Europe

LONDON—The euro fell towards a two-month low on Oct. 19, after the European Union criticized Italy’s spending plans, raising fresh concern over conflict within the common currency zone. Political wrangling over the budget in heavily indebted Italy has seen the euro weaken over 1 percent versus the dollar this week. In the first step of […]

MOSCOW—While Crimean authorities searched for clues that might help explain why a teenager gunned down 20 people at his vocational school before killing himself, the stunned city of Kerch prepared to say farewell to the victims. Thousands of residents were expected to attend the funerals of most of the victims on Oct. 19. The burials […]

The International City of Gastronomy hosted in Lyon is meant to display the role gastronomy plays in the world, with a focus on food and health.

BRUSSELS—Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte defended the country’s “beautiful” 2019 budget, brushing off criticism from Brussels as European authorities stepped up pressure for changes to a draft that breaches the bloc’s fiscal rules on Oct. 18. Conte also denied a rift over the fiscal plan within his governing coalition, after reports of a spat over […]

BRUSSELS—The head of the European Parliament said EU countries who refuse to host refugees could instead pay more for EU migration and development projects in Africa, signaling a possible compromise to end a bruising dispute in the bloc. The migration feud has divided southern and eastern EU states, as well as rich destination countries such […]

BERLIN—Volkswagen said on Oct. 18, it will offer trade-in incentives and a bonus for scrapping older diesel vehicles in Germany, in a move to stave off driving bans in polluted cities. VW will offer an incentive for customers who agree to scrap diesel vehicles equipped with older euro 1 to euro 4 engines, the carmaker […]

MOSCOW—Authorities on the Crimean Peninsula were searching for a possible accomplice of the student who carried out a shooting and bomb attack on a vocational school, killing 20 people and wounding more than 50 others, an official said on Oct. 18. An 18-year-old student, who later killed himself, was initially believed to be the only […]

Russians laid flowers and lit candles at a college in the Black Sea region of Crimea where at least 19 people were killed and dozens injured on Oct. 18 in a shooting attack. Eighteen-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov turned up at the college in the city of Kerch in the afternoon of Oct. 18 carrying a firearm and […]

The Hungarian government has carried out its plans to ban gender studies courses at universities, according to local reports. Only two universities currently teach gender studies in Hungary, one of which was founded by George Soros—a billionaire financier of leftist causes and the arch-foe of Prime Minister Victor Orban’s highly conservative nationalist administration. Orban’s government […]

ROME—Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Oct. 16 he was proud of his government’s freshly approved expansionary budget while the European Commission warned it may run into opposition from eurozone partners. Italy’s governing coalition of the right-wing League party and anti-establishment 5-Star Movement vow not to backtrack, saying their big-spending plan is needed to […]

MOSCOW—At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured at a college in the Black Sea region of Crimea on Oct. 17, when a student went through the building shooting at fellow pupils before killing himself, Russian law enforcement officials said. Vladislav Roslyakov, 18, turned up at the college in the city of Kerch on […]

SOFIA—Germany has extradited the suspect in the killing of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova to Bulgaria, an Interior Ministry official said on Oct. 17. Bulgarian Severin Krasimirov, is to be charged in person with the rape and murder of 30-year-old Marinova, whose body was found in a park in her Danube hometown of Ruse in […]

Police in the Netherlands have posted a video showing the entrance to a cannabis grow room they discovered beneath a toilet bowl in a Rotterdam bathroom. The footage was posted on Oct. 17, and the bust took place last year. In the footage, police highlighted the inventiveness of some drug traffickers. “That criminals are sometimes […]

BRUSSELS—Separatists in Belgium have become embroiled in an extraordinary diplomatic row with Spain over vocal support of a top separatist Flemish politician for Catalan separatists. Political leaders in Flanders, a Flemish-speaking region of Belgium, accused Madrid of a “very hostile act” after Spanish officials decided to expel the Flemish representative in Madrid in retaliation for […]

FOURNI, Greece—Archaeologists have discovered at least 58 shipwrecks, many laden with antiquities, at an underwater ship graveyard in Greece, in what they say may be the largest concentration of ancient shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea and possibly the Mediterranean to date. The wrecks are in the small island archipelago of Fournoi, in the eastern Aegean, […]

WARSAW—So-called golden passport schemes have put Europe’s security at risk by letting states sell citizenship or residency to potentially dangerous individuals, the EU justice commissioner has warned. The programs, known formally as citizenship or residency by investment (CBI/RBI), are “problematic” because while they may let countries attract legitimate foreign investors, their poor design allows potential […]

A mass shooting on Oct. 17 at a college in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 from Ukraine, left 18 dead and dozens of others wounded. Russia’s top investigative body, the Investigative Committee, said that the suspect was identified as Vladislav Roslyakov, an 18-year-old fourth-year student at the vocational college in Kerch. They said he arrived […]

European Union leaders will give British Prime Minister Theresa May a tough reception in Brussels on Wednesday, Oct. 17, warning her to rally support at home for the Brexit deal on offer or be cut loose without one in March. May will address the other 27 EU national leaders at a summit before they dine […]

Khabib Nurmagomedov said he believes the UFC staged Conor McGregor’s attack on his bus that eventually led to the two mixed martial arts fighters facing off in a Las Vegas arena on Oct. 6. McGregor and several associates attacked a bus carrying UFC fighters back in April, an incident that landed him in court in New […]

Update: Ryanair released a video on Oct. 17, below, that shows Ryanair flight crew  members staging the image of them ‘sleeping’ on the floor of Malaga airport. The image had been used to imply that flight crews slept on the floor after they were stranded during a storm.  Images of exhausted flyers enduring sleep on […]