World News

Three years after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan the ruling Islamic extremist Taliban have passed an expansive new morality law that severely restricts Afghan freedoms, and targets women especially harshly.

Central and Eastern Europe’s death toll climbed to at least 14 on Monday as Storm Boris, accompanied by heavy rainfall and related flooding, ravaged the region. Romania and Poland were among the heaviest-hit nations.

Russia and Ukraine say they have exchanged 206 prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. The weekend exchange was welcomed by Ukraine’s embattled president, whose forces have struggled to halt the ongoing Russian invasion of his nation.

Dozens of people, including Americans, faced a tense Sunday after a military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) handed down death sentences to them over an alleged coup attempt.

Hungary braced on Sunday for the Danube River, Europe’s main waterway, to reach record levels as massive rainfall caused deadly flooding across Central and Eastern Europe, damaging homes and leaving many without power.

Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration demands two permanent seats for African nations in the United Nations Security Council and an elected seat for a small-island developing nation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the West and members of the NATO military alliance that they will be “at war with Russia” if Ukraine is given the green light to use long-range missiles on targets inside his country.

Switzerland will likely implement a digital identity document (ID) by 2026 after both chambers of parliament approved the necessary steps despite voters rejecting a previous law enabling the scheme.

The United States Defense Department has ordered the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier to return home after it spent several weeks in the Middle East in case Israel needed to be defended from threatened attacks by Iran and its proxies, and to protect US troops, the Associated Press reports. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier will remain in the area.

Russia has come under a wave of suspected Ukrainian drones, including its capital, Moscow, killing one woman, injuring six other people, and forcing the temporary closure of three of the capital’s airports, officials said.

Apple weighed its options Wednesday after Europe’s top court took a large bite of its money by demanding 13 billion euros ($14.4 billion) in back taxes from the U.S. tech giant.

Mario Draghi has warned that the European Union needs a roughly 800 billion euros ($883 billion) annual spending boost combined with rapid decisions and coordinated industrial policies if it wants to keep pace economically with rivals the United States and China.

Many in Vietnam were grieving Tuesday after a busy bridge in the north collapsed as it was being hit by Super Typhoon Yagi, which has killed more than 60 people since making landfall on Saturday.

Rescue workers searched for people beneath rubble, but hope was fastly evaporating in areas of Morocco and Algeria where floods from record torrential rains killed more than 20 people, officials said.

Germany’s government announced it would reintroduce tighter passport controls at all of its land borders shortly after Hungary threatened to send buses with “illegal migrants” to Brussels.