Europe

LONDON (AP) — The U.K.’s new Treasury chief ripped up the government’s economic plan on Monday, dramatically reversing most of the tax cuts and spending plans that new Prime Minister Liz Truss announced less than a month ago. The move raises more questions about how long the beleaguered British leader can stay in office.

In a televised address, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said he was scrapping “almost all” of Truss’ tax cuts, along with her flagship energy policy and her promise — repeated just last week — that there will be no public spending cuts.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Waves of explosives-laden suicide drones struck Ukraine’s capital Monday, setting buildings ablaze and tearing a hole in one of them. People scurried for shelter or tried to shoot down the kamikazes.

The concentrated use of the drones was the second barrage in as many weeks — after months where air attacks had become become a rarity in central Kyiv. The assault sowed terror and frayed nerves as blasts rocked the city. Energy facilities were struck. One drone largely collapsed a residential building, killing four people, authorities said.

17 October 2022; MEMO: Algeria's National Liberation Front demanded yesterday that France should apologise for the massacre committed by French police against peaceful Algerian protesters in Paris in 1961, Anadolu has reported. Thousands of Algerians living in France took to the streets of Paris sixty-one years ago today to protest against a curfew imposed on them. The then French Police Commander in Paris, Maurice Papon, issued orders to suppress the protest with violence.

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/: Appearance of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine and its distribution worldwide has become a stepping stone to promote export of other new Russian drugs, chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev said in a documentary showed on the Rossiya-24 TV Channel.

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/: Russia recorded 12,354 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Sunday. The total number of cases has reached 21,304,554.

As many as 744 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, down from 1,657 the day before. Hospitalizations declined in 71 regions of the country and rose in eight regions.

Moscow’s COVID-19 cases surged by 948 to 3,219,483 in the past day and St. Petersburg’s cases increased by 726 to 1,777,854.

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/: NATO has in fact got involved in the conflict in Ukraine but it is in no way affecting Russia’s goals, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Rossiya-1 on Sunday.

"In fact, NATO has got involved in the Ukrainian conflict. However, it is in no way affecting our goals. That said, the operation will continue and we will go through with it," he said in an interview with host of the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" TV program Pavel Zarubin.

Oct 15 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Saturday his rocket company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, citing the need for "good deeds," a day after he said it could no longer afford to do so.

Musk tweeted: "the hell with it … even though starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we'll just keep funding ukraine govt for free".

Musk said on Friday that SpaceX could not indefinitely fund Starlink in Ukraine. The service has helped civilians and military stay online during the war with Russia.

Oct 16 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs analysts have downgraded Britain's economic outlook after Prime Minister Liz Truss removed Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and reversed a freeze in corporation tax, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.

"Folding in weaker growth momentum, significantly tighter financial conditions, and the higher corporation tax from next April, we downgrade our UK growth outlook further and now expect a more significant recession," Bloomberg cited the investment bank's report as saying.

KYIV, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Russia has opened a criminal investigation after gunmen shot dead 11 people at a military training ground near the Ukrainian border, authorities said on Sunday, as fighting raged in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Russia's RIA news agency, citing the defence ministry, said two gunmen had opened fire during a firearms training exercise on Saturday, targeting a group who had volunteered to fight in Ukraine. The "terrorists" themselves were shot dead, it said.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has decided to extend by a year a lengthy global consultation of ordinary Catholics about the future of the Catholic Church, amid limited participation by the laity and seeming resistance to his reforms from the hierarchy.

Francis announced Sunday that the planned 2023 gathering of bishops would now take place in two stages — one session in October 2023 and a second in October 2024 — to allow more time to find a way forward.