News

Top Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Saturday that they were returning Polish state honors after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped the Ukrainian president of Poland's highest award. Zelenskyy said in a social media post that sent back the Order of the White Eagle, which he received in 2023 as a symbol of friendship between Poland and Ukraine. "Ukraine will remain open to all meaningful formats of interaction with Poland, in order to strive to avoid misinterpretations of the complex and painful pages of the past of our peoples and to ensure due respect for all innocent victims of the 20th century," he wrote. He called the medal a symbol of Poland's "highest trust," but also suggested it no longer held the same meaning after Nawrocki's decision....

Counterterrorism police have taken over an investigation into suspected anti-Muslim violence in Edinburgh, Scotland, that left five men injured, authorities said Saturday. The unrest comes as the United Kingdom is seeing a wave of anti-migrant and anti-Muslim sentiment, including recent riots in Northern Ireland and England. What do we know about the attacks? Emergency services responded late Friday to reports of "violent attacks including threats, robbery and vandalism" across the city, according to a police statement. Local media reported the attacks began near a mosque before spreading to other areas of the city. Footage posted to social media appeared to show a shirtless man walking along a street carrying a long weapon. Another video seemed to show the same man on the ground sho...

The wife of Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been ordered to stand trial on corruption charges, a court order released on Saturday said. Begona Gomez is ‌accused of using her position as the head of the government's wife to secure work contracts. The case is one of several graft cases facing the PM's center-left minority government. What do we know about the court ruling? The court in Madrid agreed that there was sufficient evidence to bring Gomez's case to trial in front of a jury. Investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado told Gomez to surrender ​her passport, barred her from leaving the country and ordered ​her ‌to report to court twice a month. The court said "instructions shall be issued to all border posts and civilian and military airports" to ensure Gomez remains on hom...

Top Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that they were returning Polish state honors after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland's highest award. The move could further strain ties between the two close strategic partners as Kyiv seeks to rally international support to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine. "This is a gift to the Moscow aggressor, who will certainly use it against both of our countries," Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, wrote on social media, saying that he was returning the Gold Officer's Cross of the Polish Order of Merit.  On Friday, Nawrocki announced that Zelenskyy would be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle — Poland's highest state honor, which had been awarded by former President Andrzej Duda...

A woman was killed and almost 1,700 people had to flee after a massive fire broke out at a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic on Friday, authorities said. The incident occurred at the Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach Hotel in Bayahibe, located on the Caribbean nation's southeastern coast. Fire officials tamed the blaze and an investigation is underway to determine its cause. There was no immediate statement from the hotel franchise What do we know about the casualties? An Italian woman — identified as 46-year-old Francesca Valentino — died in the blaze, the DAEH emergency service said in a statement. It added that three people had been taken to medical facilities and six others were receiving treatment on the site. According to authorities, the fire forced some 1,690 tourists to be...

Australia on Saturday confirmed its first mainland case of the deadly H5 strain of bird flu. The disease was detected in a migratory sea bird — a brown skua — in a remote part ‌of ⁠Western Australia, Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said at a press briefing in Canberra. The development means that the highly contagious variant of avian influenza is now present on every continent. "We all knew we couldn't be bird flu-free forever," Collins said. What do we know? The bird was found near a beach at the Cape Le Grand National Park, about ​700 ‌kilometers (430 miles) from Western Australia's capital, Perth. The test result was confirmed by the national science agency. "Whilst disappointing, this is not unexpected, given the global spread of the H5 bird flu," Collins said. "I can confir...

German journalist Eva Maria Michelmann, who went missing early this year in Syria while reporting on the remnants of more than a decade of civil war, returned to Germany on Friday, her lawyer said.  "It can be confirmed that Eva M. Michelmann was released this morning and returned to Germany this afternoon," her lawyer Roland Meister told the AFP news agency, also making similar comments to other outlets.  What else do we know about Michelmann's return?  Her brother Antonius Michelmann later told the German dpa news agency that "We went to collect her," as she returned to Germany via Jordan.  He said that she was doing well, given the circumstances.  He said she had been held in solitary confinement for an extended period but did not provide further details. Kurds in northeastern Syri...

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday said he was cutting ties to the EU's foreign policy representative Kaja Kallas, challenging her to address a Euractiv media report claiming that she compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to Apartheid South Africa in a visit to Mexico last month.  The move comes amid strain on EU relations with Israel amid the conflicts that followed the October 7, 2023 attacks and more longstanding points of disagreement like Israeli settlement-building in occupied Palestinian territory.  It also coincides with Kallas, formerly the Estonian prime minister, facing internal pressure and reports of dissatisfaction with her performance from several European governments for other gaffes or perceived mistakes in her role atop the ...

A suspect has been detained in connection with the fatal shooting of a Russian national and subversive artist earlier this week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday.  The homicide of an artist who was critical of Russian, Soviet and Chechen leaders comes amid the heightened tensions amid President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  It's one of several killings targeting prominent opposition or dissident figures in NATO countries in recent years, from Poland to Lithuania, or Britain or Berlin.  What did Tusk say about the arrest on Thursday?  Tusk said that police and Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW) coordinated in the arrest. He said that the suspect was using a Georgian passport, and that investigations continued trying to find out where the orders for t...