London — Halla Tomasdottir, a businesswoman and investor, has won Iceland’s presidential election, topping a crowded field of candidates in which the top three finishers were women, the country’s national broadcast service reported. 

Tomasdottir was elected to the largely ceremonial post with 34.3% of the vote, defeating former Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, with 25.2%, and Halla Hrund Logadottir, with 15.5%, RUV said Sunday. 

Tomasdottir, 55, campaigned as someone who was above party politics and could help open discussions on fundamental issues such as the effect of social media on the mental health of young people, Iceland’s development as a tourist destination and the role of artificial intelligence. 

She will replace President Gudni Th. Johannesson, who did not seek re-election after two four-year terms. Tomasdottir will take office on Aug. 1. 

Iceland, a Nordic island nation located in the North Atlantic, has about 384,000 people and a long tradition of electing women to high office. Vigdis Finbogadottir was the first democratically elected female president of any nation when she became Iceland’s head of state in 1980. 

The country has also seen two women serve as prime minister in recent years, providing stability during years of political turmoil. Johanna Sigurdardottir led the government from 2009-2013, after the global financial crisis ravaged Iceland’s economy. Jakobsdottir became prime minister in 2017, leading a broad coalition that ended the cycle of crises that had triggered three elections in four years. She resigned in April to run for president. 

Tomasdottir first rose to prominence during the financial crisis, when she was hailed as the co-founder of Audur Capital, one of the few Icelandic investment firms that survived the upheaval. She is currently on leave as chief executive of the B Team, a non-profit organization that works to promote workplace diversity and has offices in New York and London. 
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SINGAPORE — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday urged countries to participate in the June 15-16 peace summit in Switzerland.

Zelenskyy, in his keynote speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, emphasized diplomacy’s role in maintaining Ukrainian efforts in the war with Russia, now in its third year.

“Not so long ago, it seemed that the world would always be fragmented, but we saw that most nations truly desire and are capable of cooperation, at least as far as collective security is concerned,” he told hundreds of foreign government officials and delegates at the regional security dialogue.

He stressed how support from countries around the world has helped Ukraine to maintain its defense capabilities amid aggressive attacks launched by Russia while rescuing some Ukrainian children who had been taken to Russia.

“Diplomacy does more when it truly aims to protect life, [and] together with partners, we are defending life and rules-based world order,” he said, adding that Ukraine’s experience has helped to restore “effective diplomacy,” which has led to the peace summit in Switzerland.

“We are moving into the Global Peace Summit so every leader and every country can show their commitment to peace,” he said, stressing that the global majority can ensure that “what is agreed upon is truly implemented” with their involvement in the summit.

While reiterating the importance for countries around the world to remain “united” and act in “complete harmony,” Zelenskyy also expressed his disappointment in some countries’ absence from the peace summit.

“We are disappointed that some world leaders have not yet confirmed their participation in the peace summit, [and] unfortunately, there are also attempts to disrupt the summit,” he said, adding that these attempts would deny the world the opportunity to “decide on war and peace.”

Zelenskyy’s remarks came as Ukraine continues to experience heavy Russian bombardment. Ukrainian officials told local media outlets that an overnight Russian attack involving 100 missiles and drones targeted the country’s power grid and injured at least 19 people across the country.

It also follows China’s decision to skip the peace summit. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters May 31 the summit has not met the conditions proposed by China, which is that both Russia and Ukraine should take part in the meeting.

“There is an apparent gap between the meeting’s arrangement and what China stands for as well as the universal expectation in the international community,” she said, adding that China has shared its concerns with relevant parties while vowing to keep promoting peace talks in its own way.

Several European leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, have expressed concerns in recent months about China’s support for Russia’s war efforts and urged Beijing to use its influence to facilitate a peace process.

Western countries have also repeatedly warned about China’s ongoing support for Russian war efforts against Ukraine. In May, the British defense minister said that intelligence showed evidence of Chinese lethal aid to Russia.

During his keynote address Sunday, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun reiterated that China has not provided weapons to either party in the Ukraine war and strictly controls the export of dual-use items.

“We stand firmly on the side of peace and dialogue,” he said.

However, when asked to elaborate on China’s plan for the peace process in Ukraine during the Q&A session of his keynote speech, Dong skipped the question and used his time to repeat China’s objection to Taiwan’s efforts to seek independence.

Zelenskyy told a press conference that while the United States has confirmed its “high-level” participation in the peace summit and has been encouraging countries to attend, China has been asking countries “not to attend the summit.”

“These are two different approaches,” he said.

When asked what he hopes to achieve by coming to Singapore, Zelenskyy said he wants to secure more support from Asian countries and hopes to let Asian countries understand what is happening in Ukraine.

“We want Asia to be involved in the peace summit and if we see Asian leaders attend the peace summit, we will know that my trip has succeeded,” he said, adding that he has not had any interaction with the Chinese delegation.

While he said he does not expect Ukraine to receive defensive support from China, Zelenskyy said he hopes China will support Ukraine’s efforts to ensure nuclear and food security in the world.

“It’ll be great if China supports and helps to solve these two issues,” he told journalists.

Some analysts say Dong’s reluctance to elaborate on Beijing’s plan for peace processes in the war shows it does not consider part of its core interests.

