Europe

MAGDEBURG, GERMANY — Germans on Saturday mourned a violent attack and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove a black BMW into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least two people, including a small child, and injuring at least 60 others. Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack Friday evening and took him into custody …

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday added the 27 countries that make up the European Union to the list of trade partners he’s threatening with tariffs — unless the group takes steps to import more U.S. goods.  “I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil …

Ukraine attacked a town in Russia’s Kursk region Friday, killing six people, including a child, a senior local official said. Ten others were hospitalized in the town of Rylsk after the attack with U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets, Kursk acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein said. The attack, Ukrainian officials said, followed an earlier Russian missile attack on Kyiv. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said an early Friday morning Russian ballistic …

Elon Musk, the billionaire ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has praised the far-right Alterative for Germany party ahead of the election due in Germany early next year. The party wants to end Western support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

washington — The United States has charged a Russian Israeli dual citizen over alleged involvement with the Lockbit ransomware group, the Justice Department said Friday.  Rostislav Panev, 51, was arrested in Israel in August and is awaiting extradition to the United States, the department said.  Panev was a developer at Lockbit from its inception in 2019 until at least February 2024, during which time the group …

Igor Kirillov had overseen the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine and regularly spread disinformation about the West developing bioweapons prior to being killed on Dec. 17. …

The United States last month formally opened a permanent military base in Poland, part of NATO’s missile defense system amid rising tensions with Russia. The Polish defense minister says the base is a testament to Polish-American cooperation. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports from Redzikowo, Poland. …

LONDON — It’s a photo that sent a tremor through British politics: Elon Musk flanked by British politician Nigel Farage and a wealthy backer, in front of a gilt-framed painting of a young Donald Trump. Taken this week at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the image suggested that Musk, a key player in the incoming U.S. administration, could soon turn his disruptive attention to the U.K. …

For Ukrainian teens displaced by war, adjusting to life in a new country is a complex journey. In New York City, there’s a school helping many of these students find a second home. Johny Fernandez reports from the Big Apple. …

U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, set to join President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, waded into Germany’s election campaign on Friday, calling the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) the country’s savior. The AfD is running second in opinion polls and might be able to thwart either a center-right or center-left majority, but Germany’s mainstream, more centrist parties have vowed to shun support from the AfD at national level. …

Leaders of 12 European countries agreed at a meeting in Tallinn to expand sanctions against Russia’s “shadow fleet” that is used by Moscow to sell oil and evade Western sanctions. Several European states imposed new policies on Russian vessels transiting through European waters to curb Russia’s ability to use profits from illicit oil sales to fund its war in Ukraine. Click here for the full …

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said that a conflict between Russia and NATO is possible within the next decade. VOA Russian spoke to experts who agreed that Belousov is most likely voicing the Kremlin’s true intentions, and that the West should treat these statements seriously. Click here for the full story in Russian. …

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says the leaders of Ukraine and Russia should be “prepared to make a deal” to end the brutal conflict that has consumed Ukraine since 2022. He also slammed President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russian territory with U.S.-provided weapons – hinting that when he takes office, he may reverse that move. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington. …

MAMOUDZOU, MAYOTTE — French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Thursday in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey Cyclone Chido’s destruction and was immediately confronted with a firsthand account of devastation across the French territory.  “Mayotte is demolished,” Assane Haloi, a security agent, told Macron after he stepped off the plane.  Macron had been moving along in a line of people greeting him when Haloi grasped …

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — China has allowed representatives from Germany, Sweden, Finland and Denmark to board a Chinese bulk carrier at the center of an investigation into Baltic Sea cable breaches, the Danish foreign minister said on Thursday. The Yi Peng 3 vessel is wanted in Sweden for questioning over a breach of two undersea fiber-optic cables in November and has been stationary in waters nearby for …

WASHINGTON — As President Joe Biden’s administration prepares to transfer power to the incoming team of President-elect Donald Trump, VOA Ukrainian Iuliia Iarmolenko spoke with Michael Carpenter, the National Security Council director for Europe. Carpenter discussed the Biden administration’s final efforts to strengthen Ukraine and why it would take more time and resources from Washington to start successful negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. VOA: In September, …

Officials in Russia’s Rostov region reported a fire Thursday at an oil refinery after a wave of attacks from several dozen Ukrainian aerial drones. Rostov acting Governor Yuri Slyusar said on Telegram that the fire happened at the Novoshakhtinsk refinery and was later extinguished. Slyusar reported one person was injured in the attack. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it destroyed 36 Ukrainian drones over Rostov, …

WASHINGTON — They were promised a chance to earn money, get an education abroad, and gain work experience. Instead, they found themselves assembling military drones in Russia and, in one case, subjected to a Ukrainian drone strike. A series of investigative reports has shed light on a Russian labor recruitment program that has allegedly lured young African women to work at an industrial park in provincial …

With the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the beginning of Russia’s withdrawal from Syria, Moscow’s great power prestige and ambitions have suffered another blow, following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Click here to see the full story in Mandarin.  …

BRUSSELS — NATO’s secretary-general said he wants to discuss ways to put Ukraine in a position of strength for any future peace talks with Russia during a meeting Wednesday with Ukraine’s president and a small number of European leaders. But Mark Rutte appeared frustrated at growing speculation in NATO capitals about when those peace talks might start and whether European peacekeepers would be involved, saying that …

Washington — “Ehtisham was the darling of the family. He was very fond of cricket. His only obsession was that one day he would go to Europe and poverty would end at home.” This is a statement from Fazlur Rehman, a close relative of 35-year-old Ehtisham Anjum, who went missing after a migrant boat he was in capsized in Greek territorial waters on Saturday. According to …

Russia has long considered the Balkans a part of its sphere of influence, but its current focus on its war in Ukraine is creating a power vacuum in the region and giving an opportunity for Turkey to expand its role. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

The European Parliament awarded Venezuelan opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia the bloc’s highest human rights recognition.  Click here to see the full story in Spanish.  …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet Wednesday with NATO chief Mark Rutte and European leaders in Brussels as Ukraine seeks to bolster its defenses against Russian forces. Zelenskyy on Tuesday cited an urgent need to boost military aid to Ukraine, especially air defense systems. “We must do everything possible to destroy Russia’s ability to wage war from as far away as possible,” Zelenskyy …