Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
As Ukraine prepares to elect a new president, millions of its citizens have moved across the border
When the small business run by Kristina Melnytska’s father began to struggle in 2014 he did what hundreds of thousands of other Ukrainians were doing and moved his family to Poland.
Melnytska, then 19, enrolled in a university in the eastern city of Lublin. She worked long nights in a kebab shop, where she was paid about £1 an hour. Five years later she is still here and one of an estimated 2 million Ukrainians working and living in Poland.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has 30.4% of vote, beating Petro Poroshenko and ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko
Polls in Ukraine closed on Sunday evening with actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy expected to hold a commanding lead in the first round of the country’s presidential elections.
With 11% of the ballots counted early on Monday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy had more than 29% of the votes. The incumbent president, Petro Poroshenko, was in a distant second place followed by former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko with about 17% and 14% respectively, the national elections commission said. The results were closely in line with a major exit poll.
In 2012, Eliot Higgins began blogging about the news from his front room in Leicester. Seven years later, his investigative website Bellingcat has been responsible for revealing key aspects of some of the world’s biggest stories. And: Jonathan Freedland on the result of Theresa May’s meaningful vote
Eliot Higgins first became known for his investigations into the Syrian civil war, which he published on his blog Brown Moses. Higgins then went on to found Bellingcat, an investigative website that uses open source tools to expose the truth behind global news stories.
Higgins, who is the subject of a new documentary, tells Anushka Asthana how he and his international team of volunteers have gone about investigating some of the biggest stories of recent times, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the UK. He examines the importance of this type of work in an era of fake news and the impact it has had on his professional and personal life.
Vladimir Zelenskiy, whose character becomes president in hit TV show, leading polls
Vladimir Zelenskiy may just joke his way to becoming Ukraine’s next leader. A comic actor who plays a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president in a hit Ukrainian TV show after his rant against corrupt politicians goes viral, he is now pitching for the top job in real life and has a 10-point lead in some opinion polls.
It is Ukraine’s most unorthodox presidential campaign in history. After announcing his campaign on New Year’s Eve, Zelenskiy has shot into first place by contrasting his screen personality, a genial everyman who speaks in a gravelly bass, with public discontent against the country’s ruling class. His political party and TV show share the same name, Servant of the People.
Until recently Vladimir Zelenskiy was known for playing the part of an accidental president in the popular Ukrainian television show Servant of the People. Then on New Year's Eve he announced that life would be imitating art with his candidacy in this year's presidential elections, the first round of which is on 31 March. Zelenskiy has a 10-point lead in some opinion polls
Concerns had been raised over project increasing German reliance on Russian energy
Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, called it a mistake, while the US president, Donald Trump, has branded it very inappropriate and a “very bad thing for Nato”.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline to take Russian gas to Germany is arguably Europe’s most controversial energy project, drawing opposition from Ukraine, which it will bypass, and uniting the US, eastern EU states, and the European Commission which fears it will undermine the bloc’s ‘energy union’ plans.
Russia condemns move as row escalates over Ukrainian church’s autonomy
Ukraine has stripped an Orthodox bishop of his citizenship and barred him from entering the country as a dispute escalates over the Ukrainian and Russian branches of the church.
Ukrainian border guards on Thursday said they had detained and then deported Bishop Gedeon, the abbot of a Kiev monastery, because he allegedly held dual Ukraine-US citizenship. The deportation was condemned by Russian officials, who called on the US to intervene.
German journalist with links to Russia allegedly organised arson attack in Ukraine to stoke tensions, court told
The plot allegedly involved three Polish extremists and a German journalist with ties to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, as well as to a number of Kremlin-friendly Russian news outlets.
Their alleged task was to carry out a “false flag” operation in western Ukraine: burn down a Hungarian cultural centre, and make it look as though Ukrainian nationalists were responsible. The main beneficiary of the ensuing recriminations would be Russia.
Newly elected head receives decree of autocephaly in elaborate ceremony in Istanbul
The biggest rift in Christianity in centuries is expected to open up after a new Orthodox church in Ukraine gained formal independence from Moscow in a move set to heighten geopolitical tensions in the region.
The newly elected head of the Ukrainian Orthodox church travelled to Istanbul to receive the “tomos”, or decree of autocephaly (independence), from the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, in an elaborate ceremony in St George’s Cathedral on the eve of the Orthodox Christmas.
The Russian hackers indicted by the US special prosecutor last month have spent years trying to steal the private correspondence of some of the world's most senior Orthodox Christian figures, The Associated Press has found, illustrating the high stakes as Kiev and Moscow wrestle over the religious future of Ukraine. The targets included top aides to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who often is described as the first among equals of the world's Eastern Orthodox Christian leaders.
Hazmat suits hang next to the canal that leads from Balaklava Bay to the heart of the underground base. Lucian Kim/NPR hide caption Today, white yachts bob on the turquoise surface of Balaklava Bay, a quiet inlet hidden from the open waters of the Black Sea.
In this file photo from Dec. 17, 2017, protesters hold the Ukraine flag and anti-government placards at a rally in Kiev, Ukraine. The journal Post-Soviet Affairs recently published a special issue on politics and identity in Ukraine.
It should be no surprise that the first year of the Trump presidency has been brutal for refugees. Not only are resettlement numbers down to the lowest levels recorded in the nearly 40-year history of the program, but the trends by nationality raise disturbing questions in light of the president's hateful and bigoted rhetoric about refugees and immigrants .
In this Nov. 10, 2016 file photo, Minnesota State Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, center, is joined by Senate Republicans at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn. Republican lawmakers who control the Legislature and Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton have put forward markedly different plans to square Minnesota's tax code with the federal government.
In the light of the suggestion in the Nunes memo that Steele was 'a longtime FBI source' it seems worth sketching out some background, which may also make it easier to see some possible reasons why he 'was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.' There is reason to suspect that some former and very likely current employees of the FBI have been colluding with elements in other American and British intelligence agencies, in particular the CIA and MI6, in support of an extremely ambitious foreign policy agenda for a very long time.
File-This Aug. 24, 2017, file photo shows Ukrainian soldiers marching along main Khreshchatyk Street during a military parade to celebrate Independence Day in Kiev, Ukraine. The Trump administration has approved a plan to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, including Javelin anti-tank missiles.
National security officials are urging President Trump to approve the sale of nearly $50 million worth of U.S. weapons to Ukraine, which has confronted what it sees as military aggression from Russia and pro-Russian separatists for years. Congressional and State Department officials said Monday the weapons proposal had gained traction in the National Security Council.
This combination of photos shows, top row from left, Hillary Clinton, the logo of the defense contractor Lockheed Martin, and former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky; middle row from left, tanks at a military parade in Kiev, Ukraine, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington; bottom row from left, former Secretary of State John Kerry, former NATO Supreme Commander Wesley Clark and Maria Alekhina of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. These people and organizations were among the thousands targeted by the hacking group Fancy Bear, which disrupted the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
HOLD FOR RELEASE Thursday 2, 1 a.m. EDT; Graphic shows when fake password-reset links were created, as part of a hacking attack closely aligned with the Russian government; 2c x 5 inches; 96 mm x 126 mm; FILE - In this Monday, May 29, 2017 photo released by the Sputnik news agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an interview in Paris, France. On Thursday, June 1, 2017, Putin told reporters, Russian hackers might "wake up, read about something going on in interstate relations and, if they have patriotic leanings, they may try to add their contribution to the fight against those who speak badly about Russia."