The U.S. military says it struck three facilities Tuesday in western Iraq used by the Iranian-backed militant group Kataib Hezbollah. It’s the latest retaliatory strikes after militant groups have hit U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria more than 150 times since mid-October. There are growing concerns that the U.S. may soon be entangled in another war in the Middle East as it supports Israel in its fight against Hamas and its European partner, Ukraine, as it fights off Russian invaders. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has details. …
Paris — The European Commission is due on Thursday to begin “strategic” talks with farmers’ federations, agri-business firms, NGOs and experts on ways to assuage the ire on farms in several countries. On the agenda are key issues including farming incomes, sustainable agricultural practices, technological innovations and competitiveness, which will be discussed in advance by the European Union’s agriculture ministers at their meeting Tuesday in Brussels. The initiative was not confirmed until late last week, even though Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had promised in September to start discussions, insisting that farming and environmental protection were not mutually exclusive. Here …
Capitol Hill — U.S. lawmakers said Tuesday a deal on border security in return for Republican votes to send nearly $60 billion in aid to Ukraine is nearing completion but likely will not be announced this week. “The whole world is watching and asking a simple question: Does the United States stand up for its friends?” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, one of the lead negotiators on the deal, told reporters Tuesday. “Does the United States stand up for democracy? Does the United States stand up for the preservation of the post-World War II order? Or do we turn our back on …
STOCKHOLM — Five people on Tuesday illegally entered the premises of Iran’s embassy on the outskirts of Stockholm during a protest, Swedish police said in a statement. The people were later removed from the area. It was not immediately clear whether any of the five had entered the embassy building itself, a police spokesperson told news agency TT. Stockholm and Tehran are involved in a growing diplomatic row over several Swedish citizens held in custody in Iran. Iran has meanwhile accused a Swedish court of unjustly sentencing a former Iranian official to life in prison over a mass execution of political …
The Ukrainian 80th Separate Galician Air Assault Brigade have been using Ukrainian equipment to take out Russian armored vehicles since the start of the war. Anna Kosstutschenko talked with some of the veteran fighters. (Camera and Produced by: Pavel Suhodolskiy) …
School volunteers in the Kyiv region of Ukraine constructed a bomb shelter resembling a house straight out of “The Hobbit” films. The school had been destroyed at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. After the volunteers rebuilt it, they added the whimsical shelter for the students. Lesia Bakalets has the story from Kyiv. Videographer: Evgenii Shynkar …
Phnom Penh, Cambodia — France and Cambodia have signed a $235 million aid agreement for drinking water and energy infrastructure development, as well as vocational training. The deal is part of a move to boost bilateral relations between the two countries, which have maintained a postcolonial dialogue since Cambodia became independent in 1953. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace and announced the pact last week. It was the West Point graduate’s first official visit to a Western power since succeeding his father, Hun Sen, in August. “Cambodia will always remember France’s role in …
london — Two motorists were killed, tens of thousands of people were left without electricity and hundreds of trains were canceled Monday after the latest winter storm lashed Britain and Ireland with heavy rain and wind gusts that topped 100 mph (160 kph). The storm littered roads and railways with downed trees that created deadly hazards and blocked travel, disrupting morning commutes. On Sunday night, an 84-year-old male passenger in a car in Scotland and a van driver in his 60s in Northern Ireland were killed when their vehicles struck toppled trees. The U.K.’s Met Office weather service had issued an …
SKOPJE, North Macedonia — The leaders of Western Balkan countries pledged Monday to make full use of the European Union’s financial support plan of 6 billion euros ($6.5 billion) as they continue to seek membership in the bloc. Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania are at different stages of the accession process. Their leaders gathered in North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, and said in a joint statement they were committed “to the development of their countries to follow European standards.” In November, the European Commission presented a Growth Plan for the Western Balkans to enhance economic integration with the EU’s …
Geneva — This year’s executive board meeting at the World Health Organization opened at a time of multiplying global health emergencies, but also at a moment when the U.N. health agency can point to “many achievements and milestones” in public health. “After almost three-and-a-half years in May, I declared an end to both COVID-19 and mpox as global health emergencies, although both remain global threats,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told delegates on Monday. “More than two-thirds of the global population has now received a complete primary series of a COVID-19 vaccine,” he said. “COVAX, which closed at the end of …
Russian immigrants in many countries hit the streets Sunday, protesting on the three-year anniversary of the imprisonment of Russia’s best-known opposition leader, Alexey Navalny. Richard Green narrates VOA’s report from Los Angeles. …
Jerusalem — Israel’s cabinet approved a plan for frozen tax funds earmarked for the Hamas-run Gaza Strip to be held by Norway instead of transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA), officials said Sunday. Under interim peace accords reached in the 1990s, Israel’s finance ministry collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the Western-backed PA, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. But there have been constant wrangles over the arrangement, including Israel’s demand that the funds do not reach Hamas, which it and most of the West deem a terrorist group. Hamas seized control …
Washington — A thwarted Iranian plot to assassinate two journalists working for a Persian TV network in London has renewed focus on the ways hostile governments try to target critics outside their jurisdiction. Details of the plot, uncovered by the British news outlet ITV News late last year, included a plan to kill the journalists Sima Sabet and Fardad Farahzad. The details “are a shocking reminder of the sinister lengths that the Iranian regime is willing to go to silence critical reporting from abroad,” said Jessica White, who researches transnational repression at Freedom House. “Reporters covering human rights violations by the …
Russia says at least two dozen people are dead after a neighborhood of a Russia-annexed city came under shelling by Ukrainian forces. In a separate attack, a Russian chemical transport terminal also came under fire. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story. …
London — Britain and Ireland braced Sunday for powerful wind and rain from Storm Isha that were expected to batter a wide swath of the island nations and disrupt travel. The Met Office issued an unusual blanket wind warning for all the U.K., saying gusts could reach 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour) in places and threaten lives. “There’s the potential for danger-to-life and damaging winds potentially leading to some power cuts in places, some large waves around coastal regions could bring some debris onto roads and trees could come down,” meteorologist Tom Morgan said. Parts of the U.K. …