Europe

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden holds the European Union’s powerful presidency for the next six months, but there are concerns in the EU that a hard-line Swedish far right will hold back the Nordic nation in fulfilling its ambitions for the 27-nation bloc.

Occupying the rotating presidency allows a member nation to help set the EU’s tone and the agenda, a crucial task with the war in Ukraine still raging, migration issues putting several nations on edge and trade disputes creating a rift with Washington.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden holds the European Union’s powerful presidency for the next six months, but there are concerns in the EU that a hard-line Swedish far right will hold back the Nordic nation in fulfilling its ambitions for the 27-nation bloc.

Occupying the rotating presidency allows a member nation to help set the EU’s tone and the agenda, a crucial task with the war in Ukraine still raging, migration issues putting several nations on edge and trade disputes creating a rift with Washington.

PARIS (AP) — An attacker wounded six people in an unprovoked blade attack in Paris’ busy Gare du Nord train station Wednesday morning before being shot and wounded by police, France’s interior minister said, praising the swift intervention of police for helping prevent any fatalities.

The suspect attacked several people, including a police officer, with a “bladed weapon” during the morning rush hour, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters at the scene, flanked by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Spurred into action by a major corruption scandal, the European Parliament president wants to prevent former lawmakers from lobbying on behalf of businesses or governments soon after they leave office and to make public the names of current members who break assembly rules, a parliamentary official said Wednesday.

MADRID (AP) — Farmers protested in Madrid on Wednesday against a governmental order to provide ecological protection for a river, a move they see as a threat to the water resources they need to irrigate their crops.

Several hundred protesters — bused in from the southeastern region impacted by the plan — rallied in front of Spain’s ministry for ecological transition, demanding the resignation of Minister Teresa Ribera.

BERLIN (AP) — More than 244,000 people applied for asylum in Germany last year, and more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees came to the country looking for shelter from Russia’s war, the government said Wednesday.

The No. 1 country of origin for asylum-seekers was Syria, followed by Afghanistan, Turkey and Iraq. Ukrainian refugees don’t need to apply for asylum, because they immediately received temporary residency status.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Wednesday paid tribute to Cardinal George Pell, who spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia before his child sex convictions were overturned, praising his diligence in reforming the Vatican’s finances and his faith “even in the hour of trial.”

Francis sent a telegram of condolences to the head of the College of Cardinals, expressing his “sadness” over Pell’s death and relaying his prayers and sympathy to the Australian prelate’s family.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The fate of a devastated salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine hung in the balance Wednesday as Ukraine said its forces were holding out against a furious Russian onslaught in one of the fiercest and costliest recent ground battles of the nearly 11-month war.

Soledar was under heavy shelling by Russian forces using jets, mortars and rockets. A Ukrainian military officer near Soledar said the Russian assault was unrelenting.

10 Jan 2023; MEMO: The British government has, so far, failed to deliver on its promise to resettle tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans in the United Kingdom over the coming years, a year after it made such guarantees following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

11 Jan 2023; MEMO: Amnesty International has criticised Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's "repressive" ban on raising the Palestinian flag in public places inside Israel as a "cowardly and expected attempt to obliterate the identity of the Palestinian people and a blatant violation of the United Nations charters and human rights."