraine do better than simply swatting down hundreds of incoming drones. Instead it could take out Russia’s Shahed drone factory. Mr. Putin has tried to use nuclear blackmail for three years to talk the U.S. out of donating this or that weapon. The empirical record is that it’s bluster.
Prince Andrew agreed to stop using the title “Duke of York” and has been banned from attending British royal family Christmas gatherings, as Buckingham Palace continues to try to distance itself from the royal over his past friendship with convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The demotion comes after pressure from King Charles III to put further space between the royal family and his younger brother as British media headlines continue to be dominated by tales of Andrew’s alleged abuse of one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre. Andrew denies he abused Giuffre, who
died by suicide this year, and had previously settled a claim with her out of court without admitting guilt.
President Trump said he hoped Ukraine wouldn’t need the U.S. to provide it with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday.
“We’re going to be talking about Tomahawks, and would much rather have them not need Tomahawks,” said Trump. “Would much rather have the war be over, to be honest.”
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission has suggested Ukraine use part of an envisaged 140 billion euro ($163 billion) reparations loan funded from frozen Russian assets to buy weapons outside the EU, a commission paper sent to member states showed.
The paper, seen by Reuters on Friday, outlines the possible design of the plan floated by the European Union’s executive body last month.
The proposal would split the loan in two parts, with the biggest leg meant for the development of Ukraine’s defence industry and the procurement of defence material in Ukraine and the 27-nation EU.
The second leg would consist of budget support, which would allow Ukraine to also buy weapons elsewhere to help in its grinding battle against Russia’s full-scale invasion and intensifying missile and drone strikes.
The budget support would also help Kyiv provide financial assurances needed to obtain further assistance from the International Monetary Fund, the document stated.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday he would call at the upcoming EU summit for the bloc to use Russian assets frozen in the West for Ukraine’s war effort.
While there is political support for the idea in principle, some countries want more clarity on the legal and fiscal risks.
The Kremlin has described the proposal as an illegal seizure of Russian property and cautioned there would be retaliation for any theft of Russian assets.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Andrew Gray; editing by Mark Heinrich)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The head of the World Trade Organization said she is urging the U.S. and China to de-escalate trade tensions, warning that a decoupling by the world’s two largest economies could reduce global economic output by 7% over the longer term.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters in an interview the global trade body was extremely concerned about the latest spike in U.S.-China trade tensions and had spoken with officials from both countries to encourage more dialogue.
“We’re obviously worried at any escalation of U.S.-China tensions,” she said, noting the two sides had backed away from their first tariff escalation earlier this year, averting more serious consequences and she hoped that would happen again.
“Similarly, we are really hoping that the two sides will come together and they will de-escalate, because any U.S.-China tensions and U.S.-China decoupling (would) have implications not just for the two biggest economies in the world, but also for the rest of the world,” she said.
Both sides, Okonjo-Iweala said, understand the importance of good relations, given the implications for the global economy and other countries.
Any kind of decoupling that divides the world into two trading blocs would result in “significant global GDP losses in the longer term – up to 7% global GDP losses and double-digit welfare losses for developing countries,” she said.
ESCALATING TENSIONS REMAIN ‘SERIOUS RISK’
The WTO last week sharply lowered its 2026 forecast for global merchandise trade volume growth to 0.5% from its previous estimate of 1.8% growth in August, citing expected delayed impacts from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. It raised its forecast for global goods trade growth to 2.4% for 2025.
Those forecasts were issued before the relative calm of recent months was shattered last week when China imposed new export controls on rare earth metals needed for the technology sector, and Trump responded by imposing new 100% duties on Chinese imports starting next month.
Okonjo-Iweala said she told officials from the Group of 20 major economies on Wednesday evening that there could be no global financial stability without global trade stability.
“Pressures on the system have not eased and may intensify,” she told the group. “The full effects of recent tariffs are still to be felt. Trade diversion is fueling protectionist sentiment elsewhere. And escalating tensions between the United States and China remain a serious risk.”
Okonjo-Iweala said most WTO members had refrained from joining in the tariff war, and 72% of global trade was still following WTO rules despite a series of bilateral trade deals signed by the U.S. with other countries.
The rules-based multilateral system was proving resilient despite the most severe policy shock in eight decades, she said.
But Okonjo-Iweala said organizations like the WTO should use the current multilateralism crisis to undertake long-sought reforms and make the global trade body more flexible and efficient, and able to take advantage of new trade opportunities in digital trade, services and green trade.
