The two countries have clashed over the Ukrainian leader’s move to name a commando unit in honor of Nazi collaborators Vladimir Zelensky will skip this week’s Ukraine Recovery Conference in Poland to keep the gathering free of “scandals,” the Foreign Ministry has said, as a diplomatic row with Warsaw over Kiev’s commemoration of a Nazi-linked wartime unit shows no sign of easing. Tensions between Ukraine and Poland – a key supporter of Kiev – escalated in recent weeks when Zelensky named a special-forces unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which collaborated with Nazi Germany during WWII and whose fighters killed tens of thousands of Polish civilians. Polish President Karol Nawrocki responded by stripping Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honor, prompting several senior Ukrainian officials to renounce their own Polish honors. ...
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The first deaths since Sunday have put pressure on a ceasefire with Hezbollah tied to regional peace efforts Israeli troops have killed two people in southern Lebanon, in the first reported fatalities since Sunday. The fragile Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire is a key condition set by Iran for peace talks with the US, a process that has drawn sharp criticism from West Jerusalem. The incident occurred on Tuesday in the Muslim-majority town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa and left another person wounded, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. The Israeli military claimed that “Hezbollah terrorists operating under civilian cover” approached its positions and failed to respond to warning shots, prompting troops to open direct fire. Hezbollah said Israeli forces targeted a civilian municipal team that had been clearing roads from rubble and recovering bodies. The Iran-backed movement described the shooting as a ...
The new channel will help resolve incidents in the strategic waterway amid conflicting guidance for shipowners Iran has agreed to set up a ‘hotline’ with the US and other countries to “prevent and resolve any misunderstandings” involving ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has said. The strait will henceforth be “managed under Iranian arrangements” and will “never return to what it was before the war,” Ghalibaf said on Monday, returning from the first round of talks with the US in Switzerland. “Problems can arise in the Strait of Hormuz, so we agreed to establish a center and a communications line so that if issues occur, we can resolve them more quickly within a 30-day period,” Ghalibaf was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency. The communications line will not be used to obta...
Keir Starmer’s likely successor offers a fresh coat of paint over the same unpopular policies British Labour MP Andy Burnham looks set to be airdropped into Downing Street to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He’s promising “renewal for our party and our country,” after the sitting prime minister effectively burned the greatest parliamentary majority in over a hundred years with scandals, a lack of empathy, and a notoriously belligerent line on the country’s relationship with Israel. However, despite the premature hailing of Burnham as someone who could reinvigorate the Labour vote, all signs point to him delivering Starmerism without Starmer. Starmer resigned on Monday as the most unpopular prime minister in modern British history, six weeks after the Labour Party lost almost 1,500 seats in local elections across England. His resignation opened a leadership contest that Burnham ...
Berlin will buy a 40% stake in defense giant KNDS, putting it on par with Paris, as the two countries continue to militarize Germany and France are preparing an unprecedented joint state takeover of the EU’s largest tank maker, as the two countries continue their militarization drive. The two governments announced the deal involving Amsterdam-headquartered KNDS on Monday, saying they have finalized the framework governing the company’s ownership, with the countries set to have equal shares. Germany is expected to purchase 40% of the stock, while the French government will reduce its holding from 50% to 40%, thus leaving a free-float of only around 20%. Germany’s stake would be acquired from the Wegmann family, KNDS’s current German shareholder, though the contract is still awaiting the final signature and the green light from the Bundestag’s parliamentary budget committee. ...
The Ukrainian leader has accused the Polish president of unfairly targeting him for celebrating Nazi collaborators Poland will not accept insults from Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, the chief of staff to President Karol Nawrocki has said, as a diplomatic row over Kiev’s honoring of nationalist forces that collaborated with the Nazis continues to escalate. Last week, Nawrocki ordered that Zelensky be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state honor, which then-President Andrzej Duda awarded to the Ukrainian leader in 2023. Zelensky returned the medal by mail, and several current and former Ukrainian officials said they will return their Polish honors in protest. Agnieszka Jedrzak criticized Zelensky on Sunday, saying the move only compounds the offense caused by Kiev’s earlier decision to grant an elite commando unit the title ‘Heroes of the UPA’....