Month: October 2023

In the humble backyard of a destroyed house, a 13-year-old chops firewood to get ready for winter. His mother, Tetiana Yarema, has been preparing for months as she remembers last winter’s Russian strikes on the energy infrastructure that plunged Ukraine into darkness. “Those were dark days. I didn’t want anything. I just wanted to pack my things and go abroad,” said Yarema, 48, who says she ended up staying because of her son’s insistence. For the Yarema family, like millions of other Ukrainians touched by Russia’s war on Ukraine, winter is an especially challenging time. The mother and son live …

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Hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside the United Nations on Sunday demanding the release of hostages seized by Hamas during the Islamist group’s bloody attack on Israel. The protest on the square outside the U.N.’s Palais des Nations headquarters in Geneva was organized by the Voice for Freedom coalition, bringing together several Christian Zionist organizing committees.   The gathering therefore had a religious tone, with chants and slogans intermingled with prayers and psalms.    The demonstration was the culmination of a visit to Geneva by the families of several of those missing since the Hamas attack. They met with Mirjana Spoljaric, …

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At least six people were killed, and 16 others were injured in a Russian missile strike on a mail depot in the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said. “Russian missiles hit the Nova Poshta center — an ordinary civilian object,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app. He shared a video showing a building with blown out windows, and trucks with Nova Poshta written on them, parked in front of the building. Nova Poshta means New Post in Ukrainian. All the victims were employees of the private Ukrainian postal and courier service, …

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The Ukrainian president says Turkey plans to join a peace process this week aimed at bringing an end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The announcement came as a missile strike on a Ukrainian post office killed a handful of peole and injured several more. It also follows a week in which Russia’s top diplomat traveled to North Korea. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed Sunday to stamp out anti-Semitism at the opening of a new synagogue, amid a spike in anti-Jewish incidents in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict. “There must be zero tolerance for anti-Semitism in Germany,” Scholz said at the synagogue in the eastern city of Dessau. Germany will “defend and protect” Jewish life, Scholz said, voicing his shock at anti-Semitism spreading “around the world and, shamefully, also here in Germany” since the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel. Germany has seen a spate of anti-Semitic incidents since the attacks and Israel’s retaliatory bombing campaign. Jewish …

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Spain’s Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior congratulated the Sevilla team for quickly moving to report and eject a fan for allegedly making a racist gesture toward him during Saturday’s football game. The fan was handed over to local authorities. Sevilla said in a statement that it “condemns any racist and xenophobic behavior.” Vinicus said he had also seen video reported to be from Saturday’s game with a child making racist gestures. Media outlets did not detail what the gestures were. However, many Black football players playing in Europe have been subjected to monkey chants, people calling them monkeys and people …

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“Ordain women priests!” Not far from the Vatican, where hundreds of Catholics have gathered to debate the future of the Church, purple-clad activists make their voices heard against the “patriarchy”. The place of women in the Catholic Church — led for 2,000 years by a man, which outlaws abortion and female priests and does not recognize divorce — is one of the hot topics at the general assembly of the Synod of Bishops taking place over four weeks. Women campaigning for change have come to Rome to make their case, from Europe and the United States but also South Africa, …

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Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched Saturday through a rainy London to demand Israel stop its bombardment of Gaza, and similar calls were heard in cities around the world as the Israel-Hamas war entered its third week.  On the day a trickle of aid entered Gaza, where more than 1 million people have left their homes because of the conflict, protesters gathered in at Marble Arch near London’s Hyde Park before marching to the government district, Whitehall.  Police estimated the crowd that wound its way through the city for three hours at “up to 100,000.”  Waving Palestinian flags and …

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Bobby Charlton, an English soccer icon who survived a plane crash that decimated his Manchester United team and became the heartbeat of his country’s 1966 World Cup-winning team, has died. He was 86.  A statement from Charlton’s family, released by United, said he died Saturday surrounded by his family.  An extravagantly gifted midfielder with a ferocious shot, Charlton was the leading scorer for both United (249 goals) and England (49 goals) for more than 40 years until being overtaken by Wayne Rooney.  “Sir Bobby was a hero to millions, not just in Manchester, or the United Kingdom, but wherever football …

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