“There’s absolutely no doubt that there are global problems that cannot be solved by any one country alone, and you will need global cooperation to do it, and that’s where multilateralism will still be very, very relevant,” she said. “But to make sure that the organizations are really appreciated, we have to reform, and at the WTO, we are ready to work on this.”
Okonjo-Iweala said she had a good meeting on Wednesday with Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Joseph Barloon, who was confirmed last week as the U.S. ambassador to the WTO.
She said she was very appreciative that the U.S. had removed the WTO from its list of planned spending cuts to international organizations, and efforts were underway to settle U.S. arrears to the trade body.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Paul Simao)
(Reuters) -Two migrants died after their boat collided with a rocky shoreline on the Greek island of Chios late on Thursday, Greece’s coast guard said on Friday.
Fire service crews initially rescued five people from the site, including two who were unconscious, the coast guard said. Subsequent searches on land located 24 more migrants in the surrounding area.
Authorities said 12 people were taken by ambulance to Chios General Hospital, where two unconscious women were pronounced dead. The remaining 17 people were transferred to the Chios Reception and Identification Center.
Greece was on the front line of a migration crisis in 2015 and 2016, when more than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa crossed into Europe.
Since then, migrant flows have ebbed. Greece has recently toughened its migration rules, following a resurgence of arrivals from Libya via the islands of Crete and Gavdos.
(Reporting by Antonis Pothitos; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus.)
ROME (Reuters) -A bomb exploded outside the home of one of Italy’s top investigative journalists late on Thursday, damaging two cars and a nearby house, prompting messages of solidarity for the reporter from colleagues and politicians.
Sigfrido Ranucci, who hosts RAI’s weekly “Report”, Italy’s best-known investigative journalism programme, has been for years under police protection. He said both he and his newsroom had received many threats of various kinds, including bullets.
The rudimentary device, likely made from firework explosives, was planted outside the front gate of Ranucci’s house in Campo Ascolano, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Rome, the journalist told RAI state broadcaster on Friday.
He added that the explosion happened about 20 minutes after he had returned home.
Both cars – belonging to Ranucci and his daughter – were practically destroyed. Nobody was injured, with Ranucci saying “apart from the shock, all is OK”.
The reporter said he could not say whether the bomb was linked to his work. ANSA news agency said anti-Mafia prosecutors had opened an investigation for criminal damage with aggravating circumstances of mafia-style methods.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the “serious act of intimidation”, adding that “freedom and independence of information are essential values of our democracies, which we will continue to defend”.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Ranucci’s police escort would be stepped up.
“Report” has often clashed with the government, resulting in several members of Meloni’s rightist coalition – including Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso, her Brothers of Italy party and her head of cabinet Gaetano Caputi – suing the programme.
(Reporting by Giulia Segreti and Alvise Armellini; Editing by Alex Richardson)
CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukrainian cook Natalia Meshok leaves home at 2 a.m. for the nursery where she works, using night-time hours when power supply is more or less stable to prepare food for dozens of children.
Meshok, 59, lives and works in the northern city of Chernihiv, which has been hammered by repeated Russian drone and missile attacks on its power infrastructure in recent weeks, causing regular blackouts and disrupting daily life.
“Completely empty and dark. It’s a bit scary, but you realise you have to go because there are children here,” she said, standing in a dark kitchen where pots of food rested on the stove ready to be served when the kindergarten opened.
Chernihiv was one of the first cities to feel the brunt of intensifying Russian strikes on electricity and gas facilities across Ukraine, including in the capital Kyiv where hundreds of thousands of households lost power after an Oct. 10 attack.
RUSSIA TAKES AIM AT POWER SECTOR, HEATING
Officials say the frequency and accuracy of such attacks have increased during the last two months, leading some to predict a particularly hard 2025/26 winter as the war approaches its fourth anniversary.
“We are preparing for various scenarios, including the worst-case ones,” energy minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said just before the Oct. 10 attack.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia launched 3,100 drones and 92 missiles at Ukraine in just one week starting on Oct. 6.
Russia denies targeting civilians, saying that its objective is to degrade Ukraine’s military capabilities.
Meshok was glad the electricity lasted longer than the usual couple of hours that night, meaning that she and her fellow cooks managed to prepare lunch for the children – aged from 2 years and up – as well as breakfast.
“Do you know why children are in the nursery? Because their parents are working. No one has cancelled that. They need to go to work,” said Yevheniia Savchenko, director of the nursery, a municipal facility.
It had been raining in Chernihiv for almost a week when Reuters visited in early October, and the temperature in the nursery was 14 degrees Celsius (57 F). The basement, which doubles as an air raid shelter, was slightly warmer.
