Month: May 2023

After the gilded spectacle of King Charles III’s crowning in an ancient religious ceremony, coronation festivities took a more down-to-earth turn Sunday with thousands of picnics and street parties held across the U.K. in his honor. The community get-togethers, part of a British tradition known as the Big Lunch, were intended to bring neighbors together to celebrate the newly crowned king even as support for the monarchy wanes. Critics complained about the coronation’s cost at a time of exorbitant living expenses amid double-digit inflation. Thousands of luncheons were organized as part of the celebrations Sunday, along with a nighttime concert …

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A multi-vehicle crash in southern Turkey’s Hatay province killed at least 12 people and injured 31 others, including three seriously, officials said. A truck crossed into opposite lanes after the driver lost control late Saturday, colliding with nine cars and two minibuses, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Many of the vehicles were parked by the roadside near a gas station as friends and relatives said goodbye to men leaving to carry out mandatory military service. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that fires broke out on the Iskenderun-Antakya highway. The minister tweeted that 22 ambulances and three medical rescue teams …

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New developments:  Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said Sunday that Russia has promised to provide his mercenaries with all the ammunition they need for their fight in Ukraine. Prigozhin had said he was withdrawing his fighters from the strategic location of Bakhmut, but now says his fighters will have “everything necessary” to defend Bakhmut. Russian officials say they beat back a Ukrainian drone strike overnight over Russian-annexed Crimea. Ukrainian officials issued air raid alerts on Saturday evening for areas covering roughly two-thirds of the country, from Kyiv and regions to the west through the east as well as south to Kherson region …

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Slovakia’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on Sunday he had asked the president to relieve him of his duties, after ministers’ resignations weakened his cabinet that is serving in a caretaker capacity before elections in September. Heger is due to meet President Zuzana Caputova, who has the power to appoint a new caretaker prime minister, later on Sunday. Heger has faced opposition calls to make way for a technocrat administration to lead the central European country until early elections to take place in September. Polls find the public favors the biggest opposition party, which is led by former prime minister …

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The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency has issued a warning about the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine and the surrounding community. Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement Saturday that the general situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has become “increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous.” Grossi said “the nearby town of Enerhodar,” where most of the plant staff live, is being evacuated. The operating staff, however, remains on-site at the plant. However, the IAEA experts, based at the plant, have not been able to visit Enerhodar recently. Grossi said the experts “are continuing to …

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New developments: Ukrainian officials issued air raid alerts on Saturday evening for areas covering roughly two-thirds of the country, from Kyiv and regions to the west through the east as well as south to Kherson region and Russian-annexed Crimea. Ukraine’s air force intercepted and downed a hypersonic Russian missile with an American Patriot defense system. Six Ukrainian demining workers were killed and two were injured as Russian shelling intensifies in Kherson Oblast. A fired Russian general known as the “Butcher of Mariupol” has a new job. He’s joining forces with the Wagner mercenary group. Russia’s Foreign Ministry claimed on Saturday …

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Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of London on Saturday to witness the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III in a ceremony of pageantry and tradition watched by millions around the world on television and online. Ninety heads of state, including kings and queens from around the world, attended the ceremony at Westminster Abbey. Some 203 countries were represented in the congregation, according to Buckingham Palace. Charles, now 74 years old, became heir to the British throne in 1952 at the age of just three, when his mother Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne and was the longest-serving …

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Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of London on Saturday to witness the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III in a ceremony filled with tradition and colorful pageantry and watched by millions around the world online and on television. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

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The car of a prominent pro-Kremlin novelist exploded Saturday in Russia, injuring him and killing his driver, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency and law enforcement officials. The incident involving the car of Zakhar Prilepin, a well-known nationalist writer and an ardent supporter of what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, took place in the region of Nizhny Novgorod, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Moscow. It is the third explosion involving prominent pro-Kremlin figures since the start of the war in Ukraine. In August 2022, a car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow …

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