Europe

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders said Thursday that he is ready to join the next Dutch coalition government after he surged to a huge election victory that marked a stunning lurch to the far right for a nation once famed as a beacon of tolerance.

The result is sending shockwaves through Europe, where extremist nationalist ideology is putting pressure on democracies that now face the possibility of having to deal with the first far-right prime minister of the Netherlands.

ROME (AP) — Venice authorities on Thursday unveiled a pilot program to charge day-trippers 5 euros ($5.45) apiece to enter the fragile lagoon city on peak weekends next year in an effort to reduce crowds, encourage longer visits and improve the quality of life for residents.

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/: Moscow offers up a new gameplan for the Middle East; the US and Germany revisit military assistance to Ukraine; and North Korea's neighbors are perturbed by its latest rocket launch. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/: The Federation Council approved the law on the federal budget for 2024 and the planning period 2025-2026 at a plenary meeting on Wednesday,

The decision was made unanimously, 154 senators voted to approve the law.

MOSCOW, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The Kremlin declined on Wednesday to comment on a suggestion by White House spokesman John Kirby that Iran may be considering providing Russia with ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.

"We are developing relations with Iran, including in the field of military-technical cooperation, but we do not comment on this information," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a regular news briefing.

Kirby said the United States would monitor the situation between Iran and Russia, and take appropriate action as needed.

Nov 22 (Reuters) - Russia has deployed a new Yars intercontinental ballistic missile at the Kozelsk base in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, the RIA news agency cited the defence ministry as saying on Wednesday.

Russia has described the Yars missile, developed in the 2000s and capable of carrying multiple thermonuclear warheads, as one of its newer weapons capable of piercing the missile shield used by the United States and its allies.

PAVLOHRAD, Ukraine, Nov 22 (Reuters) - After more than a thousand of its workers went to fight Russia's invasion, a coal mining enterprise in eastern Ukraine suffered a huge staff shortage. Its answer was to allow women to work underground for the first time in its history.

Over a hundred took up the offer.

"I took this job because the war started and there were no other jobs," 22-year-old Krystyna said candidly.

LISBON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Hundreds of police raided farms in Portugal's southern Alentejo region on Tuesday, arresting 28 people suspected of human trafficking and labour exploitation, police said.

The suspects are believed to be part of a crime ring that exploited migrants from countries including Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, India, Senegal and Pakistan after luring them to Portugal with a promise of a job as farmhands.

Police said they had carried out a total of 78 searches, which resulted in the seizure of evidence and the "identification of dozens of victims".

VATICAN CITY, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Wednesday met separately with Israeli relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians with family in Gaza and said the conflict had gone beyond war to become "terrorism".

Speaking in unscripted remarks at his general audience in St. Peter's Square shortly after the meetings in his residence, Francis said he heard directly how "both sides are suffering" in the conflict.

"This is what wars do. But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism," he said.

AMSTERDAM, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Dutch voters cast their ballots on Wednesday in a nail-biting election in which opinion polls show at least three parties - including the far right - could hope for the top spot.

A weighted poll published on the eve of the vote showed anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) tied for the lead with the conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte.