Month: May 2017

Television journalist Julia Kirienko was sheltering with Ukrainian soldiers and medics two miles (three kilometers) from the front when their cellphones began buzzing over the noise of the shelling. Everyone got the same text message at the same time. “Ukrainian soldiers,” it warned, “they’ll find your bodies when the snow melts.” Text messages like the one Kirienko received have been sent periodically to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country. The threats and disinformation represent a new form of information warfare, the 21st-century equivalent of dropping leaflets on the battlefield. “This is pinpoint propaganda,” said …

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The U.S. informed French officials that Russia had hacked France’s computer networks during the country’s presidential election before the cyber attacks became public, a U.S. national security official told Congress Thursday. “We had become aware of Russian activity,” National Security Agency Director Admiral Mike Rogers testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We had talked to our French counterparts and gave them a heads up,” Rodgers said. He added the U.S. offered to help French officials. France’s Macron targeted France’s election campaign commission said Saturday “a significant amount of data,” some of it likely fake, was leaked on social networks …

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Sprinkle the sequins, spark up the disco lights and get ready for battle — it’s time for the Eurovision Song Contest , a celebration of kitsch and cheesy pop with an undercurrent of politics and patriotism. More than a singing contest, it’s diplomacy in dancing shoes. This week musical acts from more than 40 countries are taking the stage in Kyiv to vie for the Eurovision crown, watched by some 200 million television viewers. The 62nd annual contest has clean-cut crooners, electro beats, yodeling Romanians and even a dancing gorilla. But there is also a big absence: Russia, whose participation …

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U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has reiterated its pledge to protect Turkey, as the country opposes a recent U.S. decision to arm Syrian Kurdish fighters in an attempt to oust Islamic State militants from their stronghold in Raqqa. Mattis reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to its NATO ally after meeting Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, the highest level talks between the two countries since Washington announced on Tuesday plans to provide arms to the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds, also known as the YPG. Turkey is strongly opposed to the arms deal and has called for its reversal. Turkey believes the …

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Russia’s annual World War II Victory Day parade was held today in Red Square. VOA’s Daniel Schearf filed this web video. …

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A Libyan Coast Guard ship picked up more than 350 migrants at sea Wednesday after a potentially deadly encounter with a German rescue boat. No casualties have been reported, and all the migrants rescued off the coastal city of Sabratha are back in Tripoli. A Libyan navy spokesman said the migrants were packed on a wooden boat. As the Coast Guard vessel approached, another boat from the German rescue group Sea Watch came dangerously close to ramming the Libyan ship. Sea Watch was apparently attempting to drive off the Libyans. It is unclear if Libyan authorities plan to take legal …

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Keen to stem growing resentment of globalization, which it sees as one of the drivers of a wave of anti-EU populism, the European Union’s executive said on Wednesday that the bloc had to work to make free trade fairer. French nationalist Marine Le Pen secured 34 percent of votes in France’s presidential runoff on Sunday with an anti-EU platform that promised to shield French workers from “savage globalization,” and the bloc is still smarting from Britain’s vote to leave. “Europe must help rewrite the global rule book so that free trade becomes fair trade. So that globalization becomes sustainable and …

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Italian authorities suspect arson caused the deaths Wednesday of three Gypsy sisters in Rome whose camper burst into flames as they slept. The three sisters, aged 4, 8 and 20, were killed, but their parents and eight other siblings escaped the blaze in the Centocelle neighborhood. The Italian news agency ANSA said prosecutors had opened an arson investigation after family members reported that they received threats in recent days and that a nearby camper was torched last week. Italian politicians, including President Sergio Mattarella, denounced the crime, and Pope Francis sent his chaplain to comfort the bereaved family and offer …

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Tens of thousands of people rallied on Wednesday in the Czech Republic’s capital and other major cities against President Milos Zeman and Finance Minister Andrej Babis. The protesters gathered at Wenceslas Square in downtown Prague demanded Babis’ firing and Zeman’s resignation in the latest development of the Czech political crisis. The public demonstrations follow Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka asking the president last week to get rid of the finance minister over his unexplained business dealings, especially charges that he hadn’t properly explained suspicions that he avoided paying taxes. Babis, one of the richest people in the country, has denied wrongdoing …

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Three shepherd children in Portugal were jailed and threatened with being boiled alive in olive oil when they claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to them 100 years ago. The Catholic Church doubted their story too. From that unpromising start, the children’s reported visions would go on to strengthen the faith of Portugal’s persecuted Catholics and make the small farming town of Fatima one of the world’s foremost pilgrimage sites, with around 6 million visitors a year. Now, the Portuguese youngsters’ long-ago testimony is giving the Catholic Church its youngest saints who did not die as martyrs. Pope Francis plans to …

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