Europe

BERLIN (AP) — German police said Monday that a man has died after crashing a car into Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate.

Images from the scene show the mangled wreck of the dark-colored sedan between two pillars of the capital’s popular sightseeing spot.

Poland’s consul in Berlin, Marcin Krol, tweeted that he could confirm that the “driver of the Mercedes that hit the Brandenburg Gate yesterday at 23:30 was a Polish citizen. The car was also registered in Poland.”

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus on Monday opened the trial of a journalist and prominent member of the country’s sizable Polish minority, the latest in a series of court cases against critics of the authoritarian regime of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Andrzej Poczobut, 49, faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted of the charges of harming national security and inciting discord. Poczobut, a journalist for the influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a top figure in the Union of Poles in Belarus, has been behind bars since his detention in March 2021.

LONDON (AP) — British judges gave the go-ahead on Monday for the Court of Appeal to consider challenges to the U.K. government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda.

Two High Court judges ruled in December that the controversial policy is legal, rejecting a lawsuit from several asylum-seekers, aid groups and a border officials’ union. The same judges said Monday that the claimants can challenge that decision on issues including whether the plan is “systemically unfair” and whether asylum-seekers would be safe in Rwanda.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s prime minister said Monday that he wants the German government to supply a wide range of weapons to Kyiv and voiced hope that Germany would soon approve a transfer of battle tanks to strengthen Ukraine’s defense against Russian forces in the war.

The comments by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki came as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces mounting pressure to approve German-made battle tanks for Kyiv.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s much-criticized defense minister announced her resignation Monday, as her department steers the massive project of modernizing the country’s military and oversees expanding weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

Christine Lambrecht said in a written statement that she had submitted her resignation request to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, adding that “months of media focus on my person” had stood in the way of a factual debate about the military and Germany’s security policy.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The U.S. military’s new, expanded combat training of Ukrainian forces began in Germany on Sunday, with a goal of getting a battalion of about 500 troops back on the battlefield to fight the Russians in the next five to eight weeks, said Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Milley, who plans to visit the Grafenwoehr training area on Monday to get a first-hand look at the program, said the troops being trained left Ukraine a few days ago. In Germany is a full set of weapons and equipment for them to use.

ROME (AP) — Italy’s No. 1 fugitive, convicted Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, was captured on Monday at a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily, after three decades on the run, Italian paramilitary police said.

Messina Denaro was captured at the clinic where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed medical condition, said Carabinieri Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, who heads the police force’s special operations squad.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The death toll from a weekend Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 40, authorities said Monday, as Western analysts pointed to indications the Kremlin was preparing for a drawn-out war in Ukraine after almost 11 months of fighting.

MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 4,789 over the past day to 21,856,613, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Sunday.

A day earlier, 5,102 daily cases were recorded.

As many as 489 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 39.9% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in 59 regions, while in ten regions the figure increased. The situation remained unchanged in 16 regions. A day earlier, 813 people were rushed to hospitals.

MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/: Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said on Saturday she had received a video of two Russian prisoners of war being tortured and was planning to report this evidence to international organizations and the head of the Russian Investigative Committee.