“They don’t think it’s a good topic for them, so they are just not going to talk about it,” Ray Powell, a fellow at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, told VOA on the sidelines of the Shangri-La meeting.

Powell said that while part of Zelenskyy’s goal may be trying to rally more countries to join the peace summit, he may have difficulty convincing some Indo-Pacific countries to become more involved in the Ukraine War.

“Some Indo-Pacific countries’ immediate concerns don’t go that far out so I think Zelenskyy may just be thinking about keeping certain countries that have been supportive of Ukraine’s cause at the United Nations close and try to make his case to those governments,” Powell said.

Zelenskyy said that by joining the event, countries can involve their people in global affairs and unite the world against one war.  
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden — The teacher’s opening question to students in Stockholm is blunt: “Has joining NATO increased the threat to Sweden?”

Sweden became the Western military alliance’s 32nd member in March. The abrupt end to the Scandinavian country’s 200 years of neutrality following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and officials’ warnings about the Russian threat to Sweden itself, worry many. Teenagers are no exception.

Masai Björkwall helped design a national program to educate students on the history and geopolitics of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after students at Viktor Rydberg Junior High School earlier this year anxiously asked if war might come to Sweden.

Their fears had been sparked by comments from the country’s top military commander and the civil defense minister that there was a risk of war and that Swedes must prepare. The statements spread quickly, and the national children’s help line reported an increase in questions about war.

Sweden’s last war ended in 1814.

“Of course we have to deal with the students’ worries about risk for conflict and war, and explain why we joined. We have had the policy of neutrality for so long, several hundred years,” Björkwall said. “So I have to teach about what has happened in the world, what has changed that made us change our policy.”

For teens unfamiliar with NATO, war and world politics, Björkwall’s new syllabus seeks to demystify topics his students see online.

One lesson included a discussion of the implications of NATO’s Article 5, the alliance’s collective defense clause under which an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all allies. The discussion stressed that the clause doesn’t lead to an automatic military response.

Student Linnea Ekman didn’t see any increased threat, pointing out that Article 5 does not require sending troops.

Another student, Edith Maxence, was concerned about the world becoming more divided as Sweden takes sides.

“I feel safe that Sweden is with NATO, but I feel unsafe that (…) it might start a war,” said the 14-year-old.

She isn’t alone. Children’s Rights in Society, which runs the national child help line, has seen increasing numbers of calls from children asking whether NATO membership increases the risk to Sweden.

Callers rarely asked about war before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But the secretary-general of BRIS, Magnus Jägerskog, said that nearly 20% of calls were about war in the week after military chief Micael Bydén and Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin made their comments in January highlighting the risk.

Addressing such concerns is where the program Björkwall helped design comes in.

Together with UR, a publicly funded civic education agency that creates educational content for teachers and students, he and others produced a series of video programs on NATO along with teaching materials. Launched in March, these programs have now reached an estimated 100,000 Swedish children.

For his final-year students, Björkwall has a more challenging question: Should Sweden align with authoritarian countries? He uses as examples Turkey and Hungary — NATO allies that delayed Sweden’s membership for months after Nordic neighbor Finland had joined.

The class is divided, with nearly half of the students unsure.

“We found it hard to make one conclusion,” said 15-year-old Adam Sahlen but acknowledged that “the military gets stronger and better if we cooperate with others, especially Turkey for example.”

Björkwall said he’s careful to avoid advocating one position over another: “I want them to be mature, democratic citizens that can vote consciously later on.”
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LONDON — Even as he prepared to embark for the battlefields of Normandy, Pvt. Mervyn Kersh was summoned by his commanding officer and threatened with arrest.

Why, the officer demanded, had Kersh refused to eat his army rations of canned beef and vegetables, subsisting only on canned peaches? Was he trying to make himself so weak that he would be unfit to fight in France?

Kersh, then 19, was indignant.

“I said that was the last thing I wanted to do,” Kersh told The Associated Press. “I’m Jewish. I didn’t eat anything that wasn’t kosher as far as I could help it.”

The officer dropped the charge and Kersh was soon on board a landing ship approaching the Normandy coast with artillery shells from Allied ships and German shore batteries screaming overhead. The sense of adventure turned to fear, Kersh recalled, and he sought comfort from a pocket edition of the Book of Psalms before landing in France a few days after D-Day, which on June 6, 1944.

Kersh will return to France next week for ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy that followed. It’s expected to be one of the last big events commemorating the campaign to end the Nazis’ grip on Northern Europe, with the dwindling number of surviving veterans now approaching or past their 100th birthdays.

Growing up in a Jewish family in south London during the 1930s and ’40s, Kersh, now 99, was doubly motivated to defeat Adolf Hitler. In addition to the threat to Britain and the bombing that killed almost 30,000 people in the capital, there was the knowledge that the Nazis were slaughtering Jews across Europe.

“I could almost say it was a crusade, if that’s not the wrong word,” Kersh said. “To me, this had a purpose. It wasn’t just a game or passing the time. … It was to put the Germans out of action as long as possible.”

“We knew what was happening. (We) didn’t know the extent of it, but we knew they had gas chambers. They were killing people, shooting them, hanging them.”

