Europe

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BERLIN — Two state elections in eastern Germany on Sunday offer the far-right Alternative for Germany the chance to become the strongest party for the first time and could produce painful results for the unpopular national government. A new party founded by a prominent leftist also hopes to make an immediate impact. About 3.3 million people are eligible to vote in Saxony and nearly 1.7 million …

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Madrid/Washington — They are known as “illegals” — spies who operate under the guise of normal jobs. Since Russia lost many of its valuable spy assets when dozens of diplomats were expelled from Western countries after the invasion of Ukraine, these civilian agents have become essential. Experts in Russian intelligence told VOA that this was the “renaissance of illegals,” with 90% of operations now carried out …

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian air defenses shot down 24 out of 52 drones launched by Russia during overnight attacks on eight regions across Ukraine, the air force said Saturday. It said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that 25 Shahed drones had fallen on their own and three others had flown toward Russia and Belarus. There were no reports of anybody being hurt in …

BERLIN — Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is legitimate and covered by Kyiv’s right to self-defense, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told German weekly Welt am Sonntag in his first reaction to the advance into Russian territory. “Ukraine has a right to defend itself. And according to international law, this right does not stop at the border,” Stoltenberg told the paper, adding that NATO had not …

Berlin — The German army on Friday vacated an air base in junta-run Niger and flew its final troops home, completing a withdrawal from the restive Sahel nation. At the end of May, Germany and Niger reached an interim agreement allowing the German military to continue operating its airbase in the capital, Niamey, until the end of August. But negotiations to extend that agreement broke down, …

london — Russia has accused the European Union of “theft” after the bloc transferred the first tranche of profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine to boost its military capabilities in the face of Moscow’s invasion. The G7 group of leading industrialized nations plans a similar scheme. However, there are concerns that the asset schemes could prompt some countries to cut their own bilateral funding to …

Russia on Thursday accused the European Union of “theft” after the bloc transferred the first tranche of profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine to boost Kyiv’s military capabilities. But some fear Western states could cut their own aid, as Henry Ridgwell reports. Camera: Henry Ridgwell. …

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Media rights are at risk in Georgia as the country once seen as a safe haven for journalists implements a new law. For VOA News, Liam Scott has the story. Camera: Cristina Caicedo Smit, Krystof Maixner, Martin Bubenik, Michael Eckels …

Russian shelling has destroyed 50% of Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity since late March, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. To make up for the power shortage, the country has turned to U.S. energy giant Westinghouse for help developing next-generation nuclear reactor units. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Sergiy Rybchynski …

FRANKFURT/TALLINN — Inflation in the euro zone fell to its lowest level in three years in August, setting the stage for a further cut in the European Central Bank’s interest rates next month despite an Olympics-driven surge in the price of services. The ECB has started winding down a two-year campaign against high inflation that followed the brisk reopening of the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic …

Kyiv, Ukraine — A Russian attack overnight damaged a factory in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy, killing a 48-year-old woman and injuring at least eight people, local authorities said on Friday. The airstrike caused a fire, prompting regional authorities to ask residents to stay inside and close the windows. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said that the factory manufactured packaging for baby food, juices and household products. …

Moscow — A Russian news editor in Siberia was sentenced to eight years in prison Friday for publishing critical material on Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, which has been accompanied in Russia by a massive crackdown on dissent. Sergei Mikhailov, a journalist and editor in the mountainous Altai region, was arrested in the first weeks of the Kremlin launching the military campaign in 2022, shortly after repressive …

The arrest in France last Saturday of Pavel Durov, the billionaire boss of the social media platform Telegram, is reverberating around the world as Russia urges France not to turn the investigation into ‘political persecution.’ Durov is under formal investigation over alleged illegal activities on Telegram, as Henry Ridgwell reports. …

London — Russia on Thursday warned France not to turn the investigation of Pavel Durov, the boss of Telegram, into a “political persecution” after the billionaire 39-year-old CEO was put under formal investigation relating to activities on his social media platform. Moscow has implied there are political motivations behind the arrest of Durov, who was detained Saturday as he disembarked his private jet at Paris-Le Bourget …

Baltic countries are moving to protect NATO’s eastern flank in the face of Russian aggression. The Baltic defense line — a new fortification system along their borders with Russia and Belarus — is meant to shield NATO allies from potential attacks. VOA’s Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports from the Latvia-Russia border. VOA footage and editing by Daniil Batushchak. …

BANGKOK — A court in Thailand on Thursday found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a member of a famous Spanish acting family, guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison, in a lurid case that involved the victim being dismembered. The Koh Samui Provincial Court issued an initial sentence of death for Sancho but commuted it to life imprisonment due to his cooperation during the …

Berlin — The suspects in the foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna earlier this month sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA discovered intelligence that disrupted the planning and led to arrests, the agency’s deputy director said. The CIA notified Austrian authorities of the scheme, which allegedly included links to the Islamic State group. The intelligence and subsequent arrests …

LONDON — Britain has revived its attempt to give police wider powers to impose conditions on street protests, a decision that a civil rights group said showed a worrying disregard for the rule of law. The group, Liberty, successfully challenged the changes to public order laws made by the country’s previous Conservative government. London’s High Court ruled in May that the government exceeded its powers by …

FRANKFURT, Germany — Germany has told the Iranian head of the recently banned Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) that he is being expelled from the country and has two weeks to leave, authorities in Hamburg said on Thursday. The interior ministry of the German city state of Hamburg said in a statement that it had informed Mohammad Hadi Mofatteh that he has until Sept. 11 to leave …

PARIS — French authorities handed preliminary charges to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Wednesday for allowing alleged criminal activity on his messaging app and barred him from leaving France pending further investigation. Both free-speech advocates and authoritarian governments have spoken out in Durov’s defense since his weekend arrest. The case has also called attention to the challenges of policing illegal activity online, and to the Russian-born …

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