Worldwide news. The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique while others talk of a “plurality of worlds”
PARIS — France hosts top tech players next week at an artificial intelligence summit meant as a “wake-up call” for Europe as it struggles with AI challenges from the United States and China. Players from across the sector and representatives from 80 nations will gather in the French capital on February 10 and 11 in the …
Read more “France pitches AI summit as ‘wake-up call’ for Europe”
LONDON — It was quite the journey for such tiny froglets: traveling thousands of miles from the forests of southern Chile to London, carried and brooded inside their fathers’ vocal sacs for safety. London Zoo said Monday that 33 endangered Darwin’s frogs, named after scientist Charles Darwin, who discovered the species, were born in their new …
Read more “Scientists hope these tiny froglets can save their species”
Multiple earthquakes are rattling Santorini, a volcanic island in Greece, prompting authorities to dispatch rescuers with tents, a sniffer dog and drones, and to shut schools on four islands. Residents have been warned to avoid indoor gatherings, check escape routes, stay away from cliffs and to drain swimming pools to reduce potential structural damage to …
Read more “Multiple earthquakes rattling Greece’s volcanic island of Santorini”
BANGKOK — A journalist who covers environmental issues from Cambodia has been banned from entering the country where he has been based for the past five years. British reporter Gerry Flynn told VOA that immigration officials denied his re-entry to Cambodia on Jan. 5, when he tried to return after a vacation in Thailand. The journalist …
Read more “British environmental journalist denied entry to Cambodia”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has renewed its call for the United States to reverse its decision to withdraw from the U.N. health agency, warning of potential global health consequences and budget concerns. In his opening remarks at an executive board meeting on Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told attendees the health agency regrets …
Read more “WHO urges US to reconsider withdrawal, warns of budget impact”
The decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to freeze most foreign aid has left Ukrainian organizations that provide humanitarian aid and other services scrambling. Myroslava Gongadze has the story from Warsaw, with reporting from Anna Chernikova in Kyiv. VOA footage by Serhii Rozov and Vladyslav Smilianets. …
Madrid — A female Spanish soccer player told a court Monday that her boss kissed her against her will as millions watched on television, then pressured her to say it was consensual, in a case widely seen as putting machismo in sport on trial. Jenni Hermoso testified before Madrid’s High Court as Luis Rubiales, the former …
Read more “Spanish soccer boss pleads not guilty in ‘kiss’ trial “
Russian officials said Monday that Ukrainian drone attacks targeted energy facilities in two regions in southwestern Russia. Volgograd Governor Andrei Bocharov said falling debris from drones destroyed by Russian air defenses sparked fires at an oil refinery. Astrakhan Governor Igor Babushkin said the Ukrainian attacks focused on fuel and energy facilities, starting a fire in …
Read more “Russia says Ukrainian drone attacks targeted energy sites”
BRUSSELS — European Union leaders gather on Monday to discuss how to bolster the continent’s defenses against Russia and how to handle U.S. President Donald Trump after his decision to impose tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China. At a royal palace-turned-conference center in Brussels, the leaders of the EU’s 27 nations will also lunch …
Read more “EU leaders to huddle on defense against Russia, economy, and US”
MADRID — Spain’s former football chief Luis Rubiales goes on trial on Monday over the forced kiss he gave star forward Jenni Hermoso with the player scheduled to take the stand. The 47-year-old provoked worldwide outrage after he cupped Hermoso’s head and gave her an unsolicited kiss after Spain beat England to win the 2023 Women’s …
Read more “Trial of Spain’s ex-football chief over forced kiss to begin”
TBILISI, Georgia — Police in Georgia arrested several anti-government protesters on Sunday as thousands of demonstrators demanding new parliamentary elections briefly blocked a motorway on the edge of the capital Tbilisi. A Reuters reporter saw three protesters being arrested, including Nika Melia, a leader of the country’s largest opposition party, the Coalition for Change. Interfax news …
Read more “Georgian police arrest opposition leaders at pro-EU protest”
Rome — Milena Bernabo, awarded one of Italy’s top civilian honors for saving three children from the Nazis during World War II, died Sunday aged 96, local authorities said. Bernabo was awarded the gold medal for civil merit for saving her young neighbors during the August 1944 massacre of Sant’Anna di Stazzema, in Tuscany, in which …
Read more “Italian who saved children from WWII massacre dies aged 96”
Berlin — Tens of thousands took to the streets across Germany during the weekend to protest the center-right leader and front-runner in a Feb. 25 election for sending to parliament proposals for tough new migration rules that received the backing of a far-right party. Angry protesters in Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Leipzig said that Friedrich Merz …
Read more “Protests against Germany’s Merz who supports migration proposal backed by far-right”
ATHENS — A series of earthquakes near the Greek island of Santorini has led authorities to shut down schools, dispatch rescue teams with sniffer dogs and send instructions to residents including a request to drain their swimming pools. Even though earthquake experts say the more than 200 tremors that have hit the area since early Friday are …
Read more “Multiple tremors near Greek island of Santorini shut schools and put residents on edge “
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday that he would seek a strong trade relationship with the U.S. after President Donald Trump suggested he would slap Europe with tariffs after he hit America’s biggest trading partners — Canada, Mexico and China — with import taxes. Starmer spoke to reporters while hosting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz …
Read more “UK’s Starmer seeks strong trade relations with the US in the wake of Trump’s tariffs “
ISTANBUL — Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Jordan will come together to fight the remnants of the Islamic State group, a move the Turkish foreign minister says would allow the United States to cut ties with Kurdish militants in Syria. Washington’s decadelong relationship with Kurdish-led forces in Syria is opposed by Turkey. Ankara says the People’s Defense …
Read more “Turkey says it will join with neighbors to fight Islamic State group in Syria “
KYIV — Competing claims emerged over a deadly attack on a boarding school in Sudzha, a city in Russia’s Kursk region that has been under Ukrainian control for five months, with Ukraine and Russia accusing each other of carrying out the strike. The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Saturday night that four people were …
Read more “Russia and Ukraine trade blame over attack on boarding school in Russia’s Kursk region “
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said that ignoring the Soviet Union’s role in liberating Nazi German death camps such as Auschwitz and not inviting surviving family members of Soviet troops to liberation anniversaries was a shameful act. A commemoration to mark 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz camp in Poland by Soviet troops …
Read more “Putin says ignoring Soviet role in liberation of Nazi death camps is shameful “
LONDON — Britain will become the first country to introduce laws against AI tools used to generate sexual abuse images, the government announced Saturday. The government will make it illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate sexualized images of children, punishable by up to five years in prison, interior minister Yvette Cooper …
Read more “UK to become 1st country to criminalize AI child abuse tools”
NOVI SAD, SERBIA — Serbia’s students led a mass protest and blocked bridges over the River Danube in the northern city of Novi Sad on Saturday, drawing tens of thousands into the streets to express their anger with the country’s populist leadership and to call for change. Saturday marked three months since a huge concrete canopy …
Read more “Serbia’s students lead tens of thousands calling for change”
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis tripped while entering the Vatican auditorium for an audience Saturday after the handle of his walking stick snapped, but he avoided falling. The 88-year-old pope often must use a wheelchair or a cane because of bad knees and has fallen twice in the past two months. After Saturday’s slight stumble, two …
Read more “Pope stumbles, but avoids falling when cane snaps”
SHENGJIN, ALBANIA — An Italian navy ship on Saturday took migrants to Italy from asylum processing centers in Albania following a court decision in Rome. It was the third failed attempt by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government to process migrants in the non-EU country. A coast guard ship took 43 migrants from the port of Shengjin, 66 …
Read more “Third expulsion attempt fails as migrants in Albania returned to Italy”
KYIV, UKRAINE — Russia said on Saturday it had captured a village flanking the eastern flashpoint city of Toretsk in Ukraine as Kyiv said four people had died in overnight Russian strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry said its troops seized the village of Krymske in the northeastern suburbs of Toretsk, located in the eastern Donetsk region …
Read more “Russia says it is advancing toward flashpoint Ukrainian city”
The Arctic is one of the coldest and least populated regions on Earth, much of it covered by ice. But in recent years it has become one of the most important sites of geopolitical tensions — and a key focus of American policy. Despite its inhospitability, land north of the Arctic Circle has long been …