State Department — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, on Monday to discuss a range of pressing global issues and joint initiatives aimed at promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific that is secure and stable. “They affirmed the depth of the U.S.-UK Special Relationship and the crucial …

Read more “Rubio and Lammy reaffirm US-UK partnership on Indo-Pacific security, China challenges”

Around 50 survivors joined world leaders Monday at the site of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in Poland, on the 80th anniversary of its liberation in World War II – marked around the world as International Holocaust Memorial Day. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

Belarus’ opposition activists and Western officials have denounced the reelection of Alexander Lukashenko to serve his seventh five-year presidential term.    The 70-year-old leader began his iron-fisted rule in 1994.   He received nearly 87% of the ballots cast in Sunday’s election in the Eastern European country, according to the Belarus Central Election Commission.   His victory was …

Read more “Belarusian opposition, Western leaders denounce Lukashenko’s reelection”

BELGRADE, SERBIA — Serbia’s striking university students on Monday launched a 24-hour blockade of a key traffic intersection in the capital, Belgrade, stepping up pressure on the populist authorities over a deadly canopy collapse in November that killed 15 people. Serbian farmers on tractors and thousands of citizens joined the blockade that followed weeks of protests …

Read more “Serbian farmers join striking university students’ 24-hour traffic blockade in Belgrade”

LONDON — Around 50 survivors and dozens of world leaders attended memorial events at the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation by the Soviet Red Army in World War II.  January 27 is marked around the world as International Holocaust Memorial Day. Six million …

Read more “Auschwitz liberation at 80: Survivors, world leaders mark milestone”

PARIS — European Union foreign ministers agreed Monday to continue sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, but to ease some sanctions against Syria following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad. Weeks of stalling by Hungary ended Monday, allowing the EU to renew sanctions against Russia for another six months. But in return, Hungarian Prime Minister …

Read more “EU renews sanctions against Russia, eases them on Syria”

WASHINGTON — On Jan. 22, Donald Trump — just two days after being inaugurated for his second term as U.S. president — again called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the “ridiculous” war with Ukraine, but this time he added a threat. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have …

Read more “Trump’s sanctions could force Russia’s Putin to negotiating table, some experts say”

RENNES, FRANCE — Residents in western France used boats to escape their flooded homes Monday as rivers and waterways broke their banks after successive storms battered Normandy and Brittany. The national weather service had issued flood and wind warnings as Storm Herminia hit Spain, France on parts of the U.K. Normandy and Brittany were already waterlogged …

Read more “Flood victims rescued by boat as Storm Herminia hits northern France”

Part of a U.S. military aid package to Ukraine in April 2022, the M113 armored personnel carrier has proved vital in conducting assault operations and providing protection for Ukrainian infantry. And many of these vehicles are still up and running nearly three years later. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy …

Sofia, Bulgaria — The Swedish coast guard chased and intercepted a Bulgarian ship after a fiber-optic cable under the Baltic Sea linking Sweden to Latvia was damaged, its owner said on Monday. Latvia sent a warship on Sunday to investigate the damage, while Swedish prosecutors opened an “aggravated sabotage” investigation. Nations around the Baltic Sea have …

Read more “Sweden intercepts Bulgarian ship over damaged Baltic cable”

Russian drone attacks damaged infrastructure sites in western, central and eastern Ukraine on Monday. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 57 of the 108 total drones that Russian forces launched overnight. The intercepts took place over the Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions, the military said. Officials in …

Read more “Ukraine says Russian drone attacks hit infrastructure in several regions”

The smiling face of President Alexander Lukashenko gazed out from campaign posters across Belarus on Sunday as the country held an orchestrated election virtually guaranteed to give the 70-year-old autocrat yet another term on top of his three decades in power. “Needed!” the posters proclaim beneath a photo of Lukashenko, his hands clasped together. The …

Read more “Belarus strongman wins a 7th term in an election the opposition calls a farce”

BEIJING — China has prohibited imports of sheep, goat, poultry and even-toed ungulates from African, Asian and European countries due to outbreaks of livestock diseases such as sheep pox, goat pox and foot-and-mouth-disease. The ban, which also includes processed and unprocessed products, comes after the World Health Organization released information of disease outbreaks in various countries, …

Read more “China bans livestock product imports from numerous countries on disease worries”

STOCKHOLM/VILNIUS — An undersea fiber optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged on Sunday, likely as a result of external influence, Latvia said, prompting NATO to deploy patrol ships to the area and triggering a sabotage investigation by Swedish authorities. Sweden’s Security Service has seized control of a vessel as part of the probe, the …

Read more “Sweden opens sabotage probe into Baltic undersea cable damage”

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia on Sunday claimed its troops had captured a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine as part of a grinding campaign to weaken Kyiv’s grip on the country’s industrial heartland, while uncertainty over the continued flow of U.S. funding has reportedly halted the work of some Ukrainian NGOs, including those helping war veterans. …

Read more “Russia says its troops have captured a strategic town in eastern Ukraine”

Rome — Italy said Sunday it was transferring 49 migrants picked up in the Mediterranean to new processing centers in Albania, in the third such attempt facing hurdles by courts. The navy vessel Cassiopea with the migrants on board was expected to reach the Albanian port of Shengjin on Tuesday morning, port officials said. The Interior …

Read more “Italy resumes migrant transfers to processing centers in Albania”

Berlin — Government officials and residents attended a solemn Mass Sunday to honor a child and a man killed in a knife attack in Germany, an assault that amplified the debate about migration ahead of the Feb. 23 general election. The ecumenical religious service at the Catholic Basilica of St. Peter and Alexander in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, …

Read more “Germany holds commemoration for 2 people killed in knife attack”

Ukrainian Sergeant Serhiy Danilets was struck by enemy tank fire and lost his right arm fighting Russian troops in 2022. To help restore his mobility, world-renowned Swedish orthopedic surgeon Rickard Branemark traveled to Kyiv to perform the surgery. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. VOA footage and video editing by Pavel Suhodolskiy. …

London — Ireland called in help from England and France on Sunday as repair crews worked to restore power to hundreds of thousands of people after the most disruptive storm for years. More than 1 million people in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland were left without electricity after Storm Eowyn roared through on Friday. In Ireland, …

Read more “Thousands in Ireland still without power as officials say Storm Eowyn cleanup will take time “

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis warned of the “scourge of antisemitism” in his Angelus prayer on Sunday, the eve of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, noting it marks 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.  “The horror of the extermination of millions of Jewish people and others of different faiths during those years …

Read more “Pope Francis warns of ‘scourge of antisemitism’ ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day “

MINSK — Belarusians voted on Sunday in an election set to hand President Alexander Lukashenko a seventh term, prolonging his three-decade authoritarian rule.    Lukashenko — a 70-year-old former collective farm boss — has been in power in reclusive, Moscow-allied Belarus since 1994.    Speaking after casting his vote in the capital Minsk, the self-avowed “dictator” dismissed …

Read more “Belarusians vote in election to extend Lukashenko’s 30-year rule “