CNN – Europe/Mideast/Africa

By Zahra Ullah and Anna Chernova, CNN Russia’s ruling party is on track to secure a majority in parliamentary elections amid allegations of voter fraud and interference. Voting concluded late Sunday in Russia, after people across the country cast votes for members of the State Duma — the lower house of the Russian Parliament —

By Vasco Cotovio, Martin Goillandeau and Jeevan Ravindran, CNN The Cumbre Vieja volcano in La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, erupted Sunday, after several earthquakes were felt over the weekend. The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute (Involcan) tweeted news of the eruption at 3:24 p.m. local time (10:24 a.m. ET) and urged members of the

By Jeevan Ravindran, CNN Crowds lining the banks of the Seine and visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris this weekend were treated to an unusual sight — a slackliner charting an unusual path across the skies above their heads. Frenchman Nathan Paulin walked the 600-meter slackline from the Eiffel Tower to the Chaillot Theater on

By Jeevan Ravindran, CNN The Netherlands has long been the world’s tallest nation — but its people are getting shorter, according to Dutch researchers. Although height has increased over the last 100 years, the study showed Dutch men born in 2001 were 1 centimeter (.39 inches) shorter than their 1980 counterparts. For women, the difference

By Rob Picheta, CNN Much of Europe has opened up to international visitors and scaled back Covid-19 restrictions since a wave of cases swept the continent in the spring. Those steps back toward pre-Covid life have been accompanied by a gradual rise in cases and hospitalizations in many nations, with the more transmissible Delta variant

By Ben Westcott, CNN Growing up as a teenager in Afghanistan, Rabia Balkhi felt lucky. Despite being born in a country with a long history of discrimination against its LGBTQ people, Balkhi’s family accepted her as a lesbian. Now Balkhi says that rare acceptance has put all their lives at risk, as the new Taliban

By Becky Anderson, Zeena Saifi and Mostafa Salem, CNN New Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged Lebanon’s people to put their trust in his government as he seeks “quick fixes” to help his economically shattered country. In his first interview with an international media outlet since forming a government a week ago, Mikati acknowledged that some

By Zahra Ullah and Anna Chernova, CNN Millions of Russians are expected to head to the polls over a three-day period starting Friday in elections taking place against the backdrop of an unprecedented assault on democracy over the past year. Voters will choose members of the State Duma — the lower house of the Russian

By Sarah Dean and Nicolo Ruotolo, CNN The Italian government has approved a decree making it mandatory for all public and private sector workers to show proof of vaccination, a negative test or recent recovery from infection, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza told a news conference on Thursday. The rule was decided at a cabinet

By Katharina Krebs and Majlie de Puy Kamp, CNN Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag announced her resignation on Thursday after a majority of the Dutch parliament said she had mishandled the Afghanistan evacuation crisis, a press officer from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN. Tens of thousands of foreigners and Afghans who were

By Zahra Ullah, Ivana Kottasová and Anna Chernova, CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday morning that “not just one or two but several dozen people” from his inner circle had contracted coronavirus. Putin told a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, via video link that

By Katie Hunt, CNN In popular culture, cave men (and women) are often draped in furs, but archaeological evidence of what our Stone Age ancestors actually wore and how they made clothes is thin. Fur, leather and other organic materials generally aren’t preserved, especially beyond 100,000 years ago. However, researchers say 62 bone tools used

By Nadine Schmidt and Rosa Steindorff, CNN German officials on Thursday said a possible Islamist terror attack on a synagogue in the western city of Hagen was averted after authorities were tipped off. “We received a very specific and serious tipoff that an attack on the synagogue could take place during the Yom Kippur festival.

By Joseph Ataman and Saskya Vandoorne, CNN French forces have killed Adnan Abou Walid al Sahraoui, leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISIS-GS), in a drone strike, the French government announced on Thursday. Al Sahroui succumbed to his wounds, suffered in a strike on a motorbike carrying two people during a French-led