Europe

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Nearly 36 million people in Europe may have had long-lasting health problems from coronavirus infections they got during the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization’s regional director said Tuesday.

Dr. Hans Kluge said “long COVID” remained “a complex condition (that) we still know very little about” and “a glaring blind spot in our knowledge.”

BERLIN (AP) — Russian forces carried out widespread and systematic torture of civilians who were detained in connection with its attack on Ukraine, summarily executing dozens of them, the United Nations human rights office said Tuesday.

The global body interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses for a report detailing more than 900 cases of civilians, including children and elderly people, being arbitrarily detained in the conflict, most of them by Russia.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is facing a cliffhanger vote next month that will test its global climate and environmental credentials, after its parliament was again deadlocked on pushing a nature restoration bill onwards on Tuesday.

The legislature’s environment committee emerged deadlocked at 44-44 on the plan to beef up the restoration of nature in the 27-nation bloc that was damaged during decades of industrial expansion. It means the full parliament will be asked to reject it.

BERLIN (AP) — Former Audi boss Rupert Stadler was convicted of fraud Tuesday in connection with the automaker’s diesel emissions scandal, making him the highest-ranking executive found guilty over cars that cheated on emissions tests with the help of illegal software.

A German court handed Stadler a suspended prison sentence of 21 months and ordered him to pay a fine of 1.1 million euros ($1.2 million), some of which will go to charitable groups. The sentence resulted from an agreement between his lawyers, the judge and prosecutors after he pleaded guilty last month.

27 June 2023; MEMO: An impact assessment of the UK government's Illegal Immigration Bill has found that the cost of sending one person to Rwanda could be almost £170,000 ($216,479).

Estimates have said that having one person in the asylum system costs £106,000 ($134,990), meaning it would cost around £64,000 ($81,503) more to fly someone out to Rwanda.

26 June 2023; MEMO: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Monday, discussed the aborted armed rebellion of the Wagner paramilitary group in separate phone talks with the Qatari Emir and Iranian President, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a statement on its website, the Kremlin said Qatari Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, supported the Russian leadership against the rebellion during the phone talk with Putin, and the two leaders confirmed mutual interest in strengthening bilateral cooperation.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany is willing to send around 4,000 troops to Lithuania on a permanent basis to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said during a visit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Monday.

“Germany is prepared to permanently station a robust brigade in Lithuania,” Pistorius said. He said infrastructure and facilities will need to be created to accommodate the soldiers and their families.

BERLIN (AP) — Switzerland’s main intelligence agency says Russia continues to have dozens of spies disguised as diplomats at its embassy in Bern and its mission to the United Nations in Geneva, making the Alpine nation a hotspot for Russian espionage activity in Europe.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The armed rebellion against the Russian military may have been over in less than 24 hours, but the disarray within the enemy’s ranks was an unexpected gift and timely morale booster for Ukrainian troops.

The spectacle of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny in the critical military command and control hub in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, and later Russia’s scramble to fortify Moscow as troops marched to upend the country’s military leadership was greeted “with applause” by commanders of Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, said its spokesperson, Serhii Cherevatiy.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The armed rebellion against the Russian military may have been over in less than 24 hours, but the disarray within the enemy’s ranks was an unexpected gift and timely morale booster for Ukrainian troops.

The spectacle of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny in the critical military command and control hub in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, and later Russia’s scramble to fortify Moscow as troops marched to upend the country’s military leadership was greeted “with applause” by commanders of Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, said its spokesperson, Serhii Cherevatiy.