Europe

World News

Hungary ends opposition to giving Ukraine aid, freeing up $54 billion from the EU

5:11pm February 01, 2024

by Joanna Kakissis

Hungary was the single country blocking Ukraine aid in the 27-member European Union. Today, the country dropped its objection and the EU finally approved a $54 billion aid package.

From left, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and European Council President Charles Michel arrive to a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday. "Ukraine is our priority and this agreement will give the credibility, legitimacy and the predictability that is expected from us," Metsola said.

World News

European Union approves $54 billion aid for Ukraine as Hungary drops opposition

3:45pm February 01, 2024

by Eleanor Beardsley

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had vetoed the aid package in December but joined other EU members in approving it at a summit in Brussels. His vote came with conditions the EU did not disclose.

Farmers watch French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announcing new measures for farmers on a blocked highway on Thursday in Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris.

World News

France's 2 key farmers unions suspend protests after new offers from the government

10:55am February 01, 2024

by The Associated Press

Farmers have blocked highways for days across the country to denounce low wages, heavy regulation and unfair competition from abroad. The unions said the new measures represented "tangible progress."

If you found a piece of expired fruit in a kitchen cabinet, would you throw it away?

7:24am February 01, 2024

An auction house in England found a 285-year-old lemon in the back of a 19th-century cabinet. A special message was inscribed on the lemon, so they decided to sell fruit. It sold for nearly $1,800.

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Tensions between Ukraine's president and a top general have boiled over

5:04am February 01, 2024

There is growing tension between Ukraine's president and his military chief of staff. If that general loses his job, Ukrainian society could be divided at a crucial time.

Morning news brief

5:04am February 01, 2024

The House approves a three-year expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Ukraine's president and his military chief are at growing odds. Some of the world's most popular musical artists may leave TikTok.

Olha Bilianska's husband was mobilized two years ago. Even after being injured, he is being redeployed. "Some people still believe that this war won't get them," Bilianska says. "It will get them. This war is cruel."

World News

As Ukraine seeks to replenish its depleted army, a divide grows among its civilians

5:01am January 31, 2024

Ukraine is looking to reform its conscription policies to help bolster troop numbers after nearly two years of war, fueling fears among some civilians who don't want to fight.

Jerome Guillem, mayor of Langon, and other French mayors, farmers and wine growers block highway entrances to the town of Langon, toward the A62 highway in Gironde, France, on Jan. 29.

World News

Protests by farmers block highways to Paris and elsewhere in France

6:25pm January 30, 2024

by Rebecca Rosman

The farmers are protesting over low wages and foreign competition, among other things. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal tried to address their grievances in parliament but protests are expected to go on.

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Estelle Laughlin, 94, survived the Nazi concentration camps along with her older sister and mother. She was photographed in her living room in Lincolnshire, Illinois, on October 6, 2023.

Health & Safety

A Holocaust survivor identifies with the pain of both sides in the Israel-Hamas war

4:45pm January 30, 2024

by Ari Daniel

As a girl of 10, Estelle Laughlin and her family were forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, then sent to a concentration camp. She lived through the Nazi genocide. This new war has shaken her to her core.

U.S. suspends aid to Palestinian refugee agency. Norway is still sending money

7:47am January 30, 2024

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide about why Norway hasn't suspended aid to a U.N. agency, when some staff is accused of participating in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

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