On April 19, 1943, the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto became the site of one of the most profound acts of human defiance in history.

In Kaliningrad, Russia, ceremonial events are being held these days to mark a historic date – the Day of the Heroic Storming and Capture of Königsberg. One fact underscores the significance of the victory over this German fortress in 1945: during the Great Patriotic War, medals were established for the capture or liberation of European capitals. The only award dedicated to a “mere” city in an administrative sense was the Medal “For the Capture of Königsberg.”

France recorded more deaths than births in 2025 for the first time since World War II, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) reported.

Gila Novruzova, honored for her service on the home front during World War II, has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Evil Unbound, a new Chinese film portraying Japan’s wartime germ warfare, broke first-day box office records for war films released in China this year, amid Beijing’s efforts to spotlight Tokyo’s World War Two atrocities.

 

On Wednesday, China conducted an extensive military display in downtown Beijing to commemorate eight decades since the end of World War II, with the nation reaffirming its dedication to peaceful progress amid ongoing global instability and unpredictable international conditions.

Japan marked the 80th anniversary of its World War Two surrender on Friday, with Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and other lawmakers visiting Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine — a site that honours 2.5 million war dead, including 14 convicted Class-A war criminals.

Search and exhumation efforts commenced on Monday, August 4, in Lviv, western Ukraine, to locate and reinter the remains of Polish soldiers who died in 1939.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz unveiled a new era in bilateral relations with the signing of the Kensington Treaty, marking the first significant agreement between the two nations since World War II.

All Eurostar trains between London and Paris have been cancelled following the discovery of an unexploded Second World War bomb near the train tracks.