Europe Explained

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un visited the Chinese border city of Dandong on Saturday 24 October. He crossed the newly opened New Yalu River Bridge, on his first trip to China in about a year.

The bridge is expected to carry traffic in both directions around the clock, including container shipments and heavy cargo trucks. Beijing and Pyongyang agreed to expand trade and personnel exchanges. A bridge matters because goods can only move as fast as the road they travel on.

Why does a bridge make the news? Think of a road with only one lane: no matter how many lorries are waiting, only so many can pass. A bridge open around the clock removes that limit. That is why the agreement to expand trade and personnel exchanges, announced alongside the visit, depends on infrastructure like this.

In Dandong, Kim visited a memorial marking China's support of North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. He also met Wang Huning, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Standing Committee.

A Budget is the Chancellor's yearly statement of how much tax the government will collect and how much it will spend. Chancellor John Healey will deliver this one on Wednesday 28 October, the first of the government led by Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Money is tight. One estimate puts the shortfall in the public finances at around 12 billion pounds, while the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said it could be as high as 20 billion pounds. A shortfall means the government expects to spend more than it takes in.

Rises to the rates of income tax, employee National Insurance and VAT are ruled out. So commentators expect changes to thresholds, allowances and reliefs instead. Much of this is prediction by accountancy firms and publishers, not confirmed policy, so the real details will only be known on the day.

Serbia, a country in south-eastern Europe, held a snap parliamentary election on Sunday 25 October. Its 6.4 million voters chose among 18 parties hoping to win seats in the 250-member Parliament. Aleksandar Vucic resigned the presidency in September to run again, this time for prime minister, at the head of his Progressive Party.

His main challenger is a list backed by a student movement, led by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic. The movement began after the November 2024 collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad, which killed 16 people. Vucic has called the students a foreign-funded coup attempt. The students reject that.

Turnout looked very high. Pollsters CeSID and Ipsos put it at 67.6% by 7 p.m., described as the highest since 1992. At the time of writing, final results were not yet available.