CNN – Europe/Mideast/Africa

By Muhammad Darwish, Katharina Krebs and Tara John, CNN A former Wagner mercenary says the brutality he witnessed in Ukraine ultimately pushed him to defect, in an exclusive CNN interview on Monday. Wagner fighters were often sent into battle with little direction, and the company’s treatment of reluctant recruits was ruthless, Andrei Medvedev told CNN’s

By Tim Lister, Frederik Pleitgen and Konstantin Hak, CNN The pine forests near the city of Kreminna have become one of the hottest combat zones in the war in eastern Ukraine. Almost every weapon seems to be at work here, artillery, howitzers, tanks and mortars. But perhaps the most important is the smallest: The reconnaissance

By Artemis Moshtaghian and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN US officials believe drone attacks at a military plant in Iran‘s central city of Isfahan were carried out by Israel, according to US media reports. Tehran said on Sunday that drones had attacked the plant in Isfahan late the previous evening, calling the operation “unsuccessful.” The Wall Street

By Nimi Princewill and Alex Stambaugh, CNN Eight people were killed and three wounded after two gunmen entered a home and opened fire on a group of people celebrating a birthday at a home in South Africa on Sunday evening, according to the South African police service (SAPS). The shooting happened in the southern port

By Angus Watson, CNN Israel will “take steps to strengthen settlement” in response to shooting attacks in Jerusalem Friday and Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said. A six-point list to “fight terrorism and exact a price from terrorists and those who support them” was posted to Netanyahu’s Facebook page overnight Saturday after a meeting

By Fred Pleitgen, Tim Lister and Matthias Somm, CNN Dug in amid the rolling hills west of Bakhmut, the tanks of the Ukrainian army’s 28th Mechanized Brigade are helping to hold the line against a growing Russian offensive. They are battered and bruised by nearly a year of combat, but despite their age they are

By Uliana Pavlova, CNN Olesya Krivtsova sports an anti-Putin tattoo on one ankle and a bracelet that tracks her every move on the other. The 19-year-old from Russia’s Arkhangelsk region must wear the device while she is under house arrest after she was charged over social media posts that authorities say discredit the Russian army

By Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN A massive fire broke out at an oil refinery in northwestern Iran on Saturday, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported. The refinery is near the city of Tabriz in East Azerbaijan Province. “The firefighting is still going on and the size and intensity of the fire made it difficult to extinguish,”

By Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN At least three people were killed and more than 800 injured when a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck Iran on Saturday night local time, according to Iranian news agencies. Iran’s state news agency IRNA said the earthquake hit the city of Khoy, West Azerbaijan province, in northwest Iran, around 9:44 p.m. local

By Artemis Moshtaghian and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN Drones attacked a military plant in Iran‘s central city of Isfahan, Tehran said on Sunday. “An explosion has occurred in one of the military centers affiliated to the Ministry of Defense,” the deputy head of security for Isfahan governorate Mohammad Reza Jan-Nesari told the semi-official Fars News Agency.

By Richard Allen Greene, Hadas Gold, Amir Tal and Tara John, CNN Two people were wounded in a shooting attack in Jerusalem on Saturday, emergency services say, the day after a gunman killed at least seven people near a synagogue in the city. The two men injured in the City of David area of Jerusalem

By Sahar Akbarzai, CNN A British serviceman has been charged with terrorism and explosives offenses, the London Metropolitan Police said Friday. Daniel Abed Khalife, 21, from Beaconside, Stafford, was charged after an investigation by the Met’s Terrorism Command, concerning two incidents in Staffordshire in August 2021 and earlier this month, police said. Khalife was charged

By Nadine Schmidt, Sophie Tanno and Claudia Otto, CNN The biggest moment in the Ukraine war this week took place hundreds of miles from the battlefield. After days of diplomatic pressure from its increasingly exasperated NATO allies, Germany announced Wednesday that it would send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, a potentially pivotal move in the

By Richard Allen Greene, Hadas Gold, Amir Tal and Tara John, CNN Israeli police say at least seven people were killed and three were injured in a shooting near a synagogue in Jerusalem on Friday amid high tensions in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Two people were wounded in a separate shooting attack on Saturday

By Nadine Schmidt The German parliament for the first time on Friday focused its annual Holocaust memorial commemorations on people persecuted and killed over their sexual or gender identity during World War II. Campaigners in Germany have worked for decades to establish an official ceremony to commemorate the LGBTQ victims persecuted under the Nazi regime.

By Mostafa Salem and Allegra Goodwin, CNN A gunman entered Azerbaijan’s embassy in the Iranian capital and killed one person on Friday, the foreign ministries of Iran and Azerbaijan confirmed in separate statements, with both citing different motives for the deadly attack. Police and security forces arrested the assailant, who is now under investigation, according