That motivation translated into an above average level of military service for British Jews during World War II. About 70,000 Jews, or 18% of the Jewish population, served in the U.K. armed forces during the war, compared with 11% for the population as a whole.

Both Britain and the U.S. benefitted from large Jewish populations that were highly motivated to defeat Nazi Germany and provided a pool of recruits who had valuable language skills and other knowledge that the Allies needed for the war effort, said Rob Citino, a retired senior historian at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

Henry Kissinger, for example, was born in Germany, fled to London with his family, then moved to New York where he was drafted into the U.S. Army. Kissinger served in counterintelligence during the advance into Germany, helping to arrest saboteurs and Gestapo secret police operatives.

“If there’s ever a soldier who is going to fight with spirit in the field against the Nazis, of course it would be a Jewish American or an Anglo Jewish citizen of the British Isles,” Citino said.

Assigned to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Kersh’s role in the invasion was to help ensure a steady flow of vehicles — everything from motorcycles to 48-wheel tank transporters — to British Army units fighting their way to Berlin.

Advancing across Europe, he saw for himself what the war had meant for Jews.

There were the people in Bayeux, France, who came out of hiding to hear a rabbi deliver a service for Jewish troops, and in Brussels, two black-hatted men told Kersh how they had spent four years in one tiny room, surviving on the meager rations a neighbor shared with them.

But it was at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp that he saw the true horrors of the war. British troops liberated the camp on April 15, 1945, finding 60,000 starving prisoners and thousands of unburied bodies.

When Kersh arrived in the area a few weeks later to await a transfer, he visited the camp. He wasn’t allowed to enter because of the danger of typhus, but outside the gates he met skeletal former prisoners still wearing their striped prison uniforms.

Kersh tried to help, collecting chocolate rations from other soldiers and passing them onto the survivors whose eyes lit up at the sight of food they hadn’t seen for years. But that act of kindness makes him pause almost 80 years later.

“I found out afterwards that that was the worst thing you could give starving people,” he said. “How many died from that? I don’t know. But I didn’t know it at the time.”

After his years in the army, including a stint in Egypt after the war, Kersh found his dream of becoming a retail store manager blocked by employers who thought he was too old to join a training program at the age of 22. He ultimately found success pioneering the market for fake fur coats and as a writer.

But in recent years, his vocation has become visiting schools and community groups to tell his story, reminding younger generations about the dangers of antisemitism and what can happen if world leaders don’t stand up to tyrants.

The French government in 2015 awarded Kersh the Legion d’Honneur, the country’s highest order of merit, for his participation in the Normandy campaign. And five years later, then U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson honored Kersh for his “tireless efforts” to reach out to young people.

Eight decades after he rolled onto Gold Beach in a tracked personnel carrier, Kersh is the first to admit that he had an easier path than the men who splashed through the surf facing a fusillade of gunfire and mortar shells in the days before him. And he recognizes that he is being feted in part because he’s one of the last men standing from the campaign to liberate Europe.

But that makes it all the more important to him to tell the story.

“When I go back, each time I go back, and look at the military cemeteries, I just think how lucky I am, because I’ve got the choice of going home again,” he said. “And they haven’t. They just lost their lives, but it was for something worthwhile, if that’s any compensation.”
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London’s Chinatown is at the beating heart of the capital’s entertainment district – with unique flavors that link back to Britain’s colonial history, as Henry Ridgwell reports
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BUDAPEST, Hungary — A crowd of tens of thousands gathered in Hungary’s capital Saturday in a show of strength behind Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a week ahead of European Parliament elections, a contest he has cast as an existential turning point between peace in Europe and a world war.

The demonstration, dubbed by organizers as a “peace march,” brought Orbán’s supporters from all over Hungary and neighboring countries, who marched along the Danube River in Budapest from the city’s iconic Chain Bridge onto Margaret Island, waving flags and signs reading “No War.”

Orbán, whose 14 years in power make him the European Union’s longest serving leader, has focused his campaign for the June 9 ballot on the war in Ukraine, portraying his domestic and international opponents as warmongers who seek to involve Hungary directly in the conflict. Critics say his appeals for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine would allow Russia to retain territories it has occupied and embolden it further.

On Saturday, he told supporters it was time for his party to “occupy Brussels” — the European Union’s de facto capital — and transform the continent’s approach to support for Ukraine as it fends off Russia’s invasion.

“We can only stay out of the war if Hungarian voters support the government,” he said during a speech on Margaret Island. “We must win the European elections in such a way that the Brussels bureaucrats in their fear will open the doors of the city to us and leave their offices in a hurry.”

Orbán and his Fidesz party have built a reputation as being among the friendliest in the EU to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Hungary has refused to supply neighboring Ukraine with weapons to assist in its fight against Russia’s invasion and has threatened to derail EU financial aid to Kyiv and to block sanctions against Moscow.

His party appears set to gain the most seats in the EU legislature in next week’s election. But a series of scandals and a deep economic crisis has given room for one political newcomer, Péter Magyar, to seize on Orbán’s moment of weakness and build a major political movement in the last three months that looks poised to take a significant portion of votes.

