Month: May 2017

In most nations, having a billionaire financier and philanthropist would be a source of great pride, a person many elected officials would want to cozy up to.   Not for George Soros.   The demonization of the American-Hungarian billionaire and Holocaust survivor has spread across Central Europe, with the 86-year-old increasingly accused by nationalists of using his money to force his liberal values, including support for refugees, on their societies.   And it’s not just those on the fringes, but elected officials who are attributing all manner of sins to Soros, a political strategy that seems aimed at de-legitimizing projects …

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European Union and U.S. transport and security officials will meet in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss U.S. plans to broaden an in-flight ban on laptops and tablets to include planes from Europe.   European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Monday that the high-level talks are “to jointly assess any new threats and work toward a common approach to address them.”   Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Elaine Duke is expected to lead the U.S. delegation.   Alarmed at the proposal, which airline officials say is merely a matter of timing, European governments held talks with their U.S. counterparts on …

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A cyberattack that has already taken over computers in 150 countries could spread further Monday, as people return for the start of a new work week and use computers that may not have been updated with a security patch. Europe’s police agency Europol said Sunday the attack had already affected more than 100,000 organizations with so-called ransomware, which locks computer files unless the user pays money. “I’m worried about how the numbers will continue to grow when people go to work and turn on their machines on Monday,” Europol director Rob Wainwright told Britain’s ITV television. Computer security experts have …

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The Czech Republic’s political crisis is nowhere near an end after Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka rejected a proposal for a new finance minister. Sobotka asked President Milos Zeman to fire Finance Minister Andrej Babis, one of the country’s richest people, over unexplained business dealings. Babis has denied wrongdoing, saying he won’t resign. Zeman has so far refused to fire his ally and says he considers Babis a successful minister. In an effort to resolve the crisis, Babis proposed his deputy, Alena Schillerova, who isn’t affiliated with any political party, as a replacement Friday. ANO is favored to win October’s parliamentary …

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U.S. support for Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State in Syria is expected to dominate the first official meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is fiercely opposed to that alliance, saying Kurds in Syria are linked to the Kurdish terrorist group PKK in Turkey, which is fighting for an independent Kurdish state. VOA’a Zlatica Hoke has more. …

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives defeated their center-left rivals in a key state election Sunday in the country’s most populous region. Exit polls showed Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union with a strong surge of support in North Rhine-Westphalia, the home state and traditional stronghold of her chief rival, Social Democrat Martin Schulz, who is challenging the German leader in the national election in late September. Schulz conceded Sunday’s loss, saying, “This is a difficult day for the Social Democrats, a difficult day for me personally as well.  I come from the state in which we took a really stinging defeat today.” …

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Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday to rally against a bill to tear down Soviet-era low-rise apartment buildings. Protesters, mostly young and middle couples, gathered on a central street to rally against arguably Russia’s largest redevelopment project to pull down entire neighborhoods of Soviet-era prefabricated buildings. City Hall has insisted the buildings are too dilapidated and outdated, while many residents and activists see the plans as a ruse to make way for high-rises in some of Moscow’s leafiest neighborhoods.   The State Duma rushed to pass the first reading of a bill on the demolition …

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Pope Francis said on Saturday he would be “sincere” with U.S. President Donald Trump over their sharp differences on subjects such as immigration and climate change when the two hold their first meeting at the Vatican later this month. But the pope also told reporters aboard a plane returning from Portugal that he would keep an open mind and not pass judgement on Trump until first listening to his views at their meeting on May 24. “Even if one thinks differently we have to be very sincere about what each one thinks,” Francis said in a typically freewheeling airborne news …

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Europe’s police agency Europol says a global cyberattack has affected at least 100,000 organizations in 150 countries, with data networks infected by malware that locks computer files unless a ransom is paid. “I’m worried about how the numbers will continue to grow when people go to work and turn on their machines on Monday,” Europol director Rob Wainwright told Britain’s ITV television. So far there has been no progress reported in efforts to determine who launched the plot. Computer security experts have assured individual computer users who have kept their PC operating systems updated that they are relatively safe. They …

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Countries across the globe scrambled to respond to a malicious “ransomware” virus, as internet security watchdogs said the attack had disproportionately targeted Russia. The Russian cyber security firm Kaspersky Labs was among the first to identify the so-called “Wanna Cry” malware — a viral worm that exploits a vulnerability in the Windows operating system to encrypt files without users permission. A group of hackers known as “The Shadow Brokers” are widely believed to have stolen the program from the U.S. National Security Agency last April and deployed it as a means to ransom user data around the world for cash profits. …

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