Travels News
Soprano Angel Blue says she won’t perform in an opera in Italy this month because blackface was used in the staging of a different work this summer on the same stage. The U.S. singer posted a note on her angeljoyblue Instagram page saying she will be bowing out of “La Traviata” at Verona’s Arena this …
Read more “US Soprano, Offended by Blackface, Pulls Out of Italy Opera”
Russia launched a missile strike Sunday on the southern Ukranian city of Mykolaiv, which has been the target of several strikes in recent weeks. The Associated Press reports that an “industrial and infrastructure facility” was the target. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his daily address Saturday, urged Ukrainians to develop “a kind of emotional sovereignty” …
Read more “Zelenskyy: Develop ‘Emotional Sovereignty’ over Disinformation”
Family by family, house by house, French police rounded up 13,000 people on two terrifying days in July 1942, dispatching them to Nazi death camps simply because they were Jewish. Eighty years later, France is honoring the victims, and trying to keep their memory alive. For the dwindling number of survivors of France’s wartime crimes, …
Read more “Holocaust Survivors Mark 80 Years Since Mass Paris Roundup “
“It’s absolutely crazy to stick yourself to the road with superglue,” admits Lina Schinkoethe. And yet, the 19-year-old recently landed in jail for doing just that, in protest at what she believes is the German government’s failure to act against climate change. Schinkoethe is part of a group called Uprising of the Last Generation that …
Read more “German Climate Activists Aim to Stir Friction with Blockades”
Two landmark new studies in France are bursting myths about immigration at a time when xenophobic far-right discourse has gained ground. They show that the children of immigrants are increasingly melting into French society, but some with African and Asian backgrounds face persistent discrimination. Karima Simmou, a 20-year-old French Moroccan student at the prestigious Paris …
Read more “Studies: France is a Melting Pot, but Discrimination Lurks”
As bullets and bombs fall in Ukraine, Russia is waging an expanding information war throughout Eastern Europe, researchers and officials say, using fake accounts and propaganda to spread fears about refugees and rising fuel prices while calling the West an untrustworthy ally. In Bulgaria, the Kremlin paid journalists, political analysts and other influential citizens 2,000 …
Read more “Russia’s Information War Expands Through Eastern Europe”
A cargo aircraft Antonov An-12 crashed late Saturday near Paleochori Kavalas in northern Greece, the fire brigade said. Eyewitnesses said the aircraft was on fire and that they had heard explosions, Athens News Agency reported. A local man, Giorgos Archontopoulos, told state broadcaster ERT television he had thought something was wrong as soon as he …
Read more “Cargo Plane Crashes in Greece; Explosions Keep Firefighters Away”
Around 1,000 Hungarians demonstrated against Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government Saturday in the latest of a series of smaller demonstrations this week since his right-wing Fidesz party passed legislation sharply raising taxes on small firms. Nationalist Orban is facing his toughest challenge yet since taking power in a 2010 landslide, with inflation at its highest …
Read more “Hungarians Rally Against Orban’s Reforms, Skeptical of Change”
North Macedonia has approved a French proposal that opens the way for negotiations to join the European Union and overcome Bulgarian objections. There were 68 votes in favor of the proposal in the 120-member chamber, with the leftist coalition, which has 61 seats, getting the backing of small ethnic Albanian parties. Opposition lawmakers left the …
Read more “North Macedonia Parliament OKs Deal; EU Talks Start July 19”
The world was sadder and more stressed out in 2021 than ever before, according to a recent Gallup poll, which found that four in 10 adults worldwide said they experienced a lot of worry or stress. Experts say the most obvious culprit, the pandemic — and the isolation and uncertainty that came with it — …
Read more “Why People Worldwide Are Unhappier, More Stressed Than Ever”
Ukraine’s deputy minister of culture said Friday that her country’s heritage is under attack by Russia and must be protected. “The president of Russia, Mr. Putin, announced that Ukrainian culture and identity is a target of this war,” Kateryna Chueva, deputy minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, reminded an informal meeting of the …
Read more “Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage Under Attack, Official Says”
U.S. and Ukrainian officials say U.S. rocket systems provided to Ukraine are having a large impact in the fight against Russia, helping Ukrainian forces to hold off Russia’s military in the eastern Donbas region. A U.S. senior military official speaking on the condition of anonymity Friday to discuss the war said U.S.-supplied rocket systems known …
