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As President Donald Trump’s administration launched intense diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, VOA Russian looks at how Washington uses different channels and different modes in building relationships with various partners, alternating messages they were delivering during the Munich Security Conference depending on who was the messenger and who was in the audience. Click here for the full story in Russian. …
The Voice of America visited Caracas to find out what alternatives businesses are using to continue selling, despite the challenges arising from the exchange rate gap in Venezuela. Click here for the full story in Spanish. …
STOCKHOLM — Sweden’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Greta Thunberg and hundreds of other young activists cannot sue the state in a Swedish court over what they say is insufficient action against climate change. Activists filed a class action lawsuit in 2022 with a district court claiming the state violates their rights as laid out in the European Convention on Human Rights by not doing enough to limit climate change, nor to mitigate its effects. The district court in 2023 asked the Supreme Court to clarify whether a lawsuit of this kind can effectively be tried in a Swedish court, after the state requested the case be dismissed. “A court cannot decide that the Riksdag or the government must take any specific action. The political bodies decide independently on which specific climate measures Sweden should take,” the Supreme Court said in a statement on Wednesday. The currently around 300 plaintiffs, which call themselves the Aurora group, wanted the district court to order Sweden to do more to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. …
MANILA, Philippines — The United States condemned the “dangerous” maneuvers of a Chinese navy helicopter that endangered the safety of a Philippine government aircraft patrolling a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, its ambassador to Manila said on Wednesday. In a post on X, Ambassador MaryKay Carlson also called on China “to refrain from coercive actions and settle its disputes peacefully in accordance with international law.” The Philippines said late on Tuesday it was “deeply disturbed” by the Chinese navy’s “unprofessional and reckless” flight actions and that it will make a diplomatic protest. Manila’s coast guard said the Chinese navy helicopter performed dangerous flight maneuvers when it flew close to a government aircraft conducting surveillance over the Scarborough Shoal, endangering the lives of its pilots and passengers. China disputed the Philippines’ account, saying on Tuesday its aircraft “illegally intruded” into China’s airspace and accused its Southeast Asian neighbor of “spreading false narratives.” Named after a British ship that was grounded on the atoll nearly three centuries ago, the Scarborough Shoal is one of the most contested maritime features in the South China Sea, where Beijing and Manila have clashed repeatedly. “The Philippines has undeniable sovereignty and jurisdiction over Bajo de Masinloc,” its maritime council said in a statement, using Manila’s name for the shoal. China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, a vital waterway for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, putting it at odds with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. A 2016 arbitration ruling invalidated China’s expansive claims but Beijing does not recognize the decision. …
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted to advance the nomination of Kash Patel to be the director of the FBI, putting a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and a critic of the bureau on track to run the most prominent U.S. law enforcement agency. The Senate voted 48-45 along party lines on a procedural measure setting the stage for a final confirmation vote on one of Trump’s most controversial nominees later this week. Patel, a former intelligence and Defense Department official in Trump’s first term, has called for a radical reshaping of the FBI, pledging to expand its role on illegal immigration and violent crime, core Trump priorities. Patel has been among the most vocal critics of FBI investigations into Trump on issues ranging from Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Florida club and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Democrats have called Patel unfit to lead the FBI, pointing to his embrace of false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election and FBI agents fomenting the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. But Patel has attracted broad support from Republicans, who have touted him as a reformer. A Senate panel voted 12-10 along party lines last week to send his nomination to the full Senate. …
Washington — The Senate confirmed wealthy financier Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary Tuesday, putting in place a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s hardline trade policies. At the Commerce Department, Lutnick, who was CEO at the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, will oversee 50,000 employees who do everything from collecting economic statistics to running the census to issuing weather reports. But he’s likely to spend a lot of time — along with Jamieson Greer, Trump’s nominee to be the top U.S. trade negotiator — managing the president’s aggressive plans to impose import taxes on U.S. trading partners, including allies and adversaries alike. The Senate vote to confirm Lutnick was 51-45. Trump views the tariffs as a versatile economic tool. They can raise money to finance his tax cuts elsewhere, protect U.S. industries and pressure other countries into making concessions on such issues as