Magyar, who has risen to prominence through publicly accusing Orbán’s party of corruption and turning Hungary’s media into a pro-government propaganda machine, has himself held numerous large protests and called for “the largest political demonstration in Hungary’s history” on the eve of the elections.

But the crowd in Budapest on Saturday showed that Orbán’s brand of right-wing populism — and threats that military support to Ukraine by the EU and United States is leading toward a new world war — still resonates among large parts of Hungarian society.

“I trust Viktor Orbán. Let our children have a livable country, not a bombed-out country,” said Budapest resident József Fehér at the demonstration. “The weapons that Europe has given to the Ukrainians could be turned back against us. And we don’t want that.”

Orbán has condemned his EU and NATO partners who assist Ukraine as being “pro-war,” and advocated for an election victory for former U.S. President Donald Trump.

In his speech, he said a Trump victory in November would lead to he and the U.S. administration forming a “transatlantic peace coalition” that could bring an end to the fighting in Ukraine.
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LONDON — Voters in Iceland are choosing a president Saturday, selecting from a field of 12 people that includes a former prime minister.

The candidates are vying to replace outgoing President Gudni Th. Johannesson, who didn’t seek reelection for the largely ceremonial post. The winner will be the seventh president of Iceland since the founding of the republic some 80 years ago.

Among the best known of the candidates is Katrin Jakobsdottir, who became prime minister in 2017 after three parties formed a broad governing coalition in hopes of moving Iceland out of a cycle of crisis that triggered three elections. Jakobsdottir resigned as prime minister earlier this year to run for president.

Iceland, a rugged island of around 380,000 people just below the Arctic Circle, has been ranked as the world’s most gender-equal country 14 years in a row by the World Economic Forum, which measures pay, education, health care and other factors.

Polling stations opened at 9 a.m. and are set to close at 10 p.m., with results expected Sunday.
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SINGAPORE — Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy arrived in Singapore for the Shangri-La Dialogue conference on Saturday, where he planned to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and discuss support for his embattled country in an address to delegates. 

After arriving at the conference venue in a motorcade amid heavy security, Zelenskyy said in a statement on the social media platform X that he had come to gather support from the Asia-Pacific region for a peace summit planned for June 15-16 in Switzerland. 

“Global security is impossible when the world’s largest country disregards recognized borders, international law, and the U.N. Charter, resorts to hunger, darkness, and nuclear blackmail,” the statement said, referring to Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022. 

The statement said Zelenskyy planned to hold several meetings, including with Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta, Austin, and Singaporean investors. 

A U.S. official said Zelenskiy and Ukrainian Defense Minster Rustem Umerov would meet Austin “to discuss the current battlefield situation in Ukraine and to underscore the U.S. commitment to ensuring Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself against ongoing Russian aggression.” 

The International Institute of Strategic Studies, which organized the security conference, said Zelenskyy would participate in a discussion session on Sunday entitled “Re-Imagining Solutions for Global Peace and Regional Stability.” 

Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Russia is trying to disrupt the Switzerland peace summit, which he hopes will generate support for the withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine’s 1991 borders. 

It is Zelenskiy’s second trip to Asia since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In May 2023, he attended the G7 meetings in Japan. 

Russia has begun renewed assaults against Ukrainian lines and has stepped up missile attacks in recent months. Russian troops have made small gains in Ukraine’s east and south, even as Kyiv’s allies accelerate shipments of ammunition and other arms. 

Russia has not attended the Shangri-La Dialogue since the invasion. 

The United States this year approved $61 billion for weapons for Ukraine, some of which — such as Patriot missiles and ATACMS precision ballistic missiles — have already arrived there.  

On Thursday, U.S. officials said U.S. President Joe Biden had assured Ukraine it could use U.S. weapons to strike targets across the border in Russia that were being used to attack areas around Kharkiv, a city in Ukraine’s northeast. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned NATO members against allowing Ukraine to fire their weapons into Russia and on Tuesday again raised the risk of nuclear war. 

Sweden also approved a new security package this week worth about $1 billion, which included armored vehicles, and for the first time, airborne warning and control aircraft that can spot targets in the air at extreme distances. 

Austin, who spoke earlier on Saturday at the Shangri-La Dialogue, noted in his remarks that the support for Ukrainian forces pushing back against Russia’s invasion for more than two years showed that countries around the world could rally in the face of aggression. 

The Shangri-La conference, held annually in Singapore by the International Institute of Strategic Studies for the last 21 years, ends on June 2. 
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KYIV — Russia launched a barrage of missiles and drones on Saturday, damaging energy facilities in five regions across Ukraine, officials said.

Ukraine’s national grid operator Ukrenergo said the attack damaged energy facilities in the eastern Donetsk, southeastern Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, central Kyrovohrad region, and Ivano-Frankivsk region in the west.

“Today morning the Russians launched another strike on Ukrainian energy facilities. Since March it is already the sixth massive, complex, missile and drone attack against the civilian energy infrastructure,” Ukrenergo said.

Ukrainian air defense shot down 35 of 53 Russian missiles and 46 of 47 Russian drones, the air force commander said.

Since March, Russia has stepped up its bombardments of the Ukrainian power infrastructure, knocking out the bulk of the thermal and hydropower generation, causing blackouts, and pushing electricity imports to record highs.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy-generating company, said that during the attack its two thermal power plants had been hit and equipment “seriously damaged.”

