Vossische Zeitung - News from Berlin, Brandenburg, Europe and the whole world

Russia's blocking of a liberal radio station and an independent TV channel has shaken remaining independent media in the country that see the invasion of Ukraine as opening up a "second front" against them.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the launch on Wednesday of a task force to pursue "corrupt Russian oligarchs" and violators of sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Russian authorities are scrambling to stem panic as massive sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine delivered the worst economic shocks since the fall of the Soviet Union.

On a table covered in a green sheet, two Saudi officers pour out thousands of white amphetamine pills they have just seized from a neighbourhood in the kingdom's Red Sea city of Jeddah.

Nigeria's government on Wednesday planned to start airlifting more than 1,000 citizens stranded in countries neighbouring Ukraine after they fled the Russian invasion.

Russian forces shelled several Ukrainian cities on Wednesday as troops battled in the streets of Kharkiv and Ukraine's president accused Moscow of wanting to "erase our country".

Manu Tuilagi was missing Wednesday from an England training squad selected for this week's three-day training camp in Bristol ahead of their next Six Nations match against Ireland.

The golden beaches of Cyprus may seem a long way from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but many on the eastern Mediterranean holiday island fear damaging financial fallout from unprecedented sanctions on Moscow.

Oil prices soared Wednesday above $113 per barrel and natural gas hit a record peak, as investors fretted over key producer Russia's intensifying assault on Ukraine.

When Russia's veteran Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hosted his British counterpart Liz Truss for talks in Moscow in February in a doomed attempt to avert war, he had a trick up his sleeve.

Honduras has repealed a controversial secrecy law in a bid to battle corruption following a late-night parliamentary session Tuesday.

The wounded Ukrainian soldier dropped his crutches to the Kyiv metro station floor and picked up his five-year-old son, first wiping tears from his shaking wife's face.

The Covid pandemic has taken a dire toll on mental health, the WHO said Wednesday, indicating that cases of anxiety and depression had swelled by over 25 percent globally.

The United Nations on Wednesday agreed to start negotiating a world-first global treaty on plastic pollution in what has been hailed a watershed moment for the planet.

Once defended by the former chancellor Angela Merkel as a purely economic project that will bring cheaper gas to Europe, the controversial 10-billion-euro Nord Stream 2 pipeline has finally been canned by Germany over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Ford announced Wednesday it is creating separate businesses for its conventional and electric-auto operations, as it accelerates its build-out of emission-free vehicles.

English Premier League club Everton said Wednesday they were suspending with "immediate effect" sponsorship agreements with three companies in which Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has a stake following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The number of refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine has surged to nearly 875,000, UN figures showed on Wednesday, as fighting intensified on day seven of Russia's invasion.

Saudi Arabia, Russia and other top oil producers on Wednesday agreed to hold firm on only gradually opening the taps despite Russia's assault on Ukraine sending prices spiralling.

From world boxing champions to football stars, top Ukrainian sports people are resisting the Russian invasion of their country, with some even returning home to take up arms.

Two years after the official start of the pandemic, some countries are now trying to "live with Covid", however scientists warn that potential new variants and unequal vaccination rates threaten any long-awaited return to normality.

Oil prices soared Wednesday above $113 per barrel and natural gas spiked to a record peak, as investors fretted over key producer Russia's intensifying assault on Ukraine.

Japan will accept Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia's ongoing invasion, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday, in a break with the country's usual reticence to accept humanitarian arrivals.

Russia's largest lender Sberbank said Wednesday it was leaving the European market after Western sanctions were levelled against the state bank in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Russian and Belarusian athletes were given the all-clear Wednesday to compete at the upcoming Winter Paralympics, which open this week under the shadow of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Germany's Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that a new Iran nuclear agreement "cannot be postponed any longer", during his first visit as chancellor to Israel, which staunchly opposes efforts to forge a deal with Tehran.

Netflix said Wednesday it plans to buy Finnish developer Next Games for more than $70 million, signaling the US streaming giant's intent to expand into the video gaming industry.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sparked a widespread backlash in the sports world, with the country booted out of this year's World Cup. However their Paralympians will be permitted to compete at the Beijing Winter Games under the Paralympic flag.

On the seventh day of fighting in Ukraine Wednesday, Russia claims control of the southern port city of Kherson, street battles rage in Ukraine's second-biggest city Kharkiv, and Kyiv braces for a feared Russian assault.

Climate change has already caused "irreversible losses" for Nature, UN experts have said, warning that if emissions are not cut quickly, warming could trigger chain reactions with potentially catastrophic effects for all species, including humans.

Eighty years after the ravine at Babi Yar served as the mass grave of 30,000 Jews murdered by Ukraine's Nazi occupiers, five more corpses lay on the ground Wednesday covered in dust and fine layer of snow.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that a new Iran nuclear agreement "cannot be postponed any longer", during a visit to Israel which staunchly opposes efforts to forge a deal.