their own trade barriers, immigration and drug trafficking. Mainstream economists mostly view tariffs as counterproductive: They are paid by import companies in the United States, which try to pass along the higher costs to consumers and can thereby add to inflationary pressures throughout the economy. At his confirmation hearing last month, Lutnick dismissed as “nonsense” the idea that tariffs contribute to inflation. He expressed support for deploying across-the-board tariffs “country by country” to strong-arm other countries into lowering barriers to American exports. Trump last week announced plans for “reciprocal” tariffs — raising U.S. import tax rates to match the higher taxes that other countries impose on goods from the U.S. The move would shatter the rules that have governed world trade for decades. Since the 1960s, tariff rates have mostly emerged from negotiations between dozens of countries. Trump is commandeering the process. The president has also imposed 10% tariffs on Chinese imports and effectively raised U.S. taxes on foreign steel and aluminum. He has threatened — and delayed until March 4 — 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico. Lutnick was CEO at Cantor Fitzgerald when its offices were hit in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. The firm lost two-thirds of its employees — 658 people — that day, including Lutnick’s brother. Howard Lutnick led the firm’s recovery and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Lutnick has promised to sell off his business holdings. They’re complicated. His financial disclosure statement showed that he … “Senate confirms Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary” →
Russia shot down 21 Ukrainian drones late Tuesday, but a drone attack on an oil pumping station in southern Russia reduced oil supplies for Kazakhstan and the global market, Russian officials said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces said one of their drones struck and knocked out a North Korean self-propelled howitzer on the eastern front. “In Luhansk region, fighters of the 412th separate regiment of Nemesis drones struck a very rare M-1978 North Korean self-propelled artillery vehicle with a gun caliber of 170 mm,” the Ukrainian military posted on the Telegram messaging app. The Russian defense ministry said 20 drones in the Bryansk region on the Ukrainian border and another in Crimea were shot down within an hour late Tuesday. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said the drone attack on the pumping station reduced oil flows through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium by 30%-40% on Tuesday. “As a result of the attack, energy equipment, a gas turbine unit, and a substation were damaged,” he said on Russian television. CPC pumps crude from companies that include Chevron and Exxon Mobil, Reuters reported. Novak said repairs might take several months. Earlier Tuesday, a Russian drone hit an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dolynska, officials said Tuesday, injuring at least three people. Andriy Raikovych, governor of the Kirovohrad region where the attack took place, said on Telegram that authorities evacuated dozens of people from the building and that those injured included a mother and two children. The attack was part of a widespread Russian aerial assault overnight, which the Ukrainian military said included 176 drones. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 103 of the drones, with intercepts taking place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions, the military said Tuesday. Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram that debris from a destroyed drone damaged four houses in his region. Some information for this story was provided by Reuters. …
The Trump administration on Tuesday hailed talks in Saudi Arabia that included U.S. and Russian officials but no Ukrainians. The White House said this parallel-track diplomacy — speaking separately with the warring partners — is a key first step in ending the three-year conflict that has rocked Europe. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington. Kim Lewis contributed. …
WASHINGTON — A Yazidi woman who survived rape and enslavement by Islamic State and was rescued from Gaza last October in a U.S.-led operation arrived in Germany on Tuesday, February 18. Fawzia Amin Saydo, 21, was kidnapped by IS militants from her hometown of Sinjar, northern Iraq, in August 2014, just a month before her 11th birthday. She endured a decade of suffering, including rape, enslavement and forced marriage to a Palestinian IS fighter in Syria before being sent to Gaza to live with her captor’s mother. She was rescued from Gaza on October 1, 2024, during a secret U.S.-led operation that involved cooperation among human rights activists, as well as Israeli, Jordanian, Iraqi and United Nations officials. Saydo arrived about 5 p.m. local time at Hannover Airport in Langenhagen, Germany, where she was received by her lawyer, Kareba Hagemann, a group of relatives and human rights activists. “She has arrived in Germany safely, and she is very relieved,” Hagemann told VOA. “The first thing Fawzia said upon her arrival was, ‘Please make sure my family can also come join me and live here with me.’” The German consulate in Baghdad on February 10 issued Saydo a visa on a humanitarian basis. Her mother, grandmother and five siblings are still in Iraq. “Her family, except her two sisters, wanted to go as well, but the German government made it clear that they will only agree to take in Fawzia,” Hagemann said. “There is no legal obligation to take her, but it is an act of humanity, which is why I was thankful to them to agree to take Fawzia at least.” According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, Germany is the third-largest refugee-hosting country in the world and the largest in the European Union, with 2.5 million refugees from all over the world, including more than 1 million refugees from Ukraine. Since the 2014 Yazidi genocide carried out by Islamic State in northern Iraq, the number of Yazidi asylum-seekers in Germany has risen to more than 200,000. The ongoing debate within German society about deporting refugees, however, has put many asylum-seekers from the religious minority at risk of deportation. This is particularly due to some politicians arguing that the defeat of IS in 2017 has ended group-specific persecution in Iraq — a claim contested by human rights organizations. On Monday, German authorities announced the deportation of 47 Iraqis whose asylum applications … “Yazidi woman enslaved by Islamic State relocates to Germany months after rescue” →