Regional officials reported that firefighters were extinguishing fires on several sites following the strikes.

There were no immediate reports of casualties. 
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BRUSSELS — Around 400 million European Union citizens go to the polls next month to elect members of the European Parliament, or MEPs, in one of the biggest global democratic events.

Far-right parties are seeking to gain more power amid a rise in the cost of living and farmers’ discontent, while the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are on the minds of voters.

One of the biggest questions is whether European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will remain in charge as the most visible face of the EU.

Here is a look at the upcoming election and the biggest issues at stake:

When is the vote?

EU elections are held every five years across the 27-member bloc. This year marks the 10th parliamentary election since the first polls in 1979, and the first after Brexit.

The vote takes place from June 6-9. First results can only be revealed on the evening of June 9, once polling stations have closed in all member states.

How does voting work?

The elections start on a Thursday in the Netherlands and finish on a Sunday, when most countries hold their election. The voting is done by direct universal suffrage in a single ballot.

The number of members elected in each country depends on the size of the population. It ranges from six for Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus to 96 for Germany. In 2019, Europeans elected 751 lawmakers. Following the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU in 2020, the number of MEPs fell to 705. Some of the 73 seats previously held by British MEPs had been redistributed to other member states.

After the election, the European Parliament will have 15 additional members, bringing the total to 720. Twelve countries will get extra MEPs.

Elections are contested by national political parties, but once they are elected, most of the lawmakers then join transnational political groups.

Who is voting?

People under 18 are allowed to vote in some countries. In Belgium, a law adopted in 2022 lowered the minimum voting age to 16. Germany, Malta and Austria are also permitting 16-year-olds to vote. In Greece, the youngest voting age is 17. In all other member states, it’s 18.

A minimum age is also required to stand for election — from 18 in most countries to 25 in Italy and Greece.

What about turnout?

European Union elections usually don’t bring a huge turnout, but there was a clear upturn in public interest in the 2019 election. At 50.7%, the turnout was eight points higher than in 2014 after steadily falling since 1979, when it reached 62%.

In April, the latest edition of the European Parliament’s Eurobarometer highlighted a surge of interest in the upcoming election. Around 71% of Europeans said they are likely to cast a ballot.

What are the main issues?

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is at the forefront of citizens’ minds, with defense and security seen as key campaign issues. At national level, the EU’s defense and security was mentioned first in nine countries.

The economy, jobs, poverty and social exclusion, public health, climate change and the future of Europe are also featuring prominently as issues.

What do EU lawmakers do?

The European Parliament is the only EU institution to be elected by European citizens. It’s a real counterpower to the powerful EU’s executive arm, the European Commission.

The parliament doesn’t have the initiative of proposing legislation. But its powers are getting bigger. It is now competent on a wide range of topics, voting on laws relating to climate, banking rules, agriculture, fisheries, security or justice. The legislature also votes on the EU budget, which is crucial to the implementation of European policies, including, for instance, the aid delivered to Ukraine.

Lawmakers are also a key element of the check and balances system since they need to approve the nomination of all EU commissioners, who are the equivalent of ministers. And it can also force the whole commission to resign with a vote by a two-third majority.

What’s the current makeup of the parliament?

With 176 seats out of 705 as of the end of the last plenary session in April, the center-right European People’s Party is the largest political group in the European Parliament.

Von der Leyen belongs to the EPP and hopes to remain at the helm of the EU’s executive arm after the election.

The second-largest group is the S&D, the political group of the center-left Party of European Socialists, which currently holds 139 seats. The liberal and pro-European Renew group holds 102 seats ahead of an alliance made up of green and regionalist political parties that holds 72 seats.

Far right looks to make gains

Two groups with far-right parties, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Identity and Democracy (ID), could be headed to becoming the third- and fourth-largest political groups at the European Parliament. The two groups have many divergences and it’s unclear to what extent they could team up and affect the EU’s agenda, especially the EU’s efforts to support Ukraine against Russia in the war.

The EPP and S&D are expected to remain stable. Liberals and greens could both take a hit after they made big gains at the previous election.

What happens after the election?

Once the weight of each political force is determined, MEPs will elect their president at the first plenary session, from July 16-19. Then, most likely in September after weeks of negotiations, they will nominate the president of the European Commission, following a proposal made by the member states.

In 2019, von der Leyen won a narrow majority (383 votes in favor, 327 against, 22 abstentions) to become the first woman to head the institution. Parliamentarians will also hear from the European commissioners before approving them in a single vote.

Von der Leyen has good chances to be appointed for another team, but she needs to secure the support of enough leaders. She has also antagonized many lawmakers by suggesting she could work with the hard right depending on the outcome of the elections.
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THE WHITE HOUSE — Less than a day after U.S. President Joe Biden granted Ukraine authorization to strike inside Russia with American weaponry, Michael Carpenter, senior director for Europe at the National Security Council, spoke with VOA’s Iuliia Iarmolenko to discuss details of the new policy and explain what prompted the president’s reversal of a longstanding ban.

