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Zelenskyy to Visit Warsaw to Meet with Poles, Ukrainians

FILE - In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 6, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)
FILE - In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 6, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)
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Zelenskyy to Visit Warsaw to Meet with Poles, Ukrainians

FILE - In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 6, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)
FILE - In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 6, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will pay a visit to Warsaw this week that will include talks with political leaders and a meeting with regular Ukrainians and Poles, Polish officials announced on Monday.

Zelenskyy will be accompanied by his wife, Olena Zelenska, for the visit, scheduled for Wednesday. It will begin with an official meeting at the Royal Castle between Zelenskyy and his host, Polish President Andrzej Duda, The Associated Press said.

Their talks will include security issues, regional politics, economic cooperation, historical matters lingering between the two neighbors as well as the transit of Ukraine's grain and other farm produce through Poland, according to Marcin Przydacz, the head of Duda’s international office.

The talks will be followed by a meeting with the public, according to Duda's office.

Przydacz told radio broadcaster RMF FM that Zelenskyy will meet with Ukrainians and Poles at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, and that Zelenskyy says he wants to thank Poles for helping Ukrainians.

“We are preparing a number of elements that will give this visit a special character," Przydacz said.

Zelenskyy is also to hold talks with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki regarding regional security, the situation at the front, and bilateral cooperation including the situation at border crossings and with Ukrainian grain, according to Morawiecki aide Michal Dworczyk.

Poland's farmers have been protesting falling prices for their grain and produce and lack of storage ahead of this year's harvest, blaming the situation on a massive inflow of produce from Ukraine that was intended for transit to third country markets but is lingering in Poland.

The historical issues chiefly regard tense relations that led to bloodshed between Poles and Ukrainians who lived in what was Poland before World War II and is now western Ukraine.

Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk said that there is “more now that unites us, compared to the past, because we see eye to eye on things like geopolitics, security and Russia's aggression.”

It will be Zelenskyy’s first official visit to Poland since Russia’s aggression on Ukraine 13 months ago. He has held a number of secret working meetings in the country, however, while traveling to other countries.

Poland, a NATO and European Union nation on Ukraine's western border, was the first stop for many of the refugees who fled war at home. Many chose to remain, with more than 1.5 million registering with the government.

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World

Louvre Blocked as France Grapples with Unrest

TOPSHOT - A protester waving a French national flag walks past a fire during clashes prior to the start of a demonstration to protest against the "high cost of living", in Marseille, southern France, on October 17, 2026 as part of a nationwide call for mobilization bringing together various groups expressing their anger: former "Yellow Vests", secondary school and university students, climate activists and even farmers. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)
TOPSHOT - A protester waving a French national flag walks past a fire during clashes prior to the start of a demonstration to protest against the "high cost of living", in Marseille, southern France, on October 17, 2026 as part of a nationwide call for mobilization bringing together various groups expressing their anger: former "Yellow Vests", secondary school and university students, climate activists and even farmers. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)
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Louvre Blocked as France Grapples with Unrest

TOPSHOT - A protester waving a French national flag walks past a fire during clashes prior to the start of a demonstration to protest against the "high cost of living", in Marseille, southern France, on October 17, 2026 as part of a nationwide call for mobilization bringing together various groups expressing their anger: former "Yellow Vests", secondary school and university students, climate activists and even farmers. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)
TOPSHOT - A protester waving a French national flag walks past a fire during clashes prior to the start of a demonstration to protest against the "high cost of living", in Marseille, southern France, on October 17, 2026 as part of a nationwide call for mobilization bringing together various groups expressing their anger: former "Yellow Vests", secondary school and university students, climate activists and even farmers. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)

Protesters blocked the entrance to the Louvre in Paris on Monday, as French authorities scrambled to stem public discontent fueling mass cost-of-living demonstrations that over the weekend spilled over into some of the worst street violence in recent years.

President Emmanuel Macron ordered a security review as the country's interior minister admitted that the police "had lost control" during the weekend's unrest.

Undeterred, the Yellow Vests movement which organized the weekend's rallies called for a new round of protests Saturday, said AFP.

