EU

António Costa, President of the European Council, stated that enhanced cooperation in the EU is “a non-issue,” countering calls for a two-speed Europe for economic reforms. His comments follow proposals from others, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, emphasizing urgency for progress.

Delegates from Russia’s ruling party unanimously backed President Vladimir Putin ’s bid for re-election at a party conference in Moscow on Sunday, state agencies reported, just a day after the Kremlin leader’s supporters formally nominated him to run in the 2024 presidential election as an independent. Meanwhile Putin warned of “problems” with neighbouring Finland after it joined NATO earlier this year, saying Moscow will create a new military district in north-west Russia in response, in an interview published Sunday.

A Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5 ½ years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.

“This is the first cardinal to be prosecuted in a Vatican criminal court”, said FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Rome, Italy, Seema Gupta.” Cardinal Angelo Becciu is the most senior Vatican official to face such charges; “the 75-year-old cardinal was a former advisor to Pope Francis, so he was somebody who would meet with the pope and he was seen as a papal contender”. 

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