Pope Leo XIV Discharged From Gemelli Hospital, Set to Lead Sunday Angelus

La Voce di New York

By: Zoe Andreoli

17 October 2026 at 13:09

Doctors clear the pontiff to return to the Vatican after final medical tests

‘Drones all night. By morning, you smell the smoke’: life in the last hotel on Ukraine’s frontline

The Guardian - Europe

By: Korbinian Leo Kramer in Kherson

17 October 2026 at 12:00

Amid blackouts, artillery fire and the onslaught of Russian drone attacks, the Richelievsky in Kherson provides a refuge for those with nowhere else to go

There is one important rule in the Richelievsky, Kherson’s last functioning hotel: close the curtains before dusk. Less than a kilometre away lies the Dnipro, the river that has formed the frontline since Ukrainian forces liberated Kherson in November 2022; Moscow’s troops are on the opposite bank.

In a city where Russian drone operators hunt civilians in what is now widely known as the “human safari”, even a sliver of light escaping through a window may be enough to reveal someone’s location after dark.

Hotel manager Yevhen Emtsov, 46, in the building’s former conference room

French schoolchildren have been treated like enemies to be crushed – for telling the truth | Rokhaya Diallo

The Guardian - Europe

By: Rokhaya Diallo

17 October 2026 at 05:00

To protest against shameful conditions in schools is entirely legitimate. The government’s response is not

As a secondary school pupil in 1994, I took part in protests against a reform that would have allowed French employers to pay young people below the minimum wage. Our campaign was successful, but if we had had to face the terrifying police response unleashed on student protesters in France over recent weeks, I would have stayed at home.

A 14-year-old boy, Eden, suffered a fractured jaw and had teeth knocked out after a police teargas grenade struck him in the face. Sixteen-year-old Maël lost the sight in one eye allegedly after being struck by a shot from an LBD, a form of rubber-bullet launcher. Evan, 15, had his hand blown off in an explosion involving a police stun grenade. And in Dunkirk, a police SUV is alleged to have driven repeatedly at groups of secondary school pupils, as an officer could be heard saying: “Come closer, we’ll smash their fucking faces in.” Accounts from children left terrified by brutal treatment in police custody describe traumatic experiences with severe psychological and physical consequences.

Rokhaya Diallo is a French journalist, film-maker, activist and Guardian Europe columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Reading view