Europe

BERLIN (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday aired deep differences over the war between Israel and Hamas as the Turkish leader made a brief and tensely anticipated visit to Berlin.

Erdogan was invited to visit Germany months ago after his reelection, but recent weeks have been marked by discomfort in Berlin over his increasingly strident stance against Israel.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — When Tymofii Postoiuk and his friends set up an online fundraising effort for Ukraine, donations poured in from around the globe, helping to purchase essential equipment for Ukrainian armed forces.

As the fighting with Russia wore on and war fatigue set in, the donations slowed down, but money continued to come in steadily. Then the Israel-Hamas war broke out on Oct. 7.

MOSCOW, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Russia had begun free shipments of grain totaling up to 200,000 tons to Africa by the end of the year, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said Friday.

"The first two ships, each carrying 25,000 tons (of grain), have already left Russian ports and are heading for Somalia and Burkina Faso," he said.

The ships are expected to arrive in the two African countries by the end of this month or early December, Patrushev said.

BERLIN (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set off for Germany Friday on a short visit overshadowed by the two countries’ very different stances on the war between Israel and Hamas.

Erdogan is due to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s largely ceremonial president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Berlin. Scholz invited Erdogan to visit in May following his re-election.

IBM has stopped advertising on social media platform X after a report said its ads were appearing alongside material praising Adolf Hitler and Nazis — a fresh setback as the site formerly known as Twitter tries to win back big brands and their ad dollars.

The U.S. tech company made the decision after a report Thursday by the liberal advocacy group Media Matters said ads from IBM, Apple, Oracle, NBCUniversal’s Bravo network and Comcast were placed next to antisemitic material on X.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s troops secured multiple bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson region in fighting that the country’s marine corps described Friday as having left nearly 3,500 Russians killed or wounded and dozens of ammunition depots, tanks, armored vehicles and other weaponry destroyed.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Many cities around the world see clean and efficient public transport as a crucial way to lower their carbon emissions. For cities with waterways, a high-tech ferry in Sweden could soon set a new standard.

Speeding through Stockholm’s archipelago, electric boat maker Candela’s new P-12 vessel barely makes a sound as it glides over a meter (3 feet) above the water. Its developers hope the ferry, which was unveiled this week, will yield a new era of waterborne public transport.

Tehran, IRNA - Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has termed the Palestinian resistance as a liberating and legitimate movement against the usurped Zionist regime.

Addressing a number of UN officials, humanitarian organizations, religious institutions, university professors, and some foreign ambassadors in Geneva on Wednesday, Amirabdollahian highlighted that “there is no logic and basis for the right to legitimate defense for the occupying regime".

London, Nov 17 (PTI) A teenager who died of stab injuries in a street fight in south-west London has been identified by the Metropolitan Police on Friday as Simarjeet Singh Nangpal, a British Sikh.

The Met Police said four men, aged 21, 27, 31, and 71, remain in custody after being arrested on suspicion of the murder, which occurred in the Hounslow area of London in the early hours of Wednesday.

16 November 2023; MEMO: Leader of populist opposition party, 5-Star Movement (M5S) and former Premier, Giuseppe Conte, called on Italy’s far-right government to stop arms supplies to Israel, criticising its “lack of courage” in dealing with the conflict in Gaza, Anadolu Agency reports.

"Immediately suspend arms supplies to Israel" Conte told Parliament on Wednesday, during question time on the crisis in the Middle East.