Savchenko said she did not know when the heating would be turned on.
In peacetime, Ukraine provided heating to state facilities in time for the so-called “heating season” that starts in mid-October when temperatures typically begin to drop.
MANY CHILDREN KEPT AT HOME FOR WARMTH
Frequent air raid sirens mean the children at Chernihiv’s kindergarten No. 72 spend much of their days in the basement, playing, singing and eating.
At one point the brightly lit space was plunged into darkness, prompting excited shouts from some of the toddlers, before a generator kicked in and the lights came back on to cheers. The generator can provide light, but not heating.
Savchenko said only about 65 children were attending the kindergarten out of a total of 170 registered there.
“As long as there is no lighting and no heat, they (some parents) try to keep the child at home, because there they can heat the room a little with gas,” she said.
HITS TO POWER GENERATION, ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION, GAS
Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy system throughout the war, and this autumn it has hit both power generation and electricity transmission systems, as well as gas production facilities.
Earlier this month, Russian forces struck Ukraine’s main gas fields, and the energy minister, Hrynchuk, said “significant” damage could force Kyiv to increase its gas imports by a third.
Ukraine, which says it does not attack civilian infrastructure, has in turn stepped up attacks on Russian oil refineries, causing a drop in oil processing and creating fuel shortages in many regions.
During the heating season, Ukraine uses gas mainly for the centralised urban heating system that is left over from Soviet times, without which millions would be living in cold homes as temperatures outside frequently drop below freezing.
If that system is unable to function fully, the electricity supply will not be able to compensate.
Some politicians are urging city dwellers to find winter accommodation in villages where they can use direct natural gas supplies to households or wood for heating.
There have been such warnings in previous years. But this year the energy minister announced for the first time since the war began in February 2022 that the government is prepared to restrict gas supplies to the population if needed, not just electricity.
“They want to break us, but just as Ukraine is not broken, neither are Ukrainians,” Meshok said of the Russians.
“We will endure … and we will prevail, without fail. Faith in the future is essential. Because if there is no faith in the future, then what is the point of our endeavours?”
(Reporting by Pavel PolityukEditing by Mike Collett-White and Frances Kerry)
OROSZLÁNY, Hungary—Jabbing his finger at a life-size cardboard cutout of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Péter Magyar wooed the voters of this coal-mining town with a feisty speech about corruption and economic decline.
Magyar, Orbán’s main rival in next year’s pivotal election, mocked him as a mafia boss, a Turkish sultan and Ali Baba with 40 thieves. He concluded with the Russian phrase “Tovarishchi, konetz”—or comrades, it’s over—the motto of the 1990 democratic election that ousted Hungary’s Soviet-installed regime.
The United Kingdom has arrested an individual believed to have ties to a GBP 8 million sports betting scheme. While the man remained unnamed, officials noted that he might have participated in fraud related to the matter.
The Man Was Released on Bail
The man in question was described as a 37-year-old man, whose name remained undisclosed for legal reasons. The London Metropolitan Police officials explained that the arrestee is believed to be connected with Rory Campbell’s failed betting fund.
Officials elaborated that the man in question was arrested on suspicion of fraud by false representation.
London’s Metropolitan Police added that the man was eventually bailed pending further inquiries.
Campbell’s Scheme Sought to Multiply Investors’ Money by Making Lucrative Bets
As mentioned, the man is believed to have had ties to the sports betting syndicate of Rory Campbell, the son of Alastair Campbell, a Tory Blair-era spin doctor. Rory Campbell swayed investors with promises of a robust mathematical model that could give him an edge over other bettors, allowing him to place lucrative bets.
The scheme attracter many veteran investors, some of whom were no betting slouches either. Campbell senior also backed his son’s initiative. In total, roughly 50 people invested between GBP 10,000 and GBP 500K in the scheme. Overall, Campbell’s syndicate managed to collect GBP 8 million.
In 2023, however, investors encountered difficulties withdrawing their money even though the fund insisted that they had made an average return of investment of 8% a year. Campbell reassured investors that everything was okay and that they could receive their funds in full by the end of July 2024. However, Campbell later changed that, telling them to expect a return of roughly 50-65%.
In December 2024, Campbell claimed that the scheme had collapsed as sportsbooks in Asia had refused to pay out his winnings. Shortly after that, investors reached out to the police. One civil case against the scheme’s mastermind sought to retrieve the GBP 266K plaintiffs had invested, although reports say that it only managed to retrieve a fraction of that money.
