Month: October 2023

European Union interior ministers on Thursday debated how to manage the impact of the war between Israel and Hamas on the bloc, amid heightened security tensions after a firebomb assault on a Berlin synagogue and killings in Belgium and France by suspected Islamist extremists. Officials from across the 27-nation EU have expressed concerns about a rise in antisemitic attacks, the radicalization of young people online, the use of encrypted messaging services by criminals or extremists, and the need to speed up the deportation of people who might pose a public danger. But calls for an increase in security across the …

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Ukraine’s military says Russia unleashed a wave of drone and missile strikes on four Ukrainian regions overnight but most of them were intercepted and destroyed by air defenses. A total of 17 drones and missiles were launched against infrastructure, civilian, and military targets in Donetsk, Mykolayiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia, the military said Thursday. Three drones and one cruise missile were shot down by Ukrainian forces, the military added. There were no reports of casualties. On Wednesday, officials in southern Ukraine said a Russian missile hit a residential area killing at least two people.  Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said the missile hit …

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U.S. President Joe Biden is set to address the nation Thursday night and discuss the U.S. response to the recent Hamas attack on Israel as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine. Biden visited Israel Wednesday, bringing a message of support to Israelis while also working to secure humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The U.S. announced $100 million in aid for Gaza and the West Bank, and the Biden administration is expected to propose $100 billion in supplemental assistance for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and security along the U.S.-Mexico border. “My administration was in close touch with the leadership …

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Officials in southern Ukraine said a Russian missile hit a residential area late Wednesday, killing at least two people. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said the missile hit a food shop in the Mykolaiv region. Vitaliy Kim, the regional governor, said the attack happened in the village of Stepove and damaged both residential buildings and an agricultural business. Another Russian missile strike earlier Wednesday hit a residential building in Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Wednesday that attack killed five people and injured five others. Another Russian strike killed a woman and injured four other people in Dnipropetrovsk, …

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French Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah has returned to France, her university said Wednesday, after being held for 4½ years in Iran in a case that prompted tensions between Paris and Tehran. Adelkhah was arrested in June 2019 and convicted on national security charges that her supporters have denounced as absurd. She was released from prison in February but remained unable to leave Iran. A well-known researcher of Iranian Shiite religion and politics, Adelkhah landed back in Paris on Tuesday, according to her employer, Sciences Po University, which had set up a support group to win her release. “After so many …

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A Russian American journalist working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, her employer and a journalist watchdog group said Wednesday. Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with the U.S. Congress-funded outlet’s Tatar-Bashkir service, “needs to be released so she can return to her family immediately,” RFE/RL acting President Jeffrey Gedmin said in a statement. “Alsu is a highly respected colleague, devoted wife and dedicated mother to two children,” Gedmin said. RFE/RL, like VOA, is an independent news organization that is part of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. …

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Tensions between the United States and Turkey are growing, with each side accusing the other of posing a security threat. The war of words follows the U.S. downing of a Turkish drone that Washington said was threatening American forces in Syria. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

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Pope Francis decried the “desperate” situation in Gaza, calling for peace, during his general audience on Wednesday. The pope, however, did not mention the deadly attack Tuesday on a hospital in Gaza. Pope Francis told the faithful gathering in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday that his “thoughts go to Palestine and Israel,” expressing concern that this war could spread. He urged the faithful to pray for peace.   “The victims are increasing and the situation in Gaza is desperate,” Pope Francis said. “May, please everything, everything be done to avoid a humanitarian disaster, and it’s possible that this war might grow. …

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Russia’s parliament moved swiftly to fulfill the wish of President Vladimir Putin by completing the passage of a bill that shifts Moscow’s legal stance on nuclear testing at a time of acute tension with the West. The lower house, the State Duma, on Wednesday passed the second and third readings of a bill that revokes Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, or CTBT. Both were passed unanimously by 415 votes to 0. Putin urged the Duma on October 5 to make the change in order to “mirror” the position of the United States, which has signed but …

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Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed their deepening bilateral ties Wednesday during a one-on-one meeting in Beijing. The two leaders held talks at the Great Hall of the People on the sideline of a forum marking the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi’s signature policy to build massive infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa, Latin America and parts of Eastern and Southern Europe. Referring to his Russian counterpart as “my old friend,” President Xi said the ‘political trust” between China and Russia has deepened, with two sides sharing “close, effective strategic coordination.” “In the …

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