Below is a summary of current world news.
Analysis: Italy’s Meloni belies radical image in cautious first 100 days
Before Italian nationalist leader Giorgia Meloni came to power in September, German magazine Stern put her on the cover with the headline: “Europe’s most dangerous woman.” Such was the concern that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a thinly veiled threat that she had “the tools” to deal with Italy should it stray from a democratic path.
The Spanish hunting dog law sets out the rural and urban divisions
A bill aimed at strengthening animal rights in Spain is highlighting divisions within the ruling Socialist Party’s electoral base amid warnings it risks banning hunting with dogs. The proposed law would overhaul the treatment of domestic and wild animals in captivity, with plans to ban the sale of pets in stores, turn zoos into wildlife recovery centers and impose jail terms on abusers.
Frank Talks and Frustration: How the US Came to Yes on Abrams Tanks
They are expensive and difficult to maintain. They run on jet fuel. And they are difficult to operate. The American Pentagon presented its best arguments, publicly and privately, against sending Abrams – its most advanced battle tanks – to Ukraine.
EU wants to send more migrants as irregular arrivals grow
European Union ministers on Thursday sought ways to curb irregular immigration and send more people out of Europe as arrivals rose from pandemic lows, bringing back controversial ideas for border fences and asylum centers outside europe The EU border agency Frontex reported around 330,000 unauthorized arrivals last year, the highest since 2016, with a sharp increase on the Western Balkans route.
A Holocaust survivor finds refuge from the Ukrainian war in Poland
Iya Rudzitskaya, a 92-year-old Ukrainian Jewess, has fled Kyiv twice. First, in 1941, when he was only 10 years old and German bombs began to fall on the then Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The second time came last year, when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. “I didn’t think this could ever happen,” Rudzitskaya said, sitting on the small one-bedroom floor she shares with her son Artur in the Polish city of Krakow.
Russia fires missiles at Ukraine after Kyiv secures tanks
Russia sent Ukrainians scrambling for cover with a rush-hour missile barrage, killing at least one person, a day after Kyiv secured Western promises of dozens of modern battlefield tanks to try to push back the Russian invasion. Moscow reacted furiously to the German and US announcements, and in the past has responded to apparent Ukrainian successes with massive airstrikes that have left millions without electricity, heat or water.
Analysis: Southern Africa calls the tune as big power contenders line up
South Africa and its neighbors were at the center of a struggle for influence this week when senior US and Russian officials visited, providing a rare moment of leverage for governments on a continent more used to beaten by events rather than wooed. With a war in Europe pitting invading Russian forces against Ukraine’s military supplied with Western weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen were on the lookout for of wider international support.
More than 160 Afghans die in very cold weather
More than 160 people have died from the cold in Afghanistan this month in the worst winter in more than a decade, officials said Thursday, as residents described being unable to afford fuel to heat their homes in temperatures well below freezing. “162 people have died due to the cold since January 10 till now,” said Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for the Disaster Management Minister. About 84 of the deaths had taken place in the past week.
Israeli troops kill nine in Jenin clash with Palestinian gunmen, medics say
Israeli commandos killed nine Palestinians, including an elderly woman, and wounded 12 others during clashes with gunmen in a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, witnesses and medics said. Israel’s military said it sent special forces to Jenin to arrest members of the Islamic Jihad armed group suspected of carrying out and planning “multiple major terrorist attacks”, shooting several of them after opening fire .
Holocaust survivors use AI imagery to keep stories alive
Ehudith Bracha Serchook narrowly escaped death when her family fled Nazi-allied forces storming the Crimean city of Odesa in 1941, saved only by a lost sandal that caused her to lose her place in a passenger ship shortly before being bombed. A lifetime later, Serchook, 86, is retelling his story using an artificial intelligence (AI) service that generates images that will leave a lasting record of his trauma for generations to come.
(With contributions from agencies.)