Carpenter, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, emphasized that U.S. policies barring Ukraine from using American-provided ATACMS, or long-range missiles, and other munitions to strike offensively inside Russia have not changed.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: Could you provide details about this shift in policy? What is allowed and what are the limitations?

MICHAEL CARPENTER, SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR EUROPE AT NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: This is in the context of the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region against Ukraine. Russians were striking targets in Ukraine from just across the border. And at that point, the Ukrainians came to us with a request to use U.S.-provided weapons to be able to hit back at the Russian weapons that were targeting Ukrainian villages and Ukrainian people and their homes. And so the president directed his national security team to look into this and directed them to change the guidance and to allow for the employment of U.S. provided weapons to be able to strike back. That guidance has now gone into effect.

VOA: Does it apply only to the Kharkiv region?

CARPENTER: This applies to counter-fire capabilities that are deployed just across the border. It does not apply to ATACMS or long-range strikes. This is meant to enable Ukrainians to defend themselves against what would otherwise be a Russian sanctuary across the border.

VOA: But in the Sumy region, would it be possible to do so there?

CARPENTER: As I said, this applies to enable Ukrainians to defend themselves. Yes, across the border for Russian attacks that are coming across, where otherwise Russians would enjoy a relative sanctuary on their side of the border.

VOA: What is the hope of the administration on how this policy shift might influence Ukraine’s position on the battlefield?

CARPENTER: Well, we have all long wanted to give Ukraine the capabilities that it needs defensively to push back on this aggressive onslaught on their territory. And we will continue to do that.

VOA: Do you expect, though, that this change in policy might influence the situation on a battlefield, such that Ukraine might have an upper hand in coming months?

CARPENTER: We endeavor to give Ukraine the capabilities over time to enable Ukraine to be able to defend its sovereignty against this aggression. And, yes, the types of weapons systems and the capabilities that we have provided, yes those have changed over time. The battlefield has changed over time. And we have reacted to what Russia has done. Don’t forget that Russia has also benefited from its partners. Principally Iran and North Korea. And we have therefore stepped up the contributions that we have made together with our allies and partners. And we continue to do so.

VOA: A couple weeks ago, Defense Secretary Austin said the United States is talking to allies in Europe about trying to get at least one more Patriot air-defense battery in place. Should we expect another battery directly from the United States as well?

CARPENTER: We are looking very carefully at what we could contribute to Ukraine’s air defense needs, which are very acute at this point in time. We’re talking with allies and partners. We’re talking around the world with various countries that we engage in. And I don’t have any announcements to make today, but I can assure you that this is an ongoing process where we are doing everything possible to unlock air defense capabilities for Ukraine.

VOA: I’d like to talk about the upcoming July NATO summit in Washington. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week said that we’ll see “very strong deliverables for Ukraine” at the summit. Is there a consensus among allies about what those deliverables might look like? And should Ukraine expect the invitation to start accession talks?

CARPENTER: Secretary Blinken is in Prague right now to talk about the nature of the deliverable for Ukraine, the nature of the support that will be provided in the aftermath of the Washington summit. We think it’s going to be very robust. This will be essentially a bridge to [NATO] membership, so that when Ukraine does in the future receive an invitation — now, there is no consensus for an invitation now, at the Washington summit — but when conditions permit and when there is that consensus and Ukraine does gain entry to the NATO alliance, we want to make sure that Ukraine is fully capable on day one of being able to deter and defend and also is fully interoperable with NATO and is able to essentially participate in all the benefits but also undertake the responsibilities of being a member of the alliance from day one. So, we’re looking out to build out those capabilities and that support through this package of measures that is currently under discussion among NATO allies in Prague as we speak right now.

VOA: President Biden is meeting today with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo at the White House. What role does President Biden hope Belgium can play in using Russian frozen assets to Ukraine’s benefit?

CARPENTER: Belgium is a great NATO ally. They’re a member of the EU. They’ve had the presidency of the European Union. They play a very important role. And President Biden, as he does with every single European leader, will underscore our partnership in support of Ukraine. Now, Belgium plays a particular role in terms of Russian sovereign assets, and we will be discussing how we can use the proceeds from those immobilized Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine.

VOA: It appears President Biden is likely to skip the Ukraine peace summit that’s going to be happening in Switzerland. Is it a sign that the administration doesn’t believe that this summit can produce some important results?

CARPENTER: So, first of all, I don’t have an announcement for you today on who will participate for the United States. We will have senior-level participation there, no doubt. … But we will look to use the opportunity of this Swiss peace summit to underscore support for Ukraine, for its sovereignty, for its territorial integrity, for the principles of the U.N. Charter. And as wide a participation as possible that will underscore worldwide support for Ukraine and its effort to defend itself.   
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Washington — Nearly eight months after a freelance journalist disappeared on assignment in Russian-occupied Ukraine, Moscow confirmed that the reporter is in its custody. 

Victoria Roshchyna, a contributor to Ukrainian media outlets including Ukrainska Pravda, had planned to report on what life is like for those living under Russian occupation.  

But shortly after passing through a border post on Aug. 3, 2023, communication between Roshchyna and her family ended. Since then, her family and colleagues have been trying to locate the journalist.  

Then last month, Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed in a letter to the family that the reporter has been detained in Russian territory.  

