As the COP29 climate summit enters the final stretch in Azerbaijan, there are growing frustrations over the apparent lack of progress toward securing a deal on climate finance – seen as a crucial step in reducing emissions and limiting global warming. Henry Ridgwell reports. (Camera: Henry Ridgwell) …
As the war in Ukraine entered its 1,000th day Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a revised nuclear doctrine stating that a conventional attack on Russia by any nation supported by a nuclear power is considered a joint attack and could trigger a nuclear response. The proclamation came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden …
Read more “Russia broadens conditions for using nuclear weapons “
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Lithuania’s Navy said on Tuesday it had increased monitoring of its waters after an undersea communications cable connecting the country with Sweden had been damaged. An assessment is now being carried out along with allies, a spokesperson for the Lithuanian armed forces told Reuters. The cable was one of two fiber-optic cables in …
Read more “Lithuania steps up surveillance at sea following damage to undersea cable”
NEW YORK — Arthur Frommer, whose “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day” guidebooks revolutionized leisure travel by convincing average Americans to take budget vacations abroad, has died. He was 95. Frommer died from complications of pneumonia, his daughter Pauline Frommer said Monday. “My father opened up the world to so many people,” she said. “He believed …
Read more “Arthur Frommer, travel guide innovator, has died at 95”
Russia vetoed a United Nation resolution Monday calling for an immediate cease-fire between Sudan’s warring parties and the delivery of humanitarian aid to millions of Sudanese. Russia was the only Security Council member that voted against the cease-fire resolution. China, Russia’s ally, supported the resolution, drafted by the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone. Russian Deputy …
Read more “Russia vetoes UN cease-fire resolution for Sudan”
BAKU, Azerbaijan — Young people who attend the U.N. climate talks have a lot to be angry about. They’ve lost loved ones and months of school. They’ve lost homes and family farms and connections to their families’ native lands. They haven’t lost hope, though. Not yet. “It has become so tiring for me to be just …
Read more “Youths at UN climate talks push through anger to fight for hope”
Russia has been buying artillery shells and missiles from North Korea, buying drones and ballistic missiles from Iran and strengthening ties with the Taliban in Afghanistan to sustain its war in Ukraine. All three governments are under U.N. embargoes that prohibit arms trade and financial dealings with the countries to curtail weapons proliferation and human …
Read more “Russia increases arms trade with UN-embargoed nations to feed Ukraine war”
Athens, Greece — Greece will make an early repayment of 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in bailout-era debt in 2025, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a banking conference in Athens on Monday, describing the move as a signal of the country’s fiscal recovery. “This … underscores our confidence in public finances and reflects our commitment to …
tbilisi, georgia — Demonstrators in Georgia’s capital have set up tents on a central thoroughfare and vowed Monday to stay around the clock to demand new parliamentary elections in the country. The October 26 election kept the governing Georgian Dream party in power, but opponents say the vote was rigged with Russia’s assistance. Many Georgians viewed …
Read more “Protesters in Georgia’s capital set up tent camp, demand new elections”
Russian opposition members in exile took to the streets of Berlin Sunday to demand a pullout of Russian troops from Ukraine and the resignation of President Vladimir Putin in a protest that would have been impossible in Russia due to police and judicial pressure on opposition movements. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina …
Read more “Russian opposition activists speak freely against Putin, but in Germany”
warsaw, poland — Poland’s health authorities on Monday urged polio vaccinations for children after the virus was detected in Warsaw’s sewage during regular tests this month. The state Main Sanitary Inspectorate in a statement said the presence of the virus does not necessarily mean people have been sick, but those who have not been vaccinated against …
Read more “Poland urges polio vaccinations for children after virus detected in sewage in Warsaw”
Warsaw — Many in Ukraine see the Biden administration’s decision to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russian territory as a turning point in the war but welcome it with a mix of gratitude and frustration. “Strikes are not made with words,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. “The …
Read more “For Ukraine, US approval of long-range missiles marks strategic shift”
The Kremlin accused U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday of escalating hostility over Moscow’s nearly three-year-long war on Ukraine with his marked policy shift to allow Kyiv to use Washington-supplied, long-range missiles to strike inside Russia. The decision by Biden, who is leaving office in two months, marks a “new spiral of tensions and a …
Read more “Kremlin says Biden’s missile decision escalates tensions in war with Ukraine”
A Russian attack on Ukraine’s northeast city of Sumy killed 11 people and injured at least 89, Ukrainian officials said. “Sunday evening for the city of Sumy became hell, a tragedy that Russia brought to our land,” military administrator Volodymyr Artyukh said in a post on the Telegram messaging channel. Sumy regional prosecutors said the …
Read more “Russian attack on Ukraine’s Sumy kills 11, injures 89, officials say”
The Holocaust Museum LA recently installed a new exhibit on its roof: a German-made freight car that was used to deport Jews across Nazi-occupied Europe to the Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin, Poland. From Los Angeles, Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. …
London — Britain on Monday imposed sanctions against Iran’s national airline and shipping carrier, measures it said were taken in response to Iran’s transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia. The state-owned Iran Air and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) will face an asset freeze for their role in supplying weapons to Russia for use …
Read more “UK sanctions Iran Air and IRISL over military transfers to Russia “
AMSTERDAM — The Netherlands’ foreign minister, whose ministry oversees export restrictions on top computer chip equipment maker ASML, said on Monday that China-Russia trade was “directly affecting” European security. NATO views China as a “decisive enabler” of Russia in its war against Ukraine, given that Chinese firms are selling goods that end up as components in …
Read more “Dutch minister: Chinese trade with Russia ‘directly affecting’ EU security”
LONDON — Britain will seek backing from other United Nations Security Council members on Monday for its demand that Sudan’s warring parties stop hostilities and allow deliveries of aid, the British foreign ministry said. With London holding the rotating presidency of the council, British foreign minister David Lammy is due to chair a vote on a …
Read more “UK to put Sudan resolution to vote by UN Security Council”
In a major policy shift, U.S. President Joe Biden has for the first time authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike inside Russia, according to U.S. news accounts. The reported decision comes two months before Biden leaves office and ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. The incoming president has voiced skepticism …
Read more “Reports: Biden OKs Ukraine’s use of US-supplied long-range missiles to strike Russia”
The Baltic states have committed to continue providing financial and material support to Ukraine’s fight against Russia in 2025. Part of that support is coming from the Latvian-led Drone Coalition. Vladislav Andrejevs has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Video editing by Sergii Dogotar. …
Tbilisi, Georgia — Opposition protesters in Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia on Sunday refused to cede control of key government buildings seized during rallies earlier in the week during which at least 14 people were injured in clashes with police. Demonstrators stormed the buildings Friday to protest new measures allowing Russians to buy property in the …
Baku, Azerbaiijan — A new set of global carbon credit trade market standards has been agreed to during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, or COP29, following years of deadlock. Some analysts say that under the guidelines, a bigger number of entities could join a more regulated voluntary carbon credit trading system to …
Read more “New global carbon trade rules adopted at UN climate summit expand inclusion, draw ire”
Russia launched a massive airstrike campaign against neighboring Ukraine on Sunday. Local officials say several people died and the power system suffered “severe damage.” VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …
Berlin — Prominent Russian opposition figures led a march of at least 1,000 people in central Berlin Sunday, criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine and calling for democracy in Russia. Behind a banner that read “No Putin. No War,” the protesters were led by Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of top Putin critic …