VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Tuesday formally inaugurates the 2025 Holy Year, reviving an ancient church tradition encouraging the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome, amid new security fears following…

Russia recently expanded punishment against independent journalists and activists that the Kremlin designated as “foreign agents,” with Moscow charging a prominent exiled reporter, Tatyana Felgengauer, on criminal counts in absentia.…

SAARISELKA, Finland — Russia poses a bigger threat to European Union security than just defense as Moscow can use illegal immigration and other issues to undermine the bloc, Italian Prime Minister…

MAGDEBURG, GERMANY — German authorities received a warning last year about the suspected perpetrator in a car attack at a Christmas market, a government office said Sunday as more details emerged…

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — French President Emmanuel Macron said his country supports Ethiopia’s quest for access to the sea through discussion and respecting international laws and neighboring countries. Macron spoke on…

TIRANA, ALBANIA — Albania’s prime minister said Saturday the government will shut down the video service TikTok for one year, blaming it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children.  Albanian…

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study…

PARIS — France connected the Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor to its grid on Saturday morning, state-run operator EDF said, in the first addition to the country’s nuclear power network in 25…

MAGDEBURG, GERMANY — Germans on Saturday mourned both the victims and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing…

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday added the 27 countries that make up the European Union to the list of trade partners he’s threatening with tariffs —…

Ukraine attacked a town in Russia’s Kursk region Friday, killing six people, including a child, a senior local official said. Ten others were hospitalized in the town of Rylsk after…

Elon Musk, the billionaire ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has praised the far-right Alterative for Germany party ahead of the election due in Germany early next year. The party…

VOA Russian spoke to OVD-Info, Russia’s most trusted watchdog dealing with political arrests and trials. It said 620 people were persecuted in Russia on political grounds in 2024, with court…

A well-known expert on Russia, CSIS analyst Maria Snegovaya, has presented her new, much-discussed report in which she outlined how Russian society closed its ranks behind Russian President Vladimir Putin…

The United States last month formally opened a permanent military base in Poland, part of NATO’s missile defense system amid rising tensions with Russia. The Polish defense minister says the…

LONDON — It’s a photo that sent a tremor through British politics: Elon Musk flanked by British politician Nigel Farage and a wealthy backer, in front of a gilt-framed painting of…

U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, set to join President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, waded into Germany’s election campaign on Friday, calling the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) the country’s savior. The AfD…

Moscow — Russia on Friday sentenced a resident of east Ukraine’s Lugansk region to 16 years in prison for “high treason,” Moscow’s FSB security service said. Moscow regularly hands heavy sentences…

Leaders of 12 European countries agreed at a meeting in Tallinn to expand sanctions against Russia’s “shadow fleet” that is used by Moscow to sell oil and evade Western sanctions.…

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said that a conflict between Russia and NATO is possible within the next decade. VOA Russian spoke to experts who agreed that Belousov is most…

Washington / belgrade, serbia — An encounter with police in the Serbian city of Pirot earlier this year unnerved investigative reporter Slavisa Milanov. A journalist for the independent media outlet FAR,…

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says the leaders of Ukraine and Russia should be “prepared to make a deal” to end the brutal conflict that has consumed Ukraine since 2022. He…

MAMOUDZOU, MAYOTTE — French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Thursday in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey Cyclone Chido’s destruction and was immediately confronted with a firsthand account of devastation…

After a French court Thursday found all 51 defendants guilty in a drugging-and-rape case, the victim, Gisele Pelicot said that the trial has been a “difficult ordeal,” but that she…