Italy, Spain and Portugal, where anger over rising prices has also led to protests, were keeping a nervous eye on the developments after smaller clashes broke out in Milan over the weekend and protests about housing costs persisted in Spanish cities.

Some half a million people turned out across France to protest the surging cost of living, a culmination of four weeks of protests that began with high school students demanding better conditions at their schools.

What started as peaceful demonstrations morphed into violence in some places, as masked groups on the sidelines of the protests attacked law enforcement, broke into town halls and other public buildings, setting many of them ablaze, looted shops, and set fire to cars, bicycles and scooters on the streets.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez offered to resign on Monday after more than 2,500 people were arrested and nearly 1,000 members of the security forces injured. Protesters were also hurt, with one demonstrator's hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade.

"On Saturday, in some major cities, you couldn't look shopkeepers in the eye after hundreds of shops had been looted and tell them we hadn't lost control," Nunez said.

Macron refused Nunez's resignation, even as he acknowledged security and intelligence failures in the government response, despite the some 60,000 law enforcement personnel deployed across the country on Saturday.

Nationwide, more than 2,330 people were taken into police custody over the weekend, 70 percent of whom were adults, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said Monday.

More than 2,000 shops were expected to have been affected by the weekend's violence across France, with damage running into "hundreds of millions of euros", according to chamber of commerce president Alain Di Crescenzo.

In an address to the nation Sunday evening, Macron slammed the "unbridled" violence and said local authorities would be able to ban -- "if necessary" -- certain rallies in coming days.

But he stopped short of announcing drastic measures, such as a state of emergency or curfew.

City authorities in Marseille said on Monday that public gatherings would be banned from noon to 08:00 pm (1000-1800 GMT).

- Louvre blocked -

The public discontent showed no signs of subsiding on Monday, with demonstrators blocking the entrance to Paris's iconic Louvre Museum, the most visited in the world.

"We are proud to announce that we are blocking the world's largest museum," read a leaflet posted outside the museum, as management and unions said the protest was led by students from Ecole du Louvre.

Rising prices have fueled anger in France, where diesel prices have jumped nearly 40 percent and petrol by 25 percent since March and where food prices have risen by 25 percent since 2021.

- Elections -

The unrest in France has flared just months before a key presidential election where centrist Macron cannot stand again and Marine Le Pen, the far-right presidential candidate for the National Rally party, is riding high in the polls.

Ministers have blamed "ultra-left" groups for the violence, while Le Pen claimed that the party of her far-left rival for the presidency, Jean-Luc Melenchon, had "legitimized the violence".

The left has accused Macron of ignoring protesters' demands, while the right is calling on him to take a firmer line.

- Europe -

With costs of living rising across Europe, smaller demonstrations have broken out in other countries.

During the weekend, clashes broke out on the sidelines of a cost-of-living demonstration in Milan, with Mayor Giuseppe Sala warning: "I'm very worried because it's a new phenomenon, which also originates from an international scenario and therefore feeds itself."

In Spain, hundreds of tents have occupied Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square since September, when the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her lifelong flat sparked nationwide protests in a country with soaring housing costs.

Dozens of tents have also sprung up in Portugal's main cities of Lisbon and Porto, with protesters demanding action over rising costs of housing.

World

At Least Two Dead as Floods Hit Eastern Spain

Parked cars are half-submerged in a flooded park area after heavy rainfall that hit the area early in the morning, in the town of Algeciras, southern Spain, 18 October 2026. (EPA)
Parked cars are half-submerged in a flooded park area after heavy rainfall that hit the area early in the morning, in the town of Algeciras, southern Spain, 18 October 2026. (EPA)
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At Least Two Dead as Floods Hit Eastern Spain

Parked cars are half-submerged in a flooded park area after heavy rainfall that hit the area early in the morning, in the town of Algeciras, southern Spain, 18 October 2026. (EPA)
Parked cars are half-submerged in a flooded park area after heavy rainfall that hit the area early in the morning, in the town of Algeciras, southern Spain, 18 October 2026. (EPA)

At least two people have died after heavy rain triggered flooding in eastern Spain, authorities said Monday, as rescuers worked to evacuate stranded residents and officials urged people in the Valencia region to stay indoors.

