Europe’s Farmers Stir Up Biogas to Offset Russian Energy

In lush fields southwest of Paris, farmers are joining Europe’s fight to free itself from Russian gas. They’ll soon turn on a new facility where crops and waste are fermented to produce “biogas.” It’s among energy solutions being explored as the continent works to choke off funding for Russian gas amid the Kremlin’s war in …

Latest Developments in Ukraine: May 6

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT: 12:02 a.m.: The Washington Post reports that the western Ukraine city of Ivan-Frankivsk is warning its residents about possible shelling ahead of Russia’s May 9 Victory Day celebration. Russia uses Victory …

Ukraine’s PM Details War Costs to VOA as Donors Dig Deep

Ukraine received $6.5 billion in pledges at an international donors’ conference in Warsaw Thursday.  VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze discussed the conference and other issues with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in the Polish capital.  The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.  VOA: Donors pledged nearly $7 billion for Ukraine …

UN Chief: More Evacuations Underway in Mariupol, Azovstal

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that a third evacuation operation is underway to assist civilians in Ukraine’s southern city of Mariupol and the Azovstal steel plant. “We must continue to do all we can to get people out of these hellscapes,” he told the U.N. Security Council, refusing to go into details about the …

Collective Bargaining Eases COVID-19 Impact

An International Labor Organization survey in 80 countries finds collective bargaining agreements and practices are critical to improving working conditions, closing the gender wage gap, and in reducing inequality and discrimination in the work place. The ILO has just launched the first in a series of reports on Social Dialogue. The report finds one third …

Reporter’s Notebook: Memories of Talking to Belarus’ Stanislav Shushkevich

Former Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich died this week at the age of 87. He took a part of the Soviet Union’s history with him.  Shrewd and wise, he was the one who put the last nail in the Soviet Union’s coffin. Together with Ukrainian and Russian leaders Leonid Kravchuk and Boris Yeltsin, in the cold …

Putin Apologizes to Israel for Lavrov’s Anti-Semitic Remarks

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly apologized to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for antisemitic comments made earlier this week by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov reportedly said “the biggest antisemites are the Jews themselves” and that Hitler had Jewish blood, among other long-discredited antisemitic tropes while speaking to an Italian television journalist. “The prime …

Russia Braces for Effects of Energy Export Losses

The international sanctions imposed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine have opened a new front in the Ukraine conflict, an economic one. Moscow is now trying to curb inflation and maintain the value of its currency, the ruble, while European countries are discussing the possibility of stopping their purchase of Russian hydrocarbons. Elizabeth Cherneff …

 At US Urging, Fiji Seizes Russian Oligarch’s Yacht

Another Russian oligarch’s yacht was seized Thursday as part of efforts to punish Russia over its war in Ukraine.  At the request of the United States, Fijian officials took a $300 million yacht belonging to Suleiman Kerimov, the Justice Department said. Officials say the yacht is in Lautoka, Fiji.  Kerimov’s yacht, the Cayman Island-flagged Amadea, …

Queen to Miss Traditional Royal Garden Party Season 

Queen Elizabeth II will miss the traditional royal garden party season, where she would normally meet with hundreds of people on the grounds of her residences in London and Edinburgh, palace officials said Thursday. The 96-year-old monarch will be represented instead by other members of her family, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. Before the …

Belarusian Diaspora Does What It Can to Help Ukraine

After the regime’s crackdown on protesters in Belarus following the 2020 presidential elections, some 200,000-300,000 people fled Belarus ending up as refugees in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and a number of other EU countries. Now they’re helping Ukrainian refugees and Belarusians who are being forced to move, yet again. Maxim Moskalkov reports. Dana Preobrazhenskaya contributed to …

Media Group: At Least 23 Journalists Killed in Ukraine War

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, at least 23 journalists have been killed in the country, according to a journalists’ union. And at least seven of those deaths took place while the journalists were on assignment, says the Committee to Protect Journalists. Oleksii Kovalenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by …

Russia Expels 7 Danish Embassy Staff in Tit-For-Tat Move

Russia has announced the expulsion of seven people from the Danish Embassy in Moscow in response to a similar move announced by Copenhagen four weeks earlier. “They must leave the country within two weeks,” the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement Thursday. The move came exactly one month after Denmark expelled 15 employees …

Japan PM: Tokyo to Use Nuclear to Cut Dependence on Russian Energy 

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday that it would use nuclear reactors to help reduce its own and other countries’ dependence on Russian energy. Japan has become more reliant on Russian gas since shutting down nuclear reactors after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in which an earthquake and tsunami triggered a meltdown, devastating its …

Latest Developments in Ukraine: May 5

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT: 4:30 a.m.: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday he condemned in the strongest terms Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it amounted to war crimes, Reuters reported.  Kishida was speaking …

European Union Proposes New Sanctions as Russia Pounds Ukraine

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled new punitive actions against Russia on Wednesday, even as Russia pounded Ukraine, targeting rail stations and other supply lines in attempts to stop the West from “stuffing Ukraine with weapons.” The Russian strikes, with air- and sea-launched missiles, hit five railway stations and fuel and ammunition depots, …

France, India Call for Immediate End to Ukraine Hostilities

India and France on Wednesday called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities” in Ukraine, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi again stopping short of condemning Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. India, which imports much of its military hardware from Russia, has long walked a diplomatic tightrope between the West and Moscow, notably refusing to denounce the …

Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ Shirt Sets Auction Record

The shirt worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the controversial “Hand of God” goal against England in the 1986 World Cup has sold for $9.3 million (7.1 million pounds), the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of sports memorabilia.  Auctioneer Sotheby’s sold the shirt in an online auction that closed Wednesday. …

Report: Iran to Execute Swedish-Iranian National by May 21

Iran will later this month execute a Swedish-Iranian national whom it has imprisoned since 2016 and convicted of spying for Israel, media reported. Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency on Wednesday released a report in which Iranian officials stated that Tehran will implement the death penalty against Ahmad Reza Jalali by May 21. Jalali, a researcher …

Pope’s Ukraine Diplomacy a Political and Spiritual Tightrope

His appeals for an Orthodox Easter truce in Ukraine went unheeded. His planned meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church was canceled. A proposed visit to Moscow? Nyet. Even his attempt to showcase Russian-Ukrainian friendship fell flat. Pope Francis hasn’t made much of a diplomatic mark in Russia’s war in Ukraine, seemingly unable …

Former Leader of Independent Belarus Dies   

Stanislav Shushkevich, the first leader of an independent Belarus and one of the signatories of the accords that formally dissolved the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 87. His wife Irina told Agence France-Presse that Shushkevich passed away Tuesday in the capital Minsk. He had been hospitalized in intensive care last month after …