Read more “Ukraine, US Say Rocket Strikes Significantly Slowing Down Russia “
Liza, a 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome, was en route to see a speech therapist with her mother in central Ukraine when a Russian missile hit. She never made it to the appointment. Now the images that tell the story of her life and its end are touching hearts worldwide. Wearing a blue denim jacket …
Read more “‘Robbed of the Most Precious Thing’: Missile Kills Liza, 4”
Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch. ‘Broad agreement’ on deal to export blockaded Ukrainian grain U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday there is “broad agreement” on a deal between Russia and Ukraine, with Turkey …
The European Union’s executive intensified its legal standoff with Hungary on Friday by taking the country to the EU’s highest court over a restrictive law on LGBT issues and media freedom. The EU had already tried for a year to make Hungary change a law that bans content portraying or promoting homosexuality. The European Commission …
Read more “EU Takes Hungary to Highest Court Over LGBT, Media Rules”
Across Europe, there is a growing uneasiness that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is serving to overshadow another critical, even existential threat that could do severe damage to the West while serving the Kremlin’s interests. Instability and the rise of terrorism across Africa, according to multiple European and NATO officials, cannot be overlooked no matter how …
U.S. officials say they are concerned about reports Turkey is planning a new offensive against U.S. backed, Syrian-based Kurdish fighters. Civilians in the Northern Syrian city of Qamishli say they are worried as well. For VOA, Zana Omar has this report from Syria, narrated by Rikar Hussein. …
Western finance ministers condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine at G-20 talks in Indonesia on Friday, accusing Russian officials of complicity in atrocities committed during the war. The two-day meeting on the island of Bali began under the shadow of a Russian military assault that has roiled markets, spiked food prices and stoked breakneck inflation, a …
Read more “US, Canada Condemn Russia’s War on Ukraine at Indonesia G20 Talks”
“The simple truth is that, as we speak, children, women and men, the young and the old, are living in terror,” International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said at the opening of the Ukraine Accountability Conference in The Hague on Thursday, with about 40 nations in attendance. Khan said an “overarching strategy” is needed …
Read more “ICC Prosecutor: ‘Overarching Strategy’ Needed to Bring Ukraine War Criminals to Justice”
An Azerbaijani journalist imprisoned on what rights groups believe are trumped-up charges has had his appeal for parole rejected. The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan on Wednesday rejected the appeal of human rights defender and journalist Elchin Mammad to be freed after serving one-third of his sentence. Mammad, editor of the news website Yukselish Namine and …
Read more “Azerbaijan Denies Parole Appeal of Jailed Journalist”
The United States is pressing to implement a plan meant to force Russia to sell oil at artificially low prices on the global market, in order to deprive the Kremlin of funding for its war in Ukraine. Speaking at a news conference in Bali, Indonesia, before the start of a meeting of the finance ministers …
Read more “Yellen Pushes Plan to Cap Price of Russian Oil on Global Markets “
Stockholm’s District Court sentenced a former Iranian official to life in prison on Thursday for war crimes and the murder of political prisoners during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. At the time of the killings, Hamid Noury was a 27-year-old assistant to the deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran. According to prosecutors, …
Read more “Ex-Iranian Official Imprisoned in Sweden for Executions”
A Russian arms dealer labeled the “Merchant of Death” who once inspired a Hollywood movie is back in the headlines with speculation around a return to Moscow in a prisoner exchange. If Viktor Bout, 55, is indeed eventually freed in return for WNBA star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, as some published …
Read more “Name of Russian Arms Dealer Surfaces in Possible Prisoner Swap”
An arson attack on a suburban Athens building that houses the offices of a Greek radio station and newspaper caused significant damage early Wednesday and drew condemnation from political leaders in Greece and elsewhere in the European Union. Explosions were heard before a fire broke out shortly after 3 a.m. at the building that houses …
Read more “Arson Damages Athens Building Housing Greek Media Outlets”