Europe

    In 2016, Mr Putin's official income was was reported at just $133,000 and he has repeatedly denied he is one of the world’s wealthiest men. But a joint investigation by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), has valued him at considerably more, although it suggested that his wealth may be tied up in a series of proxies. Some of the President’s inner ring have no obvious explanation for their hidden wealth, according to the report. These proxies wealth may be accounted for by the simplest explanation: It may really be Putin’s money. But in Russia, nothing is simple, the authors wrote. One alleged proxy is Mikhail Shelomov, a relative of Mr Putin, who works at a Russian shipping company for a job which would usually pay ...

    Spain is set impose direct rule in Catalonia on Friday, an unprecedented step that risks sparking unrest as secessionists call on the Catalan parliament to make a defiant declaration of independence. The upper house of the Spanish parliament the Senate and the Catalan parliament both meet at 10:00am (0800 GMT) to discuss the government’s application of Article 155 of the constitution, which allows the central administration to take over a region when it breaks the law. But there is great uncertainty over how this will work on the ground and whether Catalans will accept it. Some independence supporters have promised a campaign of civil disobedience. The crisis has divided Catalonia and caused deep resentment around Spain. It has also prompted a flight of business from the w...

    Russia is set to test its biggest ever nuclear missile which is powerful enough to destroy the UK, Texas or France with a single strike. The so-called Satan 2 intercontinental ballistic missile could deliver about a dozen nuclear warheads of 40 megatons - 2,000 times as powerful as the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. President Vladimir Putin's Defence Ministry plans to test two RS-28 Sarmat super nukes at the remote Plesetsk Cosmodrome before the end of the year, it was reported. The 100-ton weapons which could enter service as early as 2019 will make the bombs dropped on Japan look like popguns, experts have said. Russia claims the missiles can beat any defences as it seeks to replace its arsenal of SS-18 Satan weapons. The Satan 2 missile was displa...

    A strain of ransomware known as Bad Rabbit is believed to be behind the trouble, and has spread to Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Germany. Cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab, which is monitoring the malware, has compared it to the WannaCry and Petya attacks that caused so much chaos earlier this year. According to the company, the majority of victims are located in Russia, and the ransomware appears to have infected devices through the hacked websites of Russian media organisations. Interfax and Fontanka in Russia have both been hit by a cyber attack, as have Odessa Airport and the Kiev Metro in Ukraine. Based on our investigation, this is a targeted attack against corporate networks, using methods similar to those used in the ExPetr attack, Kaspersky Lab has said. However, we...

    A couple in France have been reported to the authorities for trying to name their son Jihad. The Muslim parents tried to register the highly controversial name at their town hall near Toulouse after the birth in August, reports the Mirror. But officials immediately alerted the public prosecutor, who is now challenging the name in the family court because of its links to terrorism. A judge will then have the power to order the couple to choose another name. The unnamed husband and wife have claimed the word Jihad does not mean Holy War, but instead refers to effort, struggle and self-denial. Four years ago another couple whose three-year-old son was named Jihad were hand suspended prison sentences for sending him to school in a t-shirt with the slogans ‘I am a bomb’ on the ...

    Brexit can still be avoided if the United Kingdom chooses, the president of the European Council has said. Donald Tusk told the European Parliament on Tuesday that the remaining EU 27 member states must be united in their negotiations with Britain. We have managed to build and maintain unity among the 27. But ahead of us is still the toughest stress test. If we fail it, the negotiations will end in our defeat, he said. We must keep our unity regardless of the direction of the talks. The EU will be able to rise to every scenario as long as we are not divided. Tusk added: It is in fact up to London how this will end: with a good deal, no deal or no Brexit. But in each of these scenarios we will protect our common interest only by being together. European Commission chief Jea...

    Theresa May described as despondent with rings under her eyes in leaked account of Brexit dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker. Jean-Claude Juncker claimed Theresa May begged him for help during a private Brexit dinner in which she appeared tormented with rings under her eyes, according to reports in the German press. The European Commission president's office has been accused of leaking the unflattering account of the meal, which saw Mrs May described as despondent. In the highly personal account of last Monday's dinner, Mrs May was said to seemed anxious, tormented and discouraged, according to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Mr Juncker was said to have described the Prime Minister to colleagues as looking like someone who does not sleep, and as a woman...

    Spain’s central government threatened on Thursday to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy after the region’s leader said it could go ahead with a formal declaration of independence if Madrid continued its ‘repression’. In an unprecedented move since Spain returned to democracy in the late 1970s, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he would hold a special cabinet meeting on Saturday to impose direct rule in Catalonia. Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, ignoring a 10 a.m. deadline to drop his secession campaign, threatened Rajoy with a formal declaration of independence in the Catalan parliament. The two statements increased uncertainty over a one-month political crisis that has raised fears of social unrest, led the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy to cut its growth forecasts and...

    The former Vice-President, who has mostly held back from criticising the current administration, called Mr Trump's behaviour bizarre and said he did not understand governance. Addressing a bipartisan event alongside Ohio's Republican governor John Kasich, the respected Democrat claimed 14 leaders had contacted him to try to understand better the actions of the president. Citing the moment when Mr Trump shoved aside Duski Markovic, the prime minister of Montenegro, at a Nato summit in May and then stuck his chest out and his chin, Mr Biden said one unnamed European leader likened Mr Trump's stance and body language to Il Duce. Mr Biden's imitation of Mr Trump's behaviour drew laughter at the University of Delaware audience, prompting him to caution: "Not a joke. Not a joke....

    David Davis, the Brexit secretary, has heaped pressure on European Union leaders to grant Michel Barnier the flexibility to begin talks over EU-UK trade and a possible transition deal at crunch summit in Brussels next week. Mr Barnier was given a mandate by the 27 heads of state and government to helm the Brexit talks on their behalf but it restricts him from discussing the future relationship until the EU judges that sufficient progress has been made on the issues of the so called Brexit bill, citizens rights and Ireland. Barnier criticises 'very disturbing deadlock' in Brexit negotiations Talks are deadlocked after five rounds of pressured negotiations with huge divisions between the two camps, especially over the so-called Brexit bill, despite Theresa May’s offering to ...