Back-to-back shootings in Serbia this week, one in a school, have stunned the population and brought global attention to gun control in a country with one of the world’s highest rates of gun ownership. Promising an “almost complete disarmament,” the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, said on Friday that he planned to introduce sweeping changes to […]
Month: May 2023
Russian Wagner Leader Threatens to Pull Out of Bakhmut: Ukraine War Live News
The Kremlin is trying to muster the usual patriotic fervor that grips the country in the days before the May 9 Victory Day parade, but unease with Russia’s stumbling war in Ukraine keeps bursting forth. The latest manifestation came from Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, who used what he said were […]
Iraqi Man Accused of War Crimes Is Arrested in Belgium
The Belgian authorities have arrested an Iraqi man suspected of involvement in a Qaeda terrorist cell that was partly responsible for a series of bombings nearly 15 years ago that killed at least 376 people in Iraq, Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said on Friday. The man, identified only by the initials O. Y. T., has […]
Who’s Attending King Charles III’s Coronation, and Who Isn’t
The approximately 2,300 people who have been invited to attend the coronation ceremony for King Charles II of Britain on Saturday in London includes a mix of new faces, old lineages, world leaders, pop icons and a dash of controversy. Among those to receive the invitation — a hand-painted card by an heraldic artist, reproduced […]
After a School Shooting in Serbia, Belgrade Is Consumed With Grief
Thousands of students packed a neighborhood in central Belgrade on Thursday afternoon to mourn the eight children and one school guard gunned down by a 13-year-old boy in a shooting rampage that has plunged the Serbian capital into grief and stunned the entire country. Wearing black, their eyes brimming with tears, the students lit candles, […]
Sudanese Refugees Desperate for Safety Flee to Egypt
ASWAN, Egypt — It was the middle of the night, but the first thing Mawahib Mohammed did was make a beeline for the shower, the first she had taken in a week. As one of the thousands of Sudanese who had crossed the border to Egypt in recent weeks, she had barely slept in six […]
Ukraine War News: White House Rejects Kremlin Claim of a Role in Explosions
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Thursday redoubled his call for an independent tribunal to investigate and prosecute Russian war crimes, using a speech in The Hague to demand accountability and invoking the trials of Nazis in Nuremberg after World War II. “Impunity is the key that opens the door to aggression,” Mr. Zelensky said […]
What Is the Kremlin, the Heart of Putin’s Security Bubble in Russia?
President Vladimir V. Putin has long operated within the confines of a tight security bubble, which became even tighter and more isolating during the coronavirus pandemic. The sprawling red fortress of the Kremlin, which Russian officials claimed was the target of a Ukrainian drone attack on Wednesday, contains both the president’s official residence and his […]
Secret ‘Mission’ for Peace in Ukraine May Show Limits of Pope’s Influence
ROME — A secret mission revealed days ago by Pope Francis to bring peace between Russia and Ukraine is so secret that Russia and Ukraine claim to know nothing about it. The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it had no idea what the pope was talking about. “Ukraine doesn’t know about it,” Ukraine’s ambassador to […]
The ‘Peace Dividend’ Is Over in Europe. Now Come the Hard Tradeoffs.
In the 30 years since the Iron Curtain came crashing down, trillions of dollars that had been dedicated to Cold War armies and weapons systems were gradually diverted to health care, housing and schools. That era — when security took a back seat to trade and economic growth — abruptly ended with Russia’s invasion of […]