Month: July 2024

BERLIN — German authorities had fewer security problems and crimes to deal with than they expected at the European Championship, the country’s top security official said Monday. The tournament ended on Sunday with Spain beating England 2-1 in the final in Berlin and no reports of serious disturbances. That capped a month-long event that mostly saw only isolated and relatively minor incidents, a contrast with violence at some past tournaments. Germany’s Interior Ministry said that about 2.6 million people attended matches in the 10 host cities, and another 6 million watched games in the designated fan zones. Over the course of …

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The deadly July 8 Russian missile attack that damaged Ukraine’s largest children hospital also destroyed its school for seriously ill patients trying to keep up with their studies. The School of Superheroes, launched at Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, is now offered at other children’s hospitals in Ukraine. Anna Kosstutschenko has more from Kyiv. (Camera and Produced by: Pavel Suhodolskiy) …

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Budapest, Hungary — Top officials of the European Union will boycott informal meetings hosted by Hungary while the country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, after Hungary’s pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Orban held a series of rogue meetings with foreign leaders about Ukraine that angered his European partners. The highly unusual decision to have the European Commission president and other top officials of the body boycott the meetings in Budapest was made “in light of recent developments marking the start of the Hungarian [EU] presidency,” commission spokesperson Eric Mamer posted Monday on X. Hungary took over the six-month rotating role July 1, …

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YEREVAN — Armenia on Monday launched joint military drills with the United States, a move that reflects its leader’s efforts to forge closer ties with the U.S. and other Western allies as the country’s relations with old ally Russia sour. The “Eagle Partner” war games are aimed at increasing interoperability of units participating in international peacekeeping missions, according to Armenia’s Defense Minister Suren Papikyan. They involve Armenian peacekeeping forces, servicemen of the U.S. Army Europe and Africa, and the Kansas National Guard. It wasn’t immediately clear how many troops were taking part. The exercises were scheduled to last through July 24. …

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Geneva — Global childhood vaccination levels have stalled, leaving millions more children un- or under-vaccinated than before the pandemic, the U.N. said Monday, warning of dangerous coverage gaps enabling outbreaks of diseases like measles. In 2023, 84% of children, or 108 million, received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP), with the third dose serving as a key marker for global immunization coverage, according to data published by the U.N. health and children’s agencies. That was the same percentage as a year earlier, meaning that modest progress seen in 2022 after the steep drop during the COVID-19 …

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HILVERSUM, Netherlands — Quinn Schansman dreamed of becoming the youngest-ever CEO of an American company. A decade ago, he’d just finished the first year of an international business degree in Amsterdam as a step toward that lofty goal. But the 18-year-old dual Dutch American citizen’s future — whatever it may have held — was cruelly cut short when he was one of the 298 people killed as a Soviet-era Buk surface-to-air rocket, launched from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian rebels, destroyed Malaysia Airlines flight 17. The conflict in Ukraine has since erupted into full-scale war following Russia’s invasion in …

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