WASHINGTON — A federal judge refused Tuesday to immediately block billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing government data systems or participating in worker layoffs. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan found that there are legitimate questions about Musk’s authority but said there isn’t evidence of the kind of grave legal harm that would justify a temporary restraining order. The decision came in a lawsuit filed by 14 Democratic states challenging DOGE’s authority to access sensitive government data. The attorneys general argued that Musk is wielding the kind of power that the Constitution says can only be held by those who are elected or confirmed by the Senate. The Trump administration, for its part, has maintained that layoffs are coming from agency heads, and asserted that despite his public cheering of the effort, Musk isn’t directly running DOGE’s day-to-day operations himself. DOGE has tapped into computer systems across multiple agencies with the blessing of President Donald Trump, digging into budgets and searching for what he calls waste, fraud and abuse, even as a growing number of lawsuits allege DOGE is violating the law. Chutkan recognized the concerns of the group of states, which include New Mexico and Arizona. “DOGE’s unpredictable actions have resulted in considerable uncertainty and confusion,” she wrote. Their questions about Musk’s apparent “unchecked authority” and lack of Congressional oversight for DOGE are legitimate and they may be able to successfully argue them later. Still, at this point, it remains unclear exactly how DOGE’s work will affect the states, and judges can only issue court only issue orders to block specific, immediate harms, she found. Chutkan, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, previously oversaw the now-dismissed criminal election interference case against Trump in Washington. …
WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to study how to expand access to in vitro fertilization and make it more affordable. The order calls for policy recommendations to “protect IVF access and aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for such treatments,” according to the White House. On the campaign trail, Trump called for universal coverage of IVF treatment after his Supreme Court nominees helped to overturn Roe v. Wade, leading to a wave of restrictions in Republican-led states, including some that have threatened access to IVF by trying to define life as beginning at conception. Trump, who was at his Florida residence and club Mar-a-Lago, also signed another executive order and a presidential memorandum. The second executive order outlined the oversight functions of the Office of Management and Budget, while the presidential memorandum called for more transparency from the government, according to White House staff secretary Will Scharf, who Trump called to the podium to detail the orders. The order called for “radical transparency requirements” for the government, requiring it to detail the “waste, fraud and abuse” that’s found as the Department of Government Efficiency, overseen by Elon Musk, looks to cut government spending. DOGE has often fallen short of the administration’s promises of transparency. Musk has taken questions from journalists only once since becoming Trump’s most powerful adviser, and he’s claimed it’s illegal to name people who are working for him. Sometimes DOGE staff members have demanded access to sensitive government databases with little explanation. According to a fact sheet provided by the White House, Trump’s IVF order will focus on prioritizing whether there are any current policies “that exacerbate the cost of IVF treatments.” Last year, Trump declared public support for IVF after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. The decision, which some Republicans and conservatives cheered, touched off immediate backlash. Families ‘appreciative,’ says Trump On the campaign trail, IVF quickly became a talking point for Trump, who said he strongly supports its availability. In vitro fertilization offers a possible solution when a woman has trouble getting pregnant. The procedure involves retrieving her eggs and combining them in a lab dish with a man’s sperm to create a fertilized embryo, which is then transferred into the woman’s uterus in an attempt to create a pregnancy. IVF is done in cycles, … “Trump signs order to study how to make IVF more accessible, affordable” →
