Georgia has been engulfed by huge protests triggered by a proposed law that critics see as a threat to media freedom and the country’s aspirations to join the European Union. Here is a look at the bill and the protests it has ignited: WHAT IS THE NEW BILL? The bill would require media and nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofits to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of funding from abroad.
This Orthodox Easter season, an extraordinary new church is bringing spiritual comfort to war-weary residents of the Ukrainian village of Lypivka. Almost 100 residents sheltered in a basement chapel at the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary while Russian troops occupied the village in March 2022 as they closed in on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, 40 miles (60 kilometers) to the east. “The fighting was right here,” the Rev. Hennadii Kharkivskyi said.
This story was first published on May 13, 2021.
A highly anticipated trial began in Massachusetts this week involving a woman accused of striking her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a snowbank. John O’Keefe died in a suburb about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Boston on Jan. 29, 2022. The 16-year police veteran was found unresponsive outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer.
South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix said Friday its entire 2024 production of high-end memory chips was sold out and most of next year's line was gone too, reflecting the huge demand for cutting-edge AI hardware.SK Hynix also said this week it would be starting mass production of its top-of-the-line fifth-generation HBM chips in the third quarter.
When Oklahoma and national officials held a press conference Monday to discuss the scale of devastation following tornadoes two days earlier, Kathy John did what she always does: She showed up to report on it for the town’s weekly newspaper, the Sulphur Times-Democrat. Sulphur suffered Oklahoma's worst destruction during an outreak of severe weather when a tornado plowed through downtown in the community of about 5,000 residents south of Oklahoma City. Kathy John's husband, James John, joined the staff in 1968, after his father ran it for 27 years.
From its earliest days, the Soviet Union's intelligence services — whether known as the Cheka or by the names of any of its successor agencies like the KGB — kept the government in power by pursuing its opponents no matter where they lived. Intelligence experts say that policy is still followed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a product of the KGB who does not disguise his scorn for perceived traitors, defectors and other political enemies abroad. The Kremlin has routinely denied involvement in such attacks.
Police have arrested nearly 2,200 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, sometimes using riot gear, tactical vehicles and flash-bang devices to clear tent encampments and occupied buildings. One officer accidentally discharged his gun inside a Columbia University administration building while clearing out protesters camped inside, authorities said. No one was injured by the officer's mistake late Tuesday inside Hamilton Hall on the Columbia campus, the NYPD said Thursday.
China is preparing to launch a lunar probe Friday that would land on the far side of the moon and return with samples that could provide insights into geological and other differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side. The unprecedented mission would be the latest advance in the increasingly sophisticated and ambitious space exploration program that is now competing with the U.S., still the leader in space. China already landed a rover on the moon's far side in 2019, the first country to do so.
Colombia has become the latest Latin American country to announce it will break diplomatic relations with Israel over its military campaign in Gaza, but the repercussions for the South American nation could be broader than for other countries due to longstanding bilateral agreements over security matters. Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” and announced his government would end diplomatic relations with Israel effective Thursday.
With student protests over the Israel-Hamas war disrupting campuses nationwide, several major universities are intent on ensuring that commencement ceremonies — joyous milestones for graduates, their families and friends — go off without a hitch this weekend. Colleges are hiring extra security, screening attendees at venues and emphasizing that significant disruptions by pro-Palestinian protesters won't be tolerated. “Milestone is a perfect word,” said Ken Burdick of Tampa, Florida, describing his daughter's graduation Saturday at the University of Michigan.
Russia will face consequences for a cyber attack allegedly orchestrated by a group with ties to its military intelligence, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Friday. Germany has been among the Western nations providing Ukraine military support in its war with Russia, with President Vladimir Putin saying in December that ties between the two countries stay largely frozen.
The prosecution's star witness has yet to take the stand in Donald Trump's hush money trial. The second week of testimony in the case will wrap up Friday after jurors heard a potentially crucial piece of evidence: a recording of Trump and Cohen, then his attorney, discussing a plan to pay off an ex-Playboy model who claimed to have an affair with Trump. Prosecutors have spent the week using detailed testimony about meetings, email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts to build on the foundation of their case accusing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election.
Since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, attacks and harassment of Russians — prominent or not — have been blamed on Moscow's intelligence operatives across Europe and elsewhere. Despite attempts by Western governments to dismantle Russian spy networks, experts say the Kremlin apparently is still able to pursue those it perceives as traitors abroad in an attempt to silence dissent. Opponents of Putin increasingly fear the long arm of Moscow’s security services, including in countries they once thought were safe.
Elissa Slotkin had less than half an hour to reckon with a retirement announcement that would reshape Michigan’s political landscape. The state's senior senator and the third-ranking Democrat in the chamber, Debbie Stabenow, was about to reveal that she would retire in 2024. Rep. Slotkin, a Democratic congresswoman from Holly, soon met with her team to mobilize for a run at a U.S. Senate seat that Democrats had not expected would be hard to defend in the narrowly divided chamber.
Ukraine, trade and investment are expected to dominate Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s first trip to Europe in five years, as the Asian giant rebuilds its foreign relations after a prolonged absence during the Covid-19 pandemic. Xi will start the tour in Paris on Monday, meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been stressing the idea of European strategic autonomy from the U.S. On a visit to Beijing last year, Macron courted controversy by saying France would not necessarily always align with the U.S. in foreign policy, an apparent reference to American support for the self-governing republic of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary. After leaving France, Xi will visit Hungary and Serbia, both seen as China-friendly and close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, rebuffing Western criticism of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
He's visiting Manhattan construction sites, decrying local crime and holding court in his gilded Fifth Avenue penthouse. After a years-long breakup with his hometown, Donald Trump is back in New York, this time as a criminal defendant. Stuck here most weekdays for the duration of his criminal hush money trial, the Queens-born presumptive GOP nominee has been conjuring images of his old days as a celebrity developer, reality TV star and tabloid fixture with weekly local campaign stops as he settles back into the place that made him, voted against him twice — and may end up convicting him.
The Labor Department's closely watched employment report on Friday is also expected to show the unemployment rate holding below 4% for the 27th straight month. Labor market endurance, however, leaves the Federal Reserve in no rush to start cutting interest rates, which could significantly slow down the economy. The U.S. central bank on Wednesday left its benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged in the current 5.25%-5.50% range, where it has been since July.
On World Press Freedom Day, Palestinian reporters tell of the dangers and emotional toll of reporting on the war in Gaza, and why they feel compelled to do so.
The last time Mona Awda Talla saw her daughter Shahed alive, she was leaving the house to go buy her some cake, wearing pink pants. Moments later, she was dead.