From Italy and the World

CNN  —  The Russian State Duma, or lower house of parliament, has voted in favor of a new law banning nearly all medical help for transgender people including gender reassignment surgery, in a raft of new anti-LGBTQ laws in Russia. The bill, which had its third and final reading on…

Dnipro, Ukraine CNN  —  The much-anticipated and controversial American-made cluster munitions that the United States agreed to supply to Kyiv are now in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian general and the Pentagon. “We just got them, we haven’t used them yet, but it can radically change (the battlefield),” Brig. Gen.…

The Pentagon is seen from the air in Washington, DC, on March 3, 2022. Joshua Roberts/Reuters US President Joe Biden authorized the Pentagon on Thursday to send up to 3,000 reserve forces to Europe as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues.   The US has more than 100,000 service members in Europe, a number…

CNN  —  A police investigation has been launched after a chopped finger was sent to the official residence of the French president, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The package delivered to the Elysee palace contained “a piece of a finger, a fingertip it seems,” the prosecutor’s office told CNN…

London CNN  —  Former Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has asked for privacy to begin “rebuilding his life” after he was found not guilty on a charge of rape and a separate charge of attempted rape. The 28-year-old former French international walked free from Chester Crown Court in northwest England…

CNN  —  A senior Russian general in command of forces in occupied southern Ukraine says he was suddenly dismissed from his post after accusing Moscow’s Defense Ministry leadership of betraying his troops by not providing sufficient support. Gen. Ivan Popov was the commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army, which…

CNN  —  Here’s a look at the life of Angela Merkel, former chancellor of Germany. Birth date: July 17, 1954 Birth place: Hamburg, Germany Birth name: Angela Dorothea Kasner Father: Horst Kasner, a Lutheran minister Mother: Herlind Kasner, an English teacher Marriages: Joachim Sauer (1998-present); Ulrich Merkel (1977-1982, divorced) Education:…

CNN  —  The mystery becomes yet more opaque even as the Kremlin tries to clear it up. Yevgeny Prigozhin’s whereabouts have been unclear since he appeared at night in an SUV in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, at the close of his short-lived, yet seismic, mutiny. We have seen affiliated planes criss-crossing Russian…

CNN  —  Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday he would step down as leader of the country’s ruling party and leave politics, after his government collapsed over immigration policy, Dutch national broadcaster and CNN affiliate NOS reported. The inveterate survivor of Dutch politics, nicknamed “Teflon Mark” because scandals surrounding…

CNN  —  A volcanic eruption south of Iceland’s capital Reykjavik is sending plumes of smoke across a region known for its sweeping lava fields, volcanoes and geothermal activity. The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said the “minor” eruption began Monday in Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula but no ash has been emitted and…

CNN  —  The United States has confirmed it will supply cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a new military aid package. CNN first reported last week that US President Joe Biden’s administration was strongly considering approving the transfer of the controversial weapons to Ukraine, whose forces have been struggling…

CNN  —  August 5, 2022 was a day like many others in Ukraine. First light revealed the devastation from a night of Russian bombing. Russian attacks on a residential neighborhood of Mykolaiv that morning brought “significant destruction,” the governor of the region said at the time, injuring at least 10.…