Year: 2023

Officials from the US intelligence community have told the Washington Post that they believe Ukraine’s Spring counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion will not succeed in its principal aims. The new report by the Washington Post echoes a similar report by the Wall Street Journal published last month, according to which Western officials said they did not believe Ukraine had the necessary equipment or training to push back the Russian offensive.

Hungary’s nationalist prime minister has warned nations to “think twice” about “messing” with his country after he inked an accord to manufacture combat drones together with Israeli and German firms.

A Russian missile strike killed seven people, including a six-year-old child, in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv as people walked to church for a religious holiday, officials say.

The leaders of Hungary and Turkey, who face criticism over their perceived authoritarian style, agreed in Budapest Sunday to extend natural gas deals involving Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine.

Dutch politician Pieter Omtzigt, who helped uncover one of the biggest political and social scandals in the Netherlands since World War Two, has launched a new party ahead of November’s elections.

Russia on Sunday appeared to lose the race to be the first to successfully land on the Moon’s south pole after its unmanned Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the planet.

The Netherlands and Denmark will give F-16 warplanes to Ukraine as soon as Ukrainian crews and infrastructure are ready for the powerful US-made jets, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday.

The World Health Organization and U.S. health authorities said Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.

The Chinese military launched drills around Taiwan on Saturday as a “stern warning” over what it called collusion between “separatists and foreign forces,” its defense ministry said, days after the island’s vice president stopped over in the United States.

The number of battlefield casualties in Ukraine is approaching nearly 500,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, US officials say, underscoring the brutality of Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two.

Austria’s disgraced ex-chancellor Sebastian Kurz faced a tough weekend after being charged with making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption in his first government.