Category: Євросоюз

KYIV — Russia launched several missiles and drones overnight targeting northern and eastern Ukraine, injuring at least 29 people, Ukrainian military and local authorities said on Sunday. The attack targeted Ukraine’s frontline regions of Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Donetsk, Ukraine’s air force said on the Telegram messaging app. Russia has been pummeling Ukrainian border regions with strikes, and Kyiv said its surprise incursion earlier this month into Russia’s Kursk region aimed to hinder Moscow’s ability to stage such attacks. “Most of the missiles did not reach their targets,” the air force said, adding that Russia launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile, an …

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madrid — Sunflower oil has dethroned olive oil as king of the kitchen in Spain, the world´s largest olive oil producer, as rising prices force consumers to switch to cheaper options.  Spaniards bought 107 million liters (28.3 million gallons) of all types of olive oil in the first half of 2024 compared with 179 million liters of sunflower oil, according to Spain’s biggest olive oil bottling association, Anierac.   Until this year, olive oil has been the most popular cooking oil in Spanish households, accounting for 62% of sales by volume in 2023 while sunflower oil represented almost 34%, according to …

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LUGO, Spain — When Adiaratou Iglesias crossed the finish line at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, she did not know she had bagged a gold in the women’s 100-metre T13 race until she was told. The visually impaired Spanish athlete, who goes by Adi and also won a 400m silver in Tokyo, said she now dreamed of hearing her adoptive family shout “gold” when she completes her races at the Paris Games this week. Iglesias was born in Mali with albinism, a genetic condition that inhibits the production of melanin which pigments the skin, hair and eyes. Albinism impairs her visual …

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paris — Pavel Durov, billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at the Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV and BFM TV said, citing unnamed sources.  Telegram, particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union, is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat. It aims to hit 1 billion users in the next year.   Based in Dubai, Telegram was founded by Russian-born Durov. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down …

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BUDAPEST, hungary — Hungary’s foreign minister said Saturday the European Commission’s decision not to mediate in a dispute over a blockage of oil supplies from Russia via Ukraine into his country suggested that Brussels was behind the stoppage.  Hungary and its neighbor Slovakia have been protesting since Ukraine put Russian oil producer Lukoil on a sanctions list in June, stopping that company’s oil from passing through Ukrainian territory to Slovak and Hungarian refineries.  The assertion from Hungary’s Peter Szijjarto, which he made without providing evidence, came a day after the European Commission declined a request from Hungary and Slovakia for it …

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SOLINGEN, Germany — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a knife attack in the German city of Solingen that killed three people and wounded eight others.   Police have detained a 15-year-old and were investigating whether this person was linked to the attacker. The perpetrator was still at large on Saturday.   Describing the man who carried out the attack as a “soldier of the Islamic State,” the militant group said in a statement on its Telegram account: “He carried out the attack in revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”   The statement did not immediately provide …

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SOLINGEN, Germany — Special police units on Saturday joined the search for an unknown man who carried out a stabbing attack at a crowded festival in the western German city of Solingen, killing three people and wounding at least eight others, five of them seriously. “The police are currently conducting a large-scale search for the perpetrator,” police said in a statement. “Both victims and witnesses are currently being questioned.” Police did not indicate that they had yet established the identity of the attacker and warned people to stay vigilant even as well-wishers started to leave flowers at the scene. Police established …

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PARIS — French authorities opened a terrorism investigation Saturday after an arson attack on a synagogue in a southwestern Mediterranean town injured a police officer. Security forces were searching for a suspect. Two cars parked at the Beth Yaacov synagogue complex in the seaside resort town of La Grande Motte near Montpellier were set ablaze just after 8 a.m. Saturday, antiterrorism prosecutors said in a statement. Firefighters discovered additional fires at two entrances to the synagogue. A police officer who walked up to the site was injured after a propane gas tank in one of the vehicles exploded, the statement said. …

