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Ukraine’s air force has said Russia fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at the city of Dnipro, which if confirmed would be the first time the long-range weapon has been used in any armed conflict.

The claim was not immediately accepted by others, however. ABC News reported, citing western officials, that this was an exaggeration and that the weapon was in fact a shorter-range ballistic missile, similar to the types used repeatedly by Russia against Ukraine during the war.

Update: President [ Putin] says hypersonic missile (Oreshnik) fired at Dnipro military site in reply to Kyiv’s strikes in Russia with western missiles

French prosecutors said that France's far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, should face jail time and a ban from public office that would bar her from the 2027 presidential race as she and members of the National Rally party stand trial for using money intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party.

There was evidence of hostile agents using "increasingly sophisticated strategies" to gain access to Italy's most advanced knowledge, Alfredo Mantovano, a senior undersecretary in charge of intelligence matters, told a news conference.

The most affected technology sectors are biomedicine, robotics and semiconductors," said Mantovano, a close aide to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, citing sponsorships and donations as among the vulnerable areas deserving attention.

The Amsterdam office is the headquarters of the company's operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The French investigation is being carried out by the National Financial Prosecutor's office (PNF), a special unit used for investigations into high-profile white-collar crime.

It relates to suspicions of "covering up serious tax fraud and off-the-books work", according to the PNF.

The company is also under investigation for tax filings for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Pro-western politicians in Moldova and Georgia have dismissed Russian invasion fears as scare-mongering orchestrated by the Kremlin, and instead stressed that only the west could guarantee long-term stability. They also reported that pro-Russian forces engaged in widespread disinformation and vote-buying campaigns had created a distorted picture of the actual public sentiment.

Still, the voting in Georgia and Moldova suggests the threat of a Russian invasion resonates at least with certain parts of society, especially in conservative, poorer regions where economic progress has lagged and the promise of Europe feels distant and faint.

Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya responded: "None of the countries that provide assistance to Ukraine is under Security Council sanctions." "Receiving assistance from the fully-sanctioned North Korea is a brazen violation of the U.N. Charter," he added. "Sending the DPRK troops to support Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is a flagrant violation of international law."

Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya responded: "None of the countries that provide assistance to Ukraine is under Security Council sanctions." "Receiving assistance from the fully-sanctioned North Korea is a brazen violation of the U.N. Charter," he added. "Sending the DPRK troops to support Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is a flagrant violation of international law."

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who is now central to Donald Trump’s election campaign, has been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin for the past two years, according to a report in the US.

The Wall Street Journal, citing several in-post and former US, European and Russian officials, reported that the conversations between the two men ranged from the personal to the geopolitical and included a request from the Russian leader not to activate his Starlink ​​satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favour to the Chinese leader and Putin ally, Xi Jinping.

WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Spain on Thursday announced plans for a contribution of 400 million euros ($433 million) to the World Bank's fund for low-income countries, a 37% increase over the previous International Development Association replenishment cycle.

“I’m not aware of anywhere else where we’ve seen such a brazen and open attempt to corrupt an election,” Moldova’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Veronica Dragalin, told me this week in her office in Chisinau.

We’re talking about a foreign country sending money in an attempt to influence the election,” Ms Dragalin spells it out. She details evidence gained through wiretaps, police infiltrators and witnesses – some of which her office has made public.

There are growing reports that North Korea is sending as many as 3,000 troops to assist Russia in its war on Ukraine. If true, it would not only be the latest example of Pyongyang helping Moscow, but also further proof of a growing closeness between those two capitals, Beijing, and Tehran. It’s been variously called the new “axis of evil,” or the “quartet of chaos,” but whatever the moniker, the four countries are stymieing a range of United States and Western interests around the world.

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