Serbian protesters march ahead of their Danube bridge blockade

INDJIJA, Serbia (AP) — Hundreds of striking students are marching through the Serbian countryside, taking their anti-graft protest toward the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to blockade three bridges over the River Danube this weekend. What started two months ago as a protest against suspected corruption in construction contracts has developed into the most serious challenge in years to the country’s powerful populist leader, President Aleksandar Vucic. In Belgrade, a driver rammed a car into a silent protest, injuring two women, the third such incident in weeks.

Russia claims another Ukrainian village has fallen as it closes in on a key city

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia is claiming it has captured another village in its relentless offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region and as it closes in on the critical Ukrainian logistics hub of Pokrovsk after almost three years of war. The Russian claim Friday that its forces took Novovasylivka could not be independently confirmed, and Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment. Russian forces have been trying for months to capture the key Donetsk strongholds of Pokrovsk and nearby Chasiv Yar, fighting their way across farm fields and woodland and engulfing small rural settlements. The fall of Pokrovsk and Chasiv Yar could enable the Russian army to complete its hold on Donetsk and even set the stage for it to continue on into the neighboring Dnipro region.

New Zealand mountain is granted personhood

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people has been recognized as a legal person after a new law granted it all the rights and responsibilities of a human being. Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land are people before. The law fulfils a 2023 settlement between the government and Māori which provided redress for land theft and other British Crown breaches of New Zealand’s founding treaty during colonization. The pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand’s North Island.

Sweden releases 5 arrested following the killing of an Iraqi

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish prosecutors say they have ordered the release of five men who were arrested after the fatal shooting of an Iraqi man who carried out several Quran burnings. Salwan Momika staged several burnings and desecrations of Islam’s holy book in Sweden in 2023. Videos of the Quran burnings got worldwide publicity and raised anger and criticism in several Muslim nations, leading to riots and unrest in many places. Momika was killed in a shooting Wednesday night at an apartment building in Sodertalje, near Stockholm. Five people were arrested in the following hours on suspicion of murder. Prosecutors said Friday that the suspicions they committed a crime have weakened.