Louis DeJoy, the head of the U.S. Postal Service, intends to step down, the federal agency said Tuesday, after a nearly five-year tenure marked by the coronavirus pandemic, surges in mail-in election ballots and efforts to stem losses through cost and service cuts. In a Monday letter, Postmaster General DeJoy asked the Postal Service Board of Governors to begin looking for his successor. “As you know, I have worked tirelessly to lead the 640,000 men and women of the Postal Service in accomplishing an extraordinary transformation,” he wrote. “We have served the American people through an unprecedented pandemic and through a period of high inflation and sensationalized politics.” DeJoy took the helm of the Postal Service in the summer of 2020 during President Donald Trump’s first term. He was a Republican donor who owned a logistics business before taking office and was the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who was not a career postal employee. DeJoy developed a 10-year plan to modernize operations and stem losses. He previously said that postal customers should get used to “uncomfortable” rate hikes as the Postal Service seeks to stabilize its finances and become more self-sufficient. The plan calls for making the mail delivery system more efficient and less costly by consolidating mail processing centers. Critics, including members of Congress from several states, have said the first consolidations slowed service and that further consolidations could particularly hurt rural mail delivery. DeJoy has disputed that and told a U.S. House subcommittee during a contentious September hearing that the Postal Service had embarked on long-overdue investments in facilities and making other changes to create “a Postal Service for the future” that delivered mail more quickly. DeJoy also oversaw the Postal Service during two presidential elections that saw spikes in mail-in ballots. Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, a federal judge limited one of the Postal Service’s cost-cutting practices after finding it contributed to delays in mail delivery. DeJoy had restricted overtime payments for postal workers and stopped the agency’s longtime practice of allowing late and extra truck deliveries in the summer of 2020. The moves reduced costs but meant some mail was left to be delivered the following day. DeJoy said in his letter that he was committed to being “as helpful as possible in facilitating a transition.” …
U.S.-based supporters of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny marked one year since his sudden and unexplained death in an arctic prison with vigils and protests in many U.S. cities, including Washington, New York and Los Angeles. VOA Russian correspondents spoke to Navalny supporters who urged the U.S. authorities to demand a release of Russian political prisoners as part of a U.S.-Russia deal on the war in Ukraine. Click here for the full story in Russian. …
Germany is set to hold an election on Sunday, with voter frustrations over migration and the cost of living at the forefront of a bitter campaign. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the lead candidate to be Germany’s next chancellor has accused Washington of interfering in the election. …
A British couple detained in Iran last month has been charged with spying, Iran’s state media reported Tuesday. Britain’s Foreign Office has identified the couple as Craig and Lindsay Foreman. “The detained individuals entered the country as tourists and collected information in several provinces of the country,” reported Iran’s judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency. Iran has accused the couple of having connections with “hostile countries.” “We are deeply concerned by reports that two British nationals have been charged with espionage in Iran,” a British Foreign Office spokesman said Tuesday. “We continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities.” The Associated Press reported that Hugo Shorter, Britain’s ambassador to Iran, has met with the couple in the southern city of Kerman, where they are jailed, with Iranian government officials in attendance. The Foreign Office said it is providing the couple with consular assistance and is in close contact with their family. The couple’s family said in a statement on Saturday, after the couple’s arrest, “This unexpected turn of events has caused significant concern for our entire family, and we are deeply focused on ensuring their safety and well-being during this trying time.” The family said it is “united on our determination to secure their safe return.” The two were traveling around the world on motorbikes, according to an AP report, which said that they crossed Armenia’s border into Iran on December 30. Iran has long used Western detainees to gain concessions in negotiations with Western countries, a move Tehran denies. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse. …
Johannesburg — South Africa will host a meeting of foreign ministers from the G20 group of major economies later this week, but the chief diplomat for the world’s largest economy, the U.S., is skipping it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X earlier this month that he would not attend the meeting, taking place Thursday and Friday in Johannesburg, because he objected to the meeting’s agenda, which he described as anti-American. He said South Africa was “using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.’ In other words: DEI and climate change. My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.” DEI is short for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and in President Donald Trump’s first week in the White House, he signed an executive order to end DEI policies and hiring practices in the federal workforce. “I think the whole topic of the G20 gathering is one that I don’t think we should be focused on, talking about global inclusion, equity, and these sorts of things,” Rubio later told the press. He continued by saying the forum should be focused on issues “like terrorism and energy security and the real threats to the national security of multiple countries.” The G20 is a group of the world’s 19 major individual economies as well as the EU and African Union. This year marks the first time an African country is in the rotating presidency position of the G20. While Rubio will not attend, the South African government has confirmed the U.S. will still have a presence at the meeting, likely at a lower level. South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation responded to Rubio in a statement saying: “Our G20 Presidency, is not confined to just climate change but also equitable treatment for nations of the Global South, ensuring an equal global system for all.” Ronald Lamola, minister of international relations and cooperation, told local TV that the meeting’s agenda had been adopted by all members of the G20 and carries on the themes from previous summits, such as the one in Brazil last year. Deteriorating relations Even before the announcement that Rubio would not be taking part in the foreign ministers’ meeting, there had been a swift deterioration in U.S.-South Africa relations under the new administration in Washington. President Trump accused South Africa’s government of engaging in land grabs and mistreating white minority Afrikaners. He … “Rubio snubs South Africa’s G20 meeting amid diplomatic tensions” →
Ukrainian soldier Andriy Chernytskyi came up with a project to build a kids’ playground in his hometown – but didn’t live to see it come to fruition. The playground is now open. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Sergiy Rybchynski. …
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that the United States is working toward a “fair” and “sustainable” solution to end Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine, but that both Moscow and Kyiv would have to make concessions to achieve peace. Rubio offered his assessment after he and other key U.S. officials met for several hours in Saudi Arabia with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his aides in a first effort toward ending the war and improving the contentious Washington-Moscow relationship. “The goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that’s fair, enduring, sustainable and acceptable to all parties involved,” Rubio told reporters, although no Ukrainian or European officials were at the table for the talks. Rubio said he was “convinced” that Moscow was willing to engage in a “serious process” to end the war, which Russia started with a full-scale invasion of its neighbor three years ago next week. Tens of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, along with Ukrainian civilians, have been killed in the fighting, Europe’s worst conflict since World War II. The U.S. and Russia agreed to “appoint respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. Bruce characterized the meeting as “an important step forward” toward peace. Rubio said Ukraine and European nations would have to be involved in talks on ending the war. He said that if the war is halted, the U.S. would have “extraordinary opportunities … to partner” with Russia on trade and other global issues. “The key to unlock that is the end to this conflict,” he said. National security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff joined Rubio for the talks. Waltz told reporters that negotiations to end the fighting will focus on territory and security guarantees for both Ukraine and Russia. “This needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary end, as we’ve seen in the past,” Waltz said. Russia now controls about a fifth of Ukraine’s internationally recognized 2014 territory. Moscow controls the Crimean Peninsula that it unilaterally annexed in 2014, along with a large portion of eastern Ukraine pro-Russian separatists captured in subsequent fighting and lands the Russian military have taken over since the 2022 invasion. As the invasion started, Moscow hoped for a quick … “Rubio: US looks for ‘fair, sustainable’ end to Russian war on Ukraine” →
Washington — The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests to access Social Security recipient information, according to two people familiar with the official’s departure who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Acting Commissioner Michelle King’s departure from the agency over the weekend — after more than 30 years of service — was initiated after King refused to provide DOGE staffers at the SSA with access to sensitive information, the people said Monday. The White House has replaced her as acting commissioner with Leland Dudek, who currently works at the SSA, the people said. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields released a statement Monday night saying: “President Trump has nominated the highly qualified and talented Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration, and we expect him to be swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner.” Fields added, “President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long.” King’s exit from the administration is one of several departures of high-ranking officials concerned about DOGE staffers’ potential unlawful access to private taxpayer information. DOGE has accessed Treasury payment systems and is attempting to access Internal Revenue Service databases. Since Republican President Donald Trump has retaken the White House, his billionaire adviser Elon Musk has rapidly burrowed deep into federal agencies while avoiding public scrutiny of his work through the DOGE group. Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the preservation of Social Security benefits, said of DOGE’s efforts that “there is no way to overstate how serious a breach this is. And my understanding is that it has already occurred.” “The information collected and securely held by the Social Security Administration is highly sensitive,” she said. “SSA has data on everyone who has a Social Security number, which is virtually all Americans, everyone who has Medicare, and every low-income American who has applied for Social Security’s means-tested companion program, Supplemental Security Income.” “If there is an evil intent to punish perceived enemies, someone could erase your earnings record, making it impossible to collect the Social Security and Medicare benefits you … “Social Security head steps down over DOGE access of recipient information: AP sources” →
