Europe

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The now-aging hippies who took over a derelict naval base in Copenhagen more than 50 years ago and turned it into a freewheeling community known as Christiania want to boot out criminals who control the community’s lucrative market for hashish by ripping up the cobblestone street where it openly changes hands.  Over the years, there have been many attempts to halt the illegal …

Moscow, Russia — Russia said Saturday it had evacuated 4,500 people in the Orenburg region, in the southern Urals near Kazakhstan, because of flooding after a dam burst.    Emergency services had been working through the night after a dam burst in the city of Orsk, near the border with Kazakhstan.       The press service of the Orenburg governor said 4,402 people, including 1,100 …

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A rising challenger to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban mobilized tens of thousands of supporters in Hungary’s capital Saturday, outlining a plan to unite the country and bring an end to the populist leader’s 14-year hold on power. At the center of the demonstration, the latest in a recent series of protests against Orban’s right-wing nationalist government, was political newcomer Peter Magyar, a …

BUCHAREST, Romania — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned of threats posed by right-wing populists Saturday as he addressed a gathering of center-left European parties ahead of elections for the European Parliament in June.  Scholz arrived in Romania’s capital Bucharest for a conference of the Party of European Socialists, part of the Socialists and Democrats group, the second biggest in the Parliament. Voters in the 27 EU …

washington — In recent weeks, the United States, Britain and the European Union have issued the strictest regulations yet on the use and development of artificial intelligence, setting a precedent for other countries. This month, the United States and the U.K. signed a memorandum of understanding allowing for the two countries to partner in the development of tests for the most advanced artificial intelligence models, following …

NANTES, France — Dieudonne Boutrin is a descendant of people enslaved in the Caribbean. Pierre Guillon de Prince’s ancestors, from Nantes, were ship-owners transporting those enslaved. Although contrasting, their families’ histories are linked. They met in 2021 in Nantes, which was France’s largest port for transatlantic slavery, and have since been working together to raise awareness about the past and its legacy in today’s society. Originally …

Following Thursday’s meetings in Brussels, NATO’s 32 member states are getting to work on an expanded role in providing military aid to Ukraine. At the session marking the 75th anniversary of the alliance, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg pledged NATO’s support for Ukraine, now and for the long haul. Myroslava Gongadze visits a Ukrainian air base to see how military aid has already strengthened the country’s …

washington — A Serbian journalist is being harassed and threatened after a fake video circulated online in which he appears to make an offhand comment praising a war criminal.  Dinko Gruhonjic, a media professor and a journalist for the local news website Autonomija, had participated in a regional festival in Dubrovnik, Croatia, last year.   Then last month, a manipulated video of that appearance circulated online. …

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NATO members pledged to boost Ukraine’s air defenses against Russian attacks as the alliance marked its 75th anniversary Thursday, following a two-day summit of foreign ministers in Brussels. Members, however, did not agree on any specific military aid deal for Kyiv, as Henry Ridgwell reports. …

washington — U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has suggested that the U.S.-U.K.-Australia trilateral security partnership known as AUKUS may soon be expanded to include other Indo-Pacific nations. AUKUS was established in 2021 in the face of China’s increasingly assertive presence in the Indo-Pacific. Talks about other countries joining the group or participating in what is called Pillar 2 have been circulating for more than …

state department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that more aid is urgently needed for Ukraine following meetings with NATO foreign ministers, amid growing concerns that Russia is building up its defense industrial base with support from China, North Korea and Iran. “Based on what I heard today … everyone, including the United States, is going to double back and, as necessary, …

Madrid — Spain’s announcement this week that it will recognize a Palestinian sovereign state by July could mark a major turning point with other European states poised to follow Madrid’s lead, analysts say. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told Spanish media Tuesday Spain would recognize Palestine diplomatically by July. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares confirmed the plan, saying it would help an independent Palestine’s …

White House — President Joe Biden welcomed NATO’s 75th anniversary Thursday, as the security alliance hosted new member Sweden for the first time at a major meeting – and as Ukraine eagerly hopes for an invitation to join at an upcoming Washington summit.  Biden, in a statement, welcomed the recent addition of new members Finland and Sweden, saying “we must choose to protect this progress and …

Moscow — Russia’s FSB security service said Thursday it had arrested three more people suspected of helping plot last month’s deadly terror attack on a Moscow concert hall, state media reported. The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, in which more than 140 were killed when gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall venue on the outskirts of Moscow before setting the building …

Thirty-year-old American and ех-Marine from California Wolfgang Hagarty volunteered to join Ukraine’s Armed Forces in the summer of 2022. He participated in the liberation of the Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions in 2022 and is currently fighting as a member of an air reconnaissance unit in Donbas. Anna Kosstutschenko met with him. VOA footage and video editing by Pavel Suhodolskiy …

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From the start of the war in Ukraine, drones have played an important role in carrying out surveillance missions and long-range attacks. Since last year, a new type of drone has come into the picture and is changing how war is waged on the front lines. They are called First Person View drones and, as Yan Boechat reports from Donbas, Ukraine, they have become a …

Turkey’s nationwide local elections this week dealt Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party its worst electoral defeat, signaling what analysts say is a momentous change in Turkey’s political direction. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

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Helsinki — A 12-year-old suspected of shooting and killing a classmate and wounding two girls at a school in Finland said he had been motivated by bullying, police said Wednesday. Flags flew at half-staff as the northern European country observed a day of mourning a day after the boy opened fire in a classroom in Vantaa. “The suspect has told the police during interrogations that he …

Taipei, Taiwan — Specious theories designed to implicate Ukraine and the United States in connection with the late March terror attack in Russia are spreading on China’s state media outlets and on its heavily censored social media platform Weibo. False claims that paint Kyiv and Washington as masterminds of the attack have fueled debate in Russia even after Islamic State-Khorasan — also known as IS, IS-K, …

LONDON — The suspects who allegedly stabbed a journalist for an independent Iranian media outlet in London last week fled the country after the attack, police said on Tuesday. Pouria Zeraati, 36, a presenter for Persian-language Iran International, was stabbed in his leg last Friday afternoon outside his home in Wimbledon, southwest London. He was treated in a hospital for injuries to his leg and released …