From Italy and the World

Six Leopard 2 tanks left Spain and are set to reach Ukraine in less than a week, Spanish Minister of Defense Margarita Robles said this weekend. The United States, meanwhile, will start training Ukrainian forces on its Abrams tanks next month, seeking to get them on the battlefield against Russia before the end…

CNN  —  The son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Nikolai Peskov, claimed in an interview with Russian media that he decided to serve in Ukraine with Russia’s Wagner mercenary force. “I considered it my duty… I couldn’t sit on the sidelines and watch friends and other people go there,” Peskov…

A Ukrainian service member walks near residential buildings damaged by a Russian military strike in Bakhmut on Friday. (Anna Kudriavtseva/Reuters) Russia’s regular forces and fighters from the Wagner private military company are launching nonstop assaults on the eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Ukrainian commanders on the front lines. The situation…

Rome CNN  —  The key campaign promise that brought Giorgia Meloni and her far-right coalition to power in a landslide victory in last September’s election was a vow to do what no one else had done before: stop migrant boats using Italy as a gateway into Europe. “Blocco navale,” her…

CNN  —  France has begun a “rapid evacuation operation” of citizens and diplomatic personnel from Sudan, the country’s foreign ministry announced in a statement on Sunday. This would include citizens of “European and allied partner” nations, the ministry said. It comes amid evacuations of US government personnel and Iraqi diplomats…

CNN  —  Six Leopard 2 tanks bound for Ukraine have left the Spanish port city of Santander in northern Spain and are en route to their destination, the Spanish Minister of Defense Margarita Robles said Saturday. Robles told journalists the tanks left Santander “along with 20 heavy transport vehicles” and…

Madrid CNN  —  A fire believed to have been started by a flambéed pizza has killed two people and injured 12 others at a restaurant in the Spanish capital Madrid, city officials said Saturday. “It appears the fire started when a flambéed pizza was being served, which set fire to…

CNN  —  More than 3,000 people were evacuated on Saturday from residential buildings in the Russian city of Belgorod after a bomb was found close to the area accidentally bombed by Russia’s air force earlier this week, Russian state media reported. Explosives specialists assessed the device and said there was…

A Russian military truck is seen on the grounds of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on March 29. (Andrey Borodulin/AFP/Getty Images/FILE) International Atomic Energy Agency experts at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have heard shelling nearly every day over the past week, the agency said in an update on Friday. …

London CNN  —  Neville Lawrence sometimes imagines walking through London and looking at buildings his son Stephen might have worked on, had he lived long enough to fulfill his dream of becoming an architect. The closest he ever got to that was building a miniature. “He did his work experience…

CNN  —  Belgium has destroyed a shipment of American beer after taking exception to its maker’s slogan that it was “The Champagne of Beers.” Belgian customs crushed the 2,352 cans of Miller High Life beer earlier this week, reasoning that they were improperly labeled as Champagne. The move came after…

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here. Paris CNN  —  Iranian dissident Massi Kamari felt helpless when she found out about her elderly parents being harassed by the authorities back…

A crater is seen after an explosion in Belgorod, Russia, on April 21, 2023.  (Telegram Channel of Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov/AP) A Russian warplane dropped a bomb on a Russian city of more than 400,000 people late Thursday, leaving a crater 40 meters (130 feet) across, blowing a car…

CNN  —  A Russian warplane dropped a bomb on a Russian city of more than 400,000 people late Thursday, leaving a crater 40 meters (130 feet) across, blowing a car onto a roof and damaging buildings in what state media called an an “emergency release of an air ordnance.” A…

Rome CNN  —  Princess Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi – formerly Rita Carpenter, the former wife of Republican US Rep. John Jenrette – has been evicted from the home she once shared with the late Prince Nicolo Boncompagni, after an inheritance dispute with his children. Princess Rita confirmed her eviction from…

CNN  —  Here is a look at the life of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former International Monetary Fund Director. Birth date: April 25, 1949 Birth place: Neuilly-sur-Seine, France Birth name: Dominique Gaston Andre Strauss-Kahn Father: Gilbert Strauss-Kahn, a legal and tax advisor Mother: Jacqueline Fellus, a journalist Marriages: Myriam L’Aouffir (October 2017-present);…

CNN  —  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday “Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” in his strongest remarks reaffirming ties with Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. In his first visit to Ukraine since the invasion began, Stoltenberg said he discussed a “multiyear support initiative” with…