Videos released by Valencia's regional meteorological agency showed streets turned into torrents, sweeping away vehicles in several towns in the provinces of Valencia and Alicante.

"Road travel is impossible, you must stay at home," Juan Carlos Valderrama, the Valencia region's emergency chief, said on Monday morning, warning that intense and persistent rainfall was causing severe flooding.

One person died in Sagunto, local authorities said overnight from Sunday to Monday, while firefighters in neighboring Catalonia reported the death of a woman who fell into a stream.

Emergency services and soldiers from Spain's military emergency response unit were working early on Monday to evacuate people whose homes had flooded, including residents who had taken refuge on rooftops.

"Rescue operations are continuing in areas that are difficult to access. People are urged to avoid all travel," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X, describing the situation in the Valencia region as "very difficult".

Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the Mediterranean storms that typically hit eastern Spain in autumn as the sea absorbs heat during the summer, leading to increased evaporation and heavier rainfall.

National weather agency AEMET announced Friday that last month was mainland Spain's hottest September on record, after the country registered its warmest summer between June and August.

World

Nations Seek Reset at UN Talks as Nature Goals off Track

Armenia is hosting the UN COP17 biodiversity talks in its capital Yerevan. KAREN MINASYAN / AFP
Armenia is hosting the UN COP17 biodiversity talks in its capital Yerevan. KAREN MINASYAN / AFP
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Nations Seek Reset at UN Talks as Nature Goals off Track

Armenia is hosting the UN COP17 biodiversity talks in its capital Yerevan. KAREN MINASYAN / AFP
Armenia is hosting the UN COP17 biodiversity talks in its capital Yerevan. KAREN MINASYAN / AFP

Nearly 200 nations are gathering in Armenia on Monday for critical negotiations as governments come under pressure to salvage a landmark nature pact whose goals are slipping out of reach.

Most countries joined a historic call four years ago to halt and reverse the destruction of nature by 2030 but governments have been slow to act on these pledges, said AFP.

Many goals of the so-called "Paris Agreement for Nature" are falling behind, including a centerpiece commitment to protect 30 percent of Earth's land and oceans.

Some of the toughest objectives of the pact, such as cutting subsidies for fossil fuels and other powerful industries, have made little progress.

"We must honestly admit that collectively, we are not yet on track as needed," Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Friday ahead of the formal UN negotiations known as COP17.

The summit comes at a difficult time, with public finances under strain and political attention fixed on conflicts, geopolitical tensions and a global energy crisis.

Only a handful of world leaders, including UN chief Antonio Guterres but mostly heads of state from nearby Central Asian nations, turned up for a high-level session ahead of the formal negotiations.

But the stakes could not be higher, Guterres said at the event on Friday, describing an unrelenting "war on nature" that threatened the very livability of the planet for future generations.

"We need more action, more speed and more will," he said.

"Halfway to 2030, Yerevan is our moment of accountability. It is time to ask ourselves -- are we doing enough?"

- Falling short -

A United Nations scorecard issued ahead of COP17 reported that progress toward the 23 biodiversity targets was being made -- but unevenly, and not at pace to meet the 2030 deadline.

A major tension at the summit will be money, with the report finding that the effort to close a yawning gap in necessary finance "falls far short" of what is needed.

European and other wealthy nations obligated to provide biodiversity finance have been pushing for large emerging economies like China to also contribute.

But attention is likely to focus more on how private capital, not public finances, might help plug the shortfall.

A key priority will be encouraging corporations to donate a share of profits to a near-empty UN fund to support conservation in developing countries.

Guterres also fixed the spotlight on state incentives for extractive industries, scolding governments for "spending money on the wrong things" despite pledging to reform harmful subsidies.

"Subsidizing fossil fuels is subsidizing suicide," said Guterres of the coal, oil and gas that are "boiling our planet and are the scourge of biodiversity".

For the mountainous Caucasus nation of Armenia, the summit is one of the largest international events it has ever hosted, with thousands of visitors expected over the next two weeks.

The hosts have stressed that action -- not new pledges -- would define success at COP17.

"The world does not need a new vision. We have one. What it needs is delivery," Adil Najam, global president of WWF International, said Friday.