Europe

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish parliament is meeting for the first time on Monday after an election last month heralded a change of course for the Central European nation at a time of war across the border in Ukraine.

Following a choreography determined by the constitution, President Andrzej Duda will address the ceremonial opening of the newly elected legislature. The lawmakers will take their oaths and elect a speaker.

BERLIN (AP) — Five U.S. servicepeople were killed when a military helicopter crashed over the eastern Mediterranean Sea during a training mission, U.S. officials said Sunday.

The military’s European Command said all five crew members on board were killed when the aircraft went down “during a routine air refueling mission as part of military training.”

A FRENCH ARMY BASE, France (AP) — Battle cries pierce the smoke and rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire as Ukrainian soldiers fight through and take enemy trenches and dugouts that hide gruesome, bloody remains.

“Grenade!” one screams in Ukrainian. Another yells: “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

This time, no lives or limbs were lost. Because this time, the rounds fired were blanks and the “enemy” troops were, in fact, French soldiers whose intention was not to kill the Ukrainians but instead to help shape them into better, more lethal warriors.

PARIS, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Thousands of marchers joined lawmakers in Paris on Sunday to condemn a surge in antisemitic acts in France during the conflict in the Gaza Strip, but arguments over political participation clouded an intended show of unity.

The protest, called by the leaders of France's two houses of parliament, was prompted by a three-fold increase in the number of antisemitic incidents compared with the whole of 2022, according to French authorities, since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

KYIV, Nov 12 (Reuters) - A Ukrainian military officer coordinated last year's attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing anonymous sources in Ukraine and Europe.

No one has taken responsibility for the September 2022 blasts, which occurred off the Danish island of Bornholm and ruptured three out of four lines of the system that delivers Russian gas to Europe.

Washington and NATO called it an act of sabotage, while Moscow said it was an act of international terrorism.

VLADIVOSTOK, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Russian Technological University (RTU) has developed an autonomous small-sized unmanned underwater vehicle that can dive up to 100 meters and perform emergency and repair work, local media reported on Saturday.

According to the university's press service, RTU specialists developed the underwater drone, named BPA-MIREA-T. The device weighs only three kg and can operate at temperatures ranging from minus 5 to 45 degrees Celsius.

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Amsterdam on Sunday calling for more action to tackle climate change, in a mass protest just 10 days before a national election.

Organizers claimed that 70,000 people took part in the march and called it the biggest climate protest ever in the Netherlands.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces have ramped up attacks in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to gain ground near two key front line cities, Ukrainian military officials said Sunday.

Moscow’s troops have begun a push to regain territory near Bakhmut, the eastern mining city that was the site of the war’s bloodiest battle before falling into Russian hands in May, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/: The Russian Defense Ministry has sent two special flights to deliver around 40 metric tons of humanitarian cargo to Afghanistan in the wake of a recent earthquake in Herat, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"On November 11, humanitarian cargo weighing some 40 metric tons was delivered to Kabul by two special flights of the Russian Defense Ministry on behalf of the Russian government and the Moscow-based Afghan Business Center," Russia’s diplomatic agency said in a statement on its website.

MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/: The Russian Defense Ministry has sent two special flights to deliver around 40 metric tons of humanitarian cargo to Afghanistan in the wake of a recent earthquake in Herat, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"On November 11, humanitarian cargo weighing some 40 metric tons was delivered to Kabul by two special flights of the Russian Defense Ministry on behalf of the Russian government and the Moscow-based Afghan Business Center," Russia’s diplomatic agency said in a statement on its website.