Since 2015, one of America’s oldest eye clinics, Wills Eye Hospital, has been helping wounded Ukrainian soldiers with severe head or face injuries get their vision back. For one surgeon with Ukrainian roots, the work is personal. Iryna Solomko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Pavlo Terekhov. …
France’s Le Pen denies wrongdoing as she and her party go on trial accused of embezzling EU funds
Paris — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen denied violating any rules as she and her National Rally party and two dozen others went on trial on Monday, accused of embezzling European Parliament funds, in a case that has the potential to derail her political ambitions. Arriving at the court in Paris, Le Pen said she remained confident as “we have not violated any political and …
Austria’s rightward shift puts immigration in crosshairs
VIENNA — Picknicking with friends in the park after prayers at a Vienna mosque, Saima Arab, a 20-year-old pedicurist originally from Afghanistan, is thankful for her freedoms in Austria. “We could never do this in Afghanistan, never cook, go out, just sit in public like this,” said Arab, who came to Austria in 2017. “Home is like a prison there.” Many Austrians, however, are worried about …
Norway mulls building a fence on Russian border, following Finland’s example
HELSINKI — Norway may put a fence along part or all the 198-kilometer (123-mile) border it shares with Russia, a minister said, a move inspired by a similar project in its Nordic neighbor Finland. “A border fence is very interesting, not only because it can act as a deterrent but also because it contains sensors and technology that allow you to detect if people are moving …
Russian PM to meet with Iranian president in Tehran
Moscow — Russia announced Sunday that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will meet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on Monday. The announcement came as Russia has condemned Israel’s “political murder” of Iran-backed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. Mishustin will hold talks with Pezeshkian and First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, the government statement said. “It is planned to discuss the full range of Russian-Iranian cooperation …
Thousands protest ‘uncontrolled immigration’ to Portugal
Lisbon — Thousands of protesters waving Portuguese flags and roaring the national anthem rallied in Lisbon on Sunday to express their anger at “illegal” and “uncontrolled” immigration. The demonstrators marched behind banners demanding the “end of mass immigration” and the expulsion of immigrants guilty of crimes, at the protest called by the far-right Chega party, the country’s third-largest political force. Immigration is “very good” but “rules …
Suspect arrested after allegedly setting fires, driving into shops in Germany
Berlin — A man has been arrested after allegedly setting two fires in the western German city of Essen that left 30 people injured and driving a van into two shops, authorities said Sunday. Emergency services were alerted to two fires in residential buildings in quick succession shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday, police said. The injured people included eight children who were seriously hurt, and two …
Search resumes for 48 missing migrants off Spanish Canaries
Puerto de la Estaca, Spain — Rescue teams on Sunday resumed searching for at least 48 migrants who went messing the day before when their boat overturned just as it was being rescued off Spain’s Canary Islands, killing at least nine people. Hopes of finding survivors were slim as sea rescue teams searched the waters off El Hierro, an island in the Atlantic archipelago. It is …
125 Ukrainian drones reported in attack sparking fires across Russia, Moscow officials say
KYIV — More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia Sunday, officials said, sparking a wildfire and setting an apartment block alight in one of the largest barrages seen over Russian skies since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that it had shot down 125 drones overnight across seven regions. The southwestern region of Volgograd came under particularly heavy …
11 wounded in southern Ukraine in Russian strikes
Kyiv — At least 11 people were wounded on Sunday in a series of Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, emergency services announced. The regional capital was hit by several “massive aerial strikes” at dawn, Ukrainian emergency services said in a statement. “A building and six houses in different city neighborhoods suffered a lot of destruction,” said the statement, adding that 42 members of the …
Syrians in Austria do volunteer work to disarm doubts about migrants
KRITZENDORF, Austria — While shoveling mud out of gardens almost two weeks after torrential flooding battered the small Austrian town of Kritzendorf, Abulhkeem Alshater gestures towards a banner: “Austro-Syrians say: Thank you, Austria.” Alshater, 45, originally from Homs, Syria, has been working with dozens of his countryfolk to help clean up the mess left by floods. The work is a gesture of gratitude to Austria at …
