Europe

KYIV, Ukraine, May 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine welcomed what it called an "historical turning point" as German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited Kyiv on Tuesday backing Ukraine's bid for full European Union membership and cutting energy ties to Russia.

Baerbock is the highest-ranking German government official to visit Ukraine since Russia's invasion began on Feb. 24, as both countries sought to mend ties after wrangling over issues such as weapons supplies and the sanctions roll-out.

KHARKIV, Ukraine, May 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Tuesday its forces had recaptured villages from Russian troops north and northeast of Kharkiv, pressing a counter-offensive that could signal a shift in the war's momentum and jeopardise Russia's main advance.

Ukrainian troops in recent days recaptured the settlements of Cherkaski Tyshky, Ruski Tyshki, Borshchova and Slobozhanske, north of Ukraine's second-largest city, said Tetiana Apatchenko, a press officer with the main Ukrainian force in the area.

LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin told regional officials on Tuesday to deal with forest fires in Siberia and said there could be no repeat of last year's fire season, the worst on record.

In an online meeting shown on state TV, Putin said the blazes were causing significant material damage and posing a threat to life, the environment and the economy.

Putin said: "We cannot allow a repeat of last year's situation, when forest fires were the most long-lasting and intensive of recent years."

NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE, France, May 10 (Reuters) - The Russian military's failure to seize the Ukrainian capital was inevitable because in the preceding years they had never directly faced a powerful enemy, according to a former mercenary with the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group who fought alongside the Russian army.

Marat Gabidullin took part in Wagner Group missions on the Kremlin's behalf in Syria and in a previous conflict in Ukraine, before deciding to go public about his experience inside the secretive private military company.

BUDAPEST, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Katalin Novak, the first female president of Hungary, took office here on Tuesday.

Her predecessor, former head of state Janos Ader, greeted the new president at the entrance to the Sandor Palace, the residence of the Hungarian president.

Ader and Novak marched together on the red carpet up to the entrance of the residence, where they entered together.

The Parliament elected Novak as President of Hungary on March 10.

Following her election, Novak said that she wanted to be a "President of peace."

BRUSSELS (AP) — International donors on Tuesday pledged $6.7 billion to help Syrians and neighboring countries hosting refugees but fell well short of a U.N. target for assistance to millions of people from conflict-torn Syria who rely on aid to survive.

European Union Neighborhood Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi acknowledged that the war in Ukraine and the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic weighed heavily on donors’ economies.

Still, “donors are sending now a very strong signal to Syria and this region that we are ready to do even more than before,” he said.

LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk, who is offering to buy Twitter, has given his support to a new European Union law aimed at protecting social media users from harmful content after he met with the bloc’s single market chief.

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he outlined to Musk how the bloc’s online regulations aim to uphold free speech while also making sure whatever is illegal “will be forbidden in the digital space,” which Musk “fully agreed with.”

LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II delegated one of her most important public duties to Prince Charles on Tuesday, underscoring the increasingly central role the heir to the throne is taking as his mother prepares to celebrate 70 years on the throne.

Charles presided over the state opening of Parliament and delivered the Queen’s Speech laying out the government’s legislative program. The event is a symbol of the monarch’s constitutional role as head of state and is accompanied by centuries of tradition designed to demonstrate the strength of Britain’s political institutions.

Kolkata, May 10 (PTI) Nobel Laureate mathematical physicist Roger Penrose has said that the present universe did not start with the Big Bang and that there was another universe before the present one.

Traces of the older universe can be discovered in present black holes and certain electromagnetic radiation spots in the sky, Penrose, said in his address at a virtual meet at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics here from Oxford on Monday.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — To join or not to join? The NATO question is coming to a head this week in Finland and Sweden where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shattered the long-held belief that remaining outside the military alliance was the best way to avoid trouble with their giant neighbor.

If Finland’s president and the governing Social Democrats in both countries come out in favor of accession in the next few days, NATO could soon add two members right on Russia’s doorstep.