babysandpiper

China's auto industry has inflated car sales for years through a burgeoning government-backed grey market that registers new cars right off the assembly line and then ships them overseas as "used" vehicles.

These so-called "zero-mileage" cars have never been driven but they are being exported as used to markets like Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East, allowing Chinese automakers to show growth and to dispose of cars that it would be difficult to sell domestically, according to a Reuters review of government documents and interviews with five auto dealers and car traders.

"This is the outcome of an almost-four-year price war that has made companies desperate to book any sales possible," said Tu Le, Michigan-based founder of consultancy Sino Auto Insights.

Since the invasion of Ukraine prompted Helsinki to join NATO two years ago, tensions reminiscent of the Cold War have resurfaced along the forested 1,340-km frontier, Europe’s longest with Russia.

The American strikes are likely to be accepted – and even privately praised – by a Middle East officialdom that has long seen Iran as the primary threat to regional stability.

If Iran had hoped its neighbors would rise to its defense in the wake of unprecedented American and Israeli attacks, that moment may have passed.

On Monday, Iran fired back at the U.S. with a strike on the American Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, in what is already being seen as merely a face-saving gesture. Qatar said it had intercepted the Iranian missiles and condemned the attack, calling it a violation of its sovereignty.

But even as Middle Eastern leaders were quick to criticize Donald Trump’s paradigm-shifting assault on Iran following 10 days of Israeli bombardment, the American strikes are likely to be accepted — and even privately cheered — by an Arab officialdom that has long seen Shia Iran as the primary threat to regional stability.

A senior Ukrainian lawmaker who put Donald Trump forward for a Nobel Peace Prize has withdrawn his nomination.

Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign committee, told Newsweek on Tuesday that he had "lost any sort of faith and belief" in Trump and his ability to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

Merezhko said Trump had "virtually no reaction" to large-scale strikes on the Ukrainian capital in recent weeks, adding: "He has chosen the path of appeasement."

Denmark is set to have the highest retirement age in Europe, after lawmakers voted to raise it to 70.

Parliamentarians passed a bill mandating the rise on Thursday, with 81 votes in favor and 21 against.

The new law will apply to people born after December 31, 1970. The current retirement age is 67 on average, but it can go up to 69 for those born on January 1, 1967, or later.

The rise is needed in order to be able to “afford proper welfare for future generations,” employment minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said in a press release Thursday.

Immigrants to Germany and the European Union are more highly educated than ever before, according to a new German study.

The Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin) reports that 32.1% of migrants from non-EU countries had a university degree or equivalent qualification in 2024 — up from 30.9% in 2023.

The study, released Monday, describes this as a "record level" and part of a continued upward trend over the past decade.

In Germany, the share of highly educated non-EU migrants rose from 29.4% to 31.1% over the same period. For migrants from other EU member states, the percentage holding a tertiary qualification climbed from 33.8% to 35.2% EU-wide, and from 28.6% to 30.1% in Germany.

Qatar has temporarily closed its airspace after the US and the UK told their citizens in the country to shelter in place "until further notice".

The US embassy in Qatar suggested in a notice online that Americans do so "out of an abundance of caution". The UK government said it was issuing its warning in response to the US alert.

The warnings come after the State Department told US citizens in international locations to "exercise increased caution," after the US bombed three nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday. Iran has threatened to retaliate.

Pictures show damage to Iran’s nuclear sites but experts say it will take more time to assess the success of the operation

Satellite pictures taken after the US military attempted to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities show significant damage to Tehran’s nuclear sites - but not necessarily to the extent claimed by Donald Trump.

The images indicated damage on the ground - including new craters, holes on mountain ridges and collapsed tunnels - but did not provide definitive proof the heavily fortified underground facilities were breached.

The US president had boasted that the nuclear facilities were “completely and totally obliterated” in the attack. "The biggest damage took place far below ground level," he claimed. "Bullseye!!!"

French police have detained 12 suspects after 145 people reported being pricked with syringes during the country's annual street music festival, officials said Sunday.

Millions of people took to the streets across France on Saturday evening for the Fete de la Musique, with authorities reporting "unprecedented crowds" in Paris.

Before the party, posts on social media had called for women to be targeted during the festivities.

Trump is back — and with him, the risk that the U.S. could unplug Europe from the digital world.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House is forcing Europe to reckon with a major digital vulnerability: The U.S. holds a kill switch over its internet.

As the U.S. administration raises the stakes in a geopolitical poker game that began when Trump started his trade war, Europeans are waking up to the fact that years of over-reliance on a handful of U.S. tech giants have given Washington a winning hand.

The fatal vulnerability is Europe’s near-total dependency on U.S. cloud providers.

Cloud computing is the lifeblood of the internet, powering everything from the emails we send and videos we stream to industrial data processing and government communications. Just three American behemoths — Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — hold more than two-thirds of the regional market, putting Europe’s online existence in the hands of firms cozying up to the U.S. president to fend off looming regulations and fines.

Iran's supreme leader sent his foreign minister to Moscow on Monday to ask Vladimir Putin for more help from Russia after the biggest U.S. military action against the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution over the weekend.

Donald Trump and Israel have publicly speculated about killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and about regime change, a step Russia fears could further destabilize the Middle East.

While Putin has condemned the Israeli strikes, he has yet to comment on the U.S. attacks on Iranian nuclear sites though he last week called for calm and offered Moscow's services as a mediator over the nuclear programme.

Marco Rubio has called on China to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important shipping routes.

His comments came after Iran's state-run Press TV reported that parliament had approved a plan to close the Strait but added that the final decision lies with the Supreme National Security Council.

Any disruption to the supply of oil would have profound consequences for the economy. China in particular is the world's largest buyer of Iranian oil and has a close relationship with Tehran.