The status of her health — as well as her specific whereabouts — are still unknown. It’s also unclear whether she has been charged with any crime.  

For the International Women’s Media Foundation, or IWMF, which awarded Roshchyna its 2022 courage award, there was a certain amount of relief in knowing that the journalist was detained. 

“Because there was also serious concern that she had been killed,” IWMF executive director Elisa Lees Munoz told VOA. 

Now their attention is on trying to secure Roshchyna’s release. 

“There’s no question that the detention is unjust. But there’s also little hope that there will be some sort of real justice applied in the near future,” Munoz said.  

The Russian Defense Ministry delivered the news of Roshchyna’s detention in a letter to her father. He then alerted the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, or NUJU, about her detention. 

The media union released a statement this week demanding “the immediate and unconditional release from captivity of Victoria Roshchyna and other illegally captured journalists.” 

Russia’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.  

Roshchyna’s family reported the journalist missing to Ukrainian authorities about a week after their last call, during which she said she had passed a border post.  

At the time, the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, told the family that the journalist may have been captured by Russian occupation forces. 

“We know that Ukrainian journalists working for independent media in the occupied territories are being hunted down by Russian forces,” Jeanne Cavelier, the head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk at Reporters Without Borders, said in an October 2023 statement, about two months into Roshchyna’s disappearance.  

Russia ranks among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. In late 2023, the press freedom group documented 22 journalists jailed by Russia.  

Of those, 12 were foreign nationals, including two Americans and 10 Ukrainians.  

 Roshchyna was previously abducted by Russian forces in March 2022 while reporting in Berdiansk, in occupied southeastern Ukraine. She was released after nine days.  

In an interview last year, Roshchyna’s father said that he had asked her to be careful after that incident. But, he said, she was “unstoppable — she was not able to stop covering the news of this war on the occupied territories for her readers.” 

Munoz said that Roshchyna has long been known for being “an extremely vocal and brave journalist.”  

“She really dedicated her career to writing about some of the most dangerous topics you could write about in Ukraine,” Munoz said. 

She recalled how when the IWMF invited Roshchyna to the United States to accept the courage award in person, Roshchyna declined, saying she needed to keep reporting.  

“That is who Victoria is,” Munoz said.
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KYIV — Missiles fired by the Ukrainian navy struck an oil terminal at the Russian port of Kavkaz in the Krasnodar region on Friday, the Ukrainian military said via the Telegram messaging app.

The military reported explosions at the site as it worked to verify the damage from the attack carried out with Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles.

Ukrainian drones also struck another oil depot in the Krasnodar region, the statement said.

“Russia’s ‘modern’ and ‘effective’ air defense system once again proved powerless against our missiles and unmanned systems and failed to protect important facilities used for logistics and supply of the Russian army,” the Ukrainian military said.

The Russian defense ministry said on Telegram that its air defense systems destroyed five missiles and 29 drones targeting Krasnodar.

Falling drone debris sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Temryuk district, damaging several tanks filled with fuel and injuring two people, according to local Russian officials.
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UNITED NATIONS — The number of people fleeing their homes because of war, violence and persecution has reached 114 million and is climbing because nations have failed to tackle the causes and combatants are refusing to comply with international law, the U.N. refugee chief said Thursday.

In a hard-hitting speech, Filippo Grandi criticized the U.N. Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, for failing to use its voice to try to resolve conflicts from Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan to Congo, Myanmar and many other places.

He also accused unnamed countries of making “short-sighted foreign policy decisions, often founded on double standards, with lip service paid to compliance with the law, but little muscle flexed from the council to actually uphold it and — with it — peace and security.”

Grandi said non-compliance with international humanitarian law means that “parties to conflicts — increasingly everywhere, almost all of them — have stopped respecting the laws of war,” though some pretend to do so.

The result is more civilian deaths, sexual violence is used as a weapons of war, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure are attacked and destroyed, and humanitarian workers become targets, he said.

Calling himself a frustrated humanitarian and looking directly at the 15 council members, Grandi said that instead of using its voice, “the council’s cacophony has meant that you have instead continued to preside over a broader cacophony of chaos around the world.”

The high commissioner for refugees told the council it’s too late for the tens of thousands who have been killed in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and other conflicts.

“But it is not too late to put your focus and energy on the crises and conflicts that remain unresolved, so that they are not allowed to fester and explode again,” Grandi said. “It is not too late to step up help for the millions who have been forcibly displaced to return home voluntarily, in safety and with dignity.”

It’s also not too late to save millions of people from the scourge of war, the refugee chief said.

But the Security Council is increasingly polarized, and its five veto-wielding permanent members are at odds, with the U.S., Britain and France often strongly opposed to the views of Russia and China.

On the Gaza war, the council has not called for a cease-fire because of opposition from the United States, Israel’s closest ally. And on Ukraine, the council has been ineffective as Russia, a key party to the conflict after Moscow invaded its smaller neighbor in February 2022, would veto almost any resolution.

Grandi called what’s happened in Gaza since Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7 and the “atrocious” recent events in the southern city of Rafah after an Israeli airstrike led to a deadly fire at a camp for displaced Palestinians an example of the “brutal conduct of hostilities meant not only to destroy but also to terrify civilians,” who increasingly more often have no choice but to flee.