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, who began his fifth day in hospital on Tuesday for what doctors have described as a “complex” respiratory infection, will not take part in this weekend’s Holy Year events, the Vatican said on Tuesday. The 88-year-old pontiff has been suffering from a respiratory infection for more than a week and was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Friday. A planned public papal audience set for Saturday had been canceled “due to the health condition of the Holy Father,” the Vatican said in a brief statement. A papal mass scheduled for Sunday will still take place, but will be led instead by a senior Vatican official, it added. The Vatican said on Monday that doctors had changed the pope’s drug therapy for the second time during his hospital stay to tackle a “complex clinical situation.” They described it as a “polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract.” Doctors say polymicrobial diseases can be caused by a mix of viruses, bacteria and fungi. Francis, who has been pontiff since 2013, has had influenza and other health problems several times over the past two years. As a young adult he developed pleurisy and had part of one lung removed, and in recent times has been prone to lung infections. …
ISTANBUL — Turkish police detained 282 suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, militant group in raids over the last five days, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday. The raids came as Turkey continues to remove elected pro-Kurdish mayors from their posts over militant ties in a crackdown coinciding with hopes for an end to a 40-year conflict between the PKK and authorities. Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is expected to make a statement on such efforts, four months after an ally of President Tayyip Erdogan urged him to call on the militants to lay down their arms. Police carried out this week’s counter-terror raids in 51 provinces, as well as in the capital, Ankara, and the largest city of Istanbul, the minister said on X. The suspects were accused of conducting PKK propaganda, providing financing for the group, recruiting members and joining in street protests, he said. The police seized two AK 47 rifles among other weapons. On Saturday, Turkey removed a pro-Kurdish DEM Party mayor from his post in the eastern province of Van over terrorism-related convictions, taking to eight the number of DEM mayors replaced by state-appointed officials since 2024 elections. The PKK, designated as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, launched its insurgency against the state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. …
A Russian drone hit an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dolynska, officials said Tuesday, injuring at least three people. Andriy Raikovych, governor of the Kirovohrad region where the attack took place, said on Telegram that authorities evacuated dozens of people from the building and that those injured included a mother and two children. The attack was part of a widespread Russian aerial assault overnight, which the Ukrainian military said included 176 drones. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 103 of the drones, with intercepts taking place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions, the military said Tuesday. Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram that debris from a destroyed drone damaged four houses in his region. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it destroyed five Ukrainian drones, including four over the Voronezh region and one over Belgorod. Both regions are located along the Russia-Ukraine border and are frequent targets of Ukrainian drone attacks. Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram there were no reports of casualties or damage. Some information for this story was provided by Reuters …
Top U.S. and Russian diplomats are set to meet Tuesday in Saudi Arabia for discussions about relations between their countries and a potential end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Both sides have tempered expectations, describing the talks as an initial step that could lay the framework for direct talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the U.S. delegation, which also includes national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Wikoff. Russia’s side includes Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and senior Putin aide Yuri Ushakov. Ukrainian leaders said they were not invited to participate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to host U.S. envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg for talks on Wednesday. The U.S.-Russia engagement sparked concern among European leaders who in recent days have highlighted the need for Ukraine to be involved in discussions about its own future, and for European nations to play a role in what they also see as a key development in their own security. French President Emmanuel Macron convened a group of European leaders for a Monday session in Paris where they discussed boosting defense spending and potential security guarantees for Ukraine. There was division on the idea of deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine as part of a potential end to the war, with governments such as Britain and Sweden expressing openness to the idea while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that discussion was premature. “We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine. To achieve this, Russia must end its aggression, and this must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians,” Macron said on X. The French leader said he had spoken with Trump and Zelenskyy after the Paris talks, and that it is important for Europeans, Americans and Ukrainians to work together. Zelenskyy expressed a need for “robust and reliable” security guarantees, saying that otherwise Russia will just start another war with Ukraine or other nations in Europe. …
