Month: June 2024

Zelenskyy, at Shangri-La meeting, urges countries to join peace summit

SINGAPORE — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday urged countries to participate in the June 15-16 peace summit in Switzerland. Zelenskyy, in his keynote speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, emphasized diplomacy’s role in maintaining Ukrainian efforts in the war with Russia, now in its third year. “Not so long ago, it seemed that the world would always be fragmented, but we saw that most nations truly desire and are capable of cooperation, at least as far as collective security is concerned,” he told hundreds of foreign government officials and delegates at the regional security dialogue. He stressed how support …

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Iceland elects businesswoman Halla Tomasdottir as president 

London — Halla Tomasdottir, a businesswoman and investor, has won Iceland’s presidential election, topping a crowded field of candidates in which the top three finishers were women, the country’s national broadcast service reported.  Tomasdottir was elected to the largely ceremonial post with 34.3% of the vote, defeating former Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, with 25.2%, and Halla Hrund Logadottir, with 15.5%, RUV said Sunday.  Tomasdottir, 55, campaigned as someone who was above party politics and could help open discussions on fundamental issues such as the effect of social media on the mental health of young people, Iceland’s development as a tourist destination …

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ДТЕК повідомляє про екстрені відключення в Києві та чотирьох областях

Остання масована атака на українську енергосистему відбулася у ніч проти 1 червня. Тоді російські військові атакували енергооб’єкти в пʼяти областях, поцілили по двох гідроелектростанціях …

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Sweden seeks to answer youths’ questions about NATO as its neutrality ends

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — The teacher’s opening question to students in Stockholm is blunt: “Has joining NATO increased the threat to Sweden?” Sweden became the Western military alliance’s 32nd member in March. The abrupt end to the Scandinavian country’s 200 years of neutrality following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and officials’ warnings about the Russian threat to Sweden itself, worry many. Teenagers are no exception. Masai Björkwall helped design a national program to educate students on the history and geopolitics of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after students at Viktor Rydberg Junior High School earlier this year anxiously asked if war might …

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Jewish veteran prepares to mark 80th anniversary of D-Day

LONDON — Even as he prepared to embark for the battlefields of Normandy, Pvt. Mervyn Kersh was summoned by his commanding officer and threatened with arrest. Why, the officer demanded, had Kersh refused to eat his army rations of canned beef and vegetables, subsisting only on canned peaches? Was he trying to make himself so weak that he would be unfit to fight in France? Kersh, then 19, was indignant. “I said that was the last thing I wanted to do,” Kersh told The Associated Press. “I’m Jewish. I didn’t eat anything that wasn’t kosher as far as I could help …

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Hungary’s Orbán stages ‘peace march’ ahead of EU elections

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A crowd of tens of thousands gathered in Hungary’s capital Saturday in a show of strength behind Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a week ahead of European Parliament elections, a contest he has cast as an existential turning point between peace in Europe and a world war. The demonstration, dubbed by organizers as a “peace march,” brought Orbán’s supporters from all over Hungary and neighboring countries, who marched along the Danube River in Budapest from the city’s iconic Chain Bridge onto Margaret Island, waving flags and signs reading “No War.” Orbán, whose 14 years in power make him the …

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Iceland voters to pick new president in weekend election

LONDON — Voters in Iceland are choosing a president Saturday, selecting from a field of 12 people that includes a former prime minister. The candidates are vying to replace outgoing President Gudni Th. Johannesson, who didn’t seek reelection for the largely ceremonial post. The winner will be the seventh president of Iceland since the founding of the republic some 80 years ago. Among the best known of the candidates is Katrin Jakobsdottir, who became prime minister in 2017 after three parties formed a broad governing coalition in hopes of moving Iceland out of a cycle of crisis that triggered three elections. …

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