He said Gaza is also “a tragic reminder of what happens when conflicts (and by extension a refugee crisis) are left unattended” for decades. He also pointed to Syria where after 13 years of conflict, 5.6 million Syrian refugees remain in neighboring countries including Lebanon and Jordan which also host Palestinian refugees.

Grandi said violations of international law, including forcing people to flee, are having a devastating effect on people around the world.

For example, in Myanmar, more than 1.5 million people have been displaced by fighting since October, bringing the total to over 3 million, “with many trying to seek refuge in neighboring countries,” he said.

In Ukraine, international humanitarian law is violated every day with Russian attacks on the country’s power networks, houses and other civilian infrastructure, he said.

And in Congo, Grandi said, “violence between men with guns is so common that no other place on Earth is as dangerous for women and children than the east of that country.”

“But how can members of the United Nations, how can ‘we the peoples’ pay so little attention and have so much inaction in a place where sex with a child can be bought for less than a cold drink?” the refugee chief asked.

“What a shameful stain on humanity!” Grandi said.
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BRUSSELS — Youth leader Rareș Voicu remembers like it was yesterday when he went to the polls five years ago for the European Union elections in his Romanian hometown of Brăila.

The problem was that he was 16 years old at the time and not eligible to cast a ballot. Once his family went into the voting booths, he knew he could not.

“I had done so much research on the parties and on the candidates, and I knew who I would have voted for,” Voicu said. “So I know firsthand the frustration, and how frustrating it can be as a young person when you’re 16, when you’re 17.”

Now 21, Voicu is leading a drive to make sure as many 16- and 17-year-olds as possible go to the June 6-9 polls in the five member states of the 27-nation bloc that allow them to vote. In the other nations, the minimum voting age still stands at 18, like it is in the United States.

The voting age is set at 16 in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Malta and 17 in Greece. In Belgium, voting is mandatory.

Nateo Carnot from Celles in southern Belgium, who is 16, won’t have to deal with the issue Voicu had, but he knows that teens like him will have to step up and overcome political apathy, even helplessness.

“Youth sees politics as something from up high — men in big ties in big cars that won’t listen. So there is a disinterest,” he said. “Whatever we do. It won’t change anything. They won’t listen,” is the reasoning of many.

Yet lowering the bar to 16, as Belgium did for these elections, shows improvement, Carnot said. “It shows politicians start to show interest in us and realize that we are mature enough to express our voice.”

Some see the lowering of the minimum voting age as a ploy to get an easy vote from unwitting teens who have barely outgrown childhood. Voicu vehemently disagrees.

“When you’re 16, when you’re 17, you often have the right to make medical decisions for your own body. You have the obligation to pay taxes if you have a job. You can enter civil partnerships or you can get married. So you have all of these duties, all of these obligations,” he said.

“What we’re asking for is for the democratic rights of young people to match their responsibilities. We think it’s only fair,” said Voicu, who also wants more countries to lower the voting age.

Their demands can be heard by the exceptionally young, too, since late teens can also run for office in many nations. The United States has a minimum age of 25 years to run for Congress, but most EU nations allow anyone 18 years or up to represent their electorate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and Brussels.

Kira Marie Peter-Hansen was shocked when she found herself elected to the European Parliament on a Danish Independent Greens party ticket five years ago, at barely 20 years old. “I never expected to get elected, so I never planned for that either. And it wasn’t part of my childhood dreams.” Yet, she was thrown into EU politics at the deep end.

Working the hallowed halls of Parliament early on not only had her puzzled but EU politicians and staff too. “People thinking I’m an intern. And then checking my badge,” she said. “The first half year was super difficult and confusing.”

But she grew into it.

“So the last time I was the youth candidate. Now, I am the leading candidate while being young,” Peter-Hansen said.

If there is one thing she has learned over the past five years, it is that there are few specific youth-versus-elderly issues that need specific approaches.

“A lot of younger (and) a lot of older voters are concerned by the climate crisis, the nature crisis. So there are some places where we can meet across generations,” she said.

Many members of extreme right and populist parties expect that the youngsters will unite with the elderly in rejecting the traditional powers and parties that have ruled the EU Parliament for so long.

“They look at the future and the future looks grim,” said Tom Vandendriessche of the far-right Flemish Interest party, which is part of the Identity and Democracy Group.

“How could they have trust in these traditional parties … that have been governing us for decades and who brought us into this mess,” he said, mentioning the issues of migration and terrorism. “They are looking for answers which are different.”

Manon Aubry, a member of Parliament from the hard left France Unbowed party, pointed to different issues for the young to get riled up about, such as social exclusion, inequality and poverty. Aubry insisted the elections are the ideal moment to stand up to anyone from the Hungarian prime minister to the French president to the head of the world’s largest luxury goods company.

“It’s the only time, the only place when you, me, any youth has as much power as Viktor Orban, as Emmanuel Macron, as Bernard Arnault, one of the richest guys in the European Union,” she said.
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After six years on the run, the former president of Spain’s Catalonia region may come home to govern after his party won a close second in regional elections. But an investigation into his alleged ties to the Kremlin may prevent his return. Marcus Harton narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina in Barcelona. Alfonso Beato contributed.
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