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KYIV, Ukraine — Russia and Ukraine exchanged drone, missile and artillery attacks on Saturday as Kyiv marked its third Independence Day since Moscow’s full-scale invasion. A woman was killed and a man wounded when Russian forces shelled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, the capital of the partially occupied Kherson region, according to the regional prosecutor. Ukraine’s air force said it had intercepted and destroyed seven drones over the country’s south. Russian long-range bombers also attacked the area of Zmiinyi (Snake) Island with four cruise missiles, while the wider Kherson region was also struck by aerial bombs. In Russia, the Defense …

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ROME — Prosecutors in Italy said Saturday they have opened an investigation into culpable shipwreck and multiple manslaughter after a superyacht capsized during a storm off the coast of Sicily, killing seven people onboard. They include British tech magnate Mike Lynch and his daughter. Termini Imerese prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio confirmed the investigation has been launched but said no suspect has been identified. “We are only in the initial phase of the investigation. We can’t exclude any sort of development at present,” he told reporters at a news conference. Cartosio said his team will carefully consider each possible element of responsibility, including …

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Washington — China and Russia agreed to expand their economic cooperation using a planned banking system, which analysts say is aimed at supporting their militaries and undermining U.S.-led global order. The two countries issued a joint communiqué agreeing “to strengthen and develop the payment and settlement infrastructure,” including “opening corresponding accounts and establishing branches and subsidiary banks in two countries” to facilitate “smooth” payment in trade. The communiqué was issued when Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Moscow on Wednesday, Russian news agency Tass reported the following day. At the meeting, Mishustin said, “Western countries …

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SOLINGEN, Germany — An attacker with a knife killed three people and seriously wounded at least five late on Friday at a festival in the western German city of Solingen, authorities said. Witnesses alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time to an unknown perpetrator who had wounded several people indiscriminately with a knife on a central square. Police said have no one in custody and had little information on the man. They said they believe the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker. One of the festival organizers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage and asked festivalgoers to “go calmly; …

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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will send about $125 million in new military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Thursday, even as Washington works to get a better understanding of Kyiv’s incursion into Russia and how it advances the broader battlefield goals more than two years into the war.  U.S. officials said the latest package of aid includes air defense missiles, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Javelins and an array of other anti-armor missiles, counter-drone and counter-electronic warfare systems and equipment, 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, vehicles and other equipment.  The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because …

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As the war in Ukraine drags on, Ukrainian civilians are coping the best they can. For hundreds, that means attending special military centers to learn how to fight. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. Videographer: Pavel Suhodolskiy …

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Berlin — Germany’s next national election has been set for Sept. 28, 2025. Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he will run for a second term, but his party and the others in his three-party coalition have seen their popularity decline sharply as a result of constant infighting.  President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s office said Friday that the head of state has signed off on the government’s recommendation and formally set the date of the election for the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. The Bundestag then elects the chancellor, after weeks or sometimes months of coalition negotiations.  Scholz has run a three-party coalition of …

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BERLIN — The Berlin Zoo announced Friday that longtime resident giant panda Meng Meng has given birth to twins — for a second time. The cubs were born on Thursday, the zoo said in a statement. They were born only 11 days after ultrasound scans showed that Meng Meng, 11, was pregnant. Their sex has not yet been determined “with certainty.” “Now it’s time to keep your fingers crossed for the critical first few days,” the zoo said. The cubs are tiny, weighing just 169 grams and 136 grams respectively, and are about 14 centimeters long. As with other large bears, …

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BEIJING — China and Belarus have agreed to strengthen cooperation in a range of sectors including trade, security, energy and finance, according to a joint statement, after Chinese Premier Li Qiang met Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko in Minsk. The statement released on Friday, a day after the Minsk meeting, said both countries would also strengthen cooperation in industrial supply chains and continue to enhance trade facilitation to reduce costs for both ends. Belarus also intends to deepen cooperation with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, a megalopolis which covers nine cities including Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, said the statement published …

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