Lawmakers in the U.S. state of Oklahoma are looking at a plan to start collecting information on the immigration status of students and parents in public schools. It’s a proposed rule that some local school officials are already saying they will refuse to enforce. Scott Stearns narrates this story from Daria Vershylenko in Oklahoma. …
PARIS — European leaders called for beefing up their defense spending Monday after a Paris summit on Ukraine and the region’s security — amid concerns about an aggressive Russia and declining support from Washington. The emergency meeting comes ahead of U.S.-Russian talks on ending the war in Ukraine — which it appears could leave out the Europeans. The summit, called by French President Emmanuel Macron, came as Europeans confront a shift in transatlantic relations under the new administration U.S. President Donald Trump. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said European security was at a “turning point.” Ahead of the Paris talks — gathering European Union, NATO and British leaders — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described efforts to introduce competition between the European Union and the United States as senseless and potentially dangerous. Ian Lesser, who heads the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund policy institute, said there are two big issues on the agenda for European leaders in the near term. “It’s all about what can be done for and with Ukraine, in anticipation of the United States doing less, and possibly in anticipation of having to guarantee a settlement or at least a ceasefire,” Lesser said. “The other long-term question, which is some ways more serious, is how to secure Europe’s defense with the United States potentially absent in the years to come And there, I think, there’s very little consensus, and it’s a very big and expensive and long-term project for Europe.” Top U.S. and Russian officials were to hold talks Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to discuss Ukraine and a possible summit between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Neither Ukraine nor the Europeans have been invited. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his country is willing to send troops to Ukraine as part of any peace deal. Other European leaders say that’s premature. Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Hungary, which is close to both Russia and the Trump administration, said the Paris talks undermine peace. Leaders in Paris also discussed ways to rapidly increase Europe’s own defense capabilities and support for Ukraine. “Increased spending at home, increased defense production, increased sizes of armies, increased intelligence cooperation, increased training — all of this is to happen, in addition to supplying Ukraine so its front line doesn’t collapse,” said Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at the Chatham House think tank in London. … “European leaders gather for emergency summit on defense, Ukraine” →
London — European leaders held a crisis security meeting Monday in Paris after a blizzard of diplomatic interventions by Washington in recent days that have raised doubts over the U.S. commitment to the transatlantic alliance, the bedrock of European security. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other European leaders were among those attending the emergency summit at the Elysee Palace. Starmer spoke to reporters after the meeting. “At stake is not just the future of Ukraine. It is an existential question for Europe as a whole and therefore vital for Britain’s national interest,” he said. “It’s clear the U.S. is not going to leave NATO. But we Europeans will have to do more. The issue of burden-sharing is not new, but it is now pressing. And Europeans will have to step up, both in terms of spending and the capabilities that we provide.” “Europe must play its role, and I’m prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others, if there is a lasting peace agreement. … But there must be a U.S. backstop, because a U.S. security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again,” Starmer told reporters in Paris. Scholz, who faces elections at the end of this week, echoed calls for Europe and Ukraine to be part of the peace talks. “It is now very clear to us that we must continue to support Ukraine. And it must and can rely on us that this will be the case. We welcome the fact that there are talks on peace development, but it must be and is clear to us — this does not mean that there can be a dictated peace and that Ukraine must accept what is presented to it,” Scholz said. Ukraine aid A series of policy shifts by Washington over the past week have transformed Europe’s geopolitical calculations. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO allies last week that Europe must provide the overwhelming share of aid for Ukraine as it fights Russian invaders. “Now is the time to invest, because you can’t make an assumption that America’s presence will last forever,” Hegseth said in a Friday speech in Warsaw. “The reality that returning to 2014 borders as part of a negotiated settlement is unlikely. The reality of U.S. troops in Ukraine is … “European leaders hold crisis security talks as US signals transatlantic reset” →