From Italy and the World

Madrid CNN  —  Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced snap parliamentary elections in July, hours after his ruling Socialists suffered major setbacks in regional and local elections. In a nationally televised statement, Sanchez said he had informed Spain’s King Felipe, the head of state, to hold parliamentary elections July…

A firefighter works at a site of a tobacco factory damaged during Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 28. Pavlo Petrov/State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Reuters Russia launched its largest drone attack of the conflict yet on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, leaving one person dead and sparking fires across the city…

CNN  —  Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed that nations who are willing “to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus” will be given nuclear weapons, days after confirming the transfer of some tactical nuclear weapons from Moscow to Minsk had begun. Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President…

Rome CNN  —  Venetian authorities are investigating after a patch of fluorescent green water appeared in the famed Grand Canal on Sunday morning. “This morning a patch of phosphorescent green liquid appeared in the Grand Canal of Venice, reported by some residents near the Rialto Bridge. The prefect has called…

CNN  —  Dutch police arrested over 1,500 people after Extinction Rebellion protesters blocked a motorway in The Hague on Saturday. Hundreds of police were deployed to “maintain public order” during the climate protest, Dutch police said in a press release Saturday. According to police, shortly before midday local time, the…

Leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu speaks during his party’s group meeting at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara, Turkey, on January 24. Ercin Erturk/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Leader of Turkey’s secular and center-left Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu (pronounced Ke-lich-dar-ou-loo) is widely seen as everything President…

With just a few words and a slickly produced piece of military propaganda, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces ratcheted up speculation Saturday that a long-awaited counteroffensive could be imminent. “The time has come to take back what is ours,” said the official, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhyni, sharing a…

CNN  —  Polls have opened in Turkey’s presidential runoff as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fights for a historic third term on Sunday.  Erdogan is going head-to-head with opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a 74-year-old bureaucrat and leader of the left-leaning CHP. In the first round of voting on May 14, Erdogan…

CNN  —  A wave of Russian drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital left one person dead and sparked fires around the city, officials in Kyiv said early Sunday. Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitshko said Ukrainian air defense forces had “already intercepted more than 20 UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)” heading toward the…

Kyiv, Ukraine CNN  —  With just a few words and a slickly produced piece of military propaganda, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces ratcheted up speculation that a long-awaited counteroffensive by Kyiv against Russia’s occupying forces could be imminent. “The time has come to take back what is…

CNN  —  A nationwide border system issue has hit electronic gates at British airports, causing chaos for holidaymakers and passengers arriving into the country. Images on social media showed long queues building at major airports, with many looking to travel ahead of a public holiday Monday and with schools also…

CNN  —  The drive takes us through unmarked roads and fresh trails in a remote wooded area. “We’re nearly there,” our driver signals, pointing at a dot on a map, a location shared by the Ukrainian military. We turn a corner and, in the bushes, we see the Gepard, a…

Ukrainian military conducts training on Leopard 2 tanks at the test site on May 14. Serhii Mykhalchuk/Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images In a short but surely carefully crafted post on the messaging app Telegram, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces has ratcheted up speculation that a massive counteroffensive against…

CNN  —  Firearms manufacturer Kalashnikov has unveiled an upgraded AK-12 assault rifle, with modifications based on the weapon’s use in the war on Ukraine. Kalashnikov Group Chief Designer Sergey Urzhumtsev told Russian state media TASS on Friday the upgrade followed “input” gathered from “experience of the gun’s use in the…

CNN  —  At least two people died and dozens more were left injured after Russian forces struck a medical facility in the city of Dnipro on Friday morning, after intense shelling rained over central Ukraine overnight. A 69-year-old man was killed after “just passing by when the rocket struck the…

Rome CNN  —  Pope Francis canceled all of his scheduled meetings on Friday morning due to a fever, the Vatican said, again raising concerns about the 86-year-old pontiff’s health. The Vatican press office didn’t provide any further details on the Pope’s illness. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin,…

Army Staff Sgt. Nicholas Maimer, left, who was identified as the American citizen killed by Russian artillery in the embattled city of Bakhmut, is pictured with Senator James Risch. Senator James Risch The head of the Russian paramilitary company Yevgeny Prigozhin told CNN Thursday that he has handed the body…

CNN  —  The waters of the Caspian Sea appear deceptively calm. But this sea route – which provides a direct path between Iran and Russia – is increasingly busy with cargo traffic, including suspected weapons transfers from Tehran to Moscow. As cooperation between the two countries deepens, the Caspian Sea…

Tbilisi, Georgia CNN  —  Above Tbilisi’s Old Town stands the Mother of Georgia statue, like a less imposing Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. “Kartlis Deda,” as she is known to Georgians, holds a wine cup in her left hand and a sword in her right. She offers a…

Lviv, Ukraine CNN  —  Ukrainian armed forces on Friday identified a large Russian landing ship that they said they destroyed at the port of Berdiansk in southern Ukraine the day before. The port, which had recently been occupied by Russian forces with several Russian warships in dock, was rocked by…