Austria holds tight election with far-right bidding for historic win
VIENNA — Austrians elect a new parliament Sunday with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) aiming to secure its first general election win in a neck-and-neck race with the ruling conservatives that has been dominated by economic worries and immigration. Having led opinion polls for months, the FPO’s edge over the Austrian People’s Party (OVP) has shrunk to almost nothing as Chancellor Karl Nehammer casts himself as …
Belgian Catholic university denounces pope’s views on women’s roles in society
brussels — Pope Francis’ burdensome trip through Belgium reached new lows Saturday when defiant Catholic university women demanded to his face a “paradigm change” on women’s issues in the church and then expressed deep disappointment when Francis dug in. The Catholic University of Louvain, the Francophone campus of Belgium’s storied Catholic university, issued a scathing statement after Francis visited and repeated his view that women are …
At UN, Russian foreign minister dismisses Zelenskyy’s peace plan as ‘doomed’
united nations — Russia’s foreign minister reinforced the Kremlin’s disagreements with the West in his United Nations General Assembly remarks Saturday and showed no interest in a genuine peace with Ukraine. “I’m not going to talk here about the senselessness and the danger of the very idea of trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power, which is what Russia is,” Sergey Lavrov said. Earlier …
Hundreds rally in Paris to support world abortion rights
paris — Hundreds of people came out Saturday in Paris, marching in support of the right to abortion for women across the world, just six months after France became the first country to guarantee in its constitution a woman’s right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy. The protest, organized by civil society groups to mark International Safe Abortion Day, also called for greater and easier access to …
Poland’s flooding death toll rises after more bodies found
WARSAW, Poland — The death toll in Poland from recent floods rose to nine after two more bodies were found, the national police chief said Saturday. One person is still missing, police chief Marek Boron said during a government meeting on the effects of the floods that hit southwestern Poland earlier this month. The floods following torrential rains inundated houses and damaged bridges and roads in …
Ukraine says Russian attacks on medical center in Sumy kill 9
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces hit a medical center in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday morning, then struck again as the building was being evacuated, killing a total of nine people, Ukrainian officials said. Ukrainian prosecutors said that at the time of the attacks, 86 patients and 38 staff members were in the hospital. “The first attack killed one person and damaged the ceilings of …
Taliban push back against allegations of gender bias, rights abuses
Islamabad — Taliban leaders in Afghanistan have defended their Islamist rule amid intensified accusations of “gender-based” discrimination against women and girls at this week’s U.N. General Assembly. “The situation is not as it is portrayed and propagated abroad,” Maulavi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban deputy prime minister for political affairs, asserted in an interview with an Afghan television channel aired Friday. Kabir’s comments came a day after …
Exiled opposition leader: ‘We want Belarus to return to family of European countries’
New York — Among those in New York City for the 79th United Nations General Assembly is exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. On Monday, Tsikhanouskaya and Evgenia Kara-Murza, the Russian human rights activist and wife of former political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza, received the annual human rights prize awarded by the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, founded by the late Tom Lantos, who was …
Adoption applications in Ukraine soar since Russian invasion
The number of Ukrainian citizens seeking to adopt children has increased dramatically since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv, Ukraine. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets. …
Trump meets Zelenskyy amid tension, Republican criticism of Kyiv
Former U.S. President Donald Trump met Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York, where Trump repeated claims that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine by making a deal with Russia. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …
Trump to meet Zelenskyy amid tension, Republican criticism of Ukraine
Washington — Former President Donald Trump is set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on Friday, amid increased skepticism of U.S. support for Ukraine’s war efforts from the Republican presidential nominee and lawmakers loyal to him. Trump announced the meeting at a press conference Thursday, which was confirmed for VOA by Zelenskyy’s team. The meeting comes a day after the Ukrainian leader …