Month: July 2017

The pro-Russian rebel leader of a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine proposed on Tuesday replacing Ukraine with a new federal state, in comments that could further undermine a 2015 peace deal that is already faltering. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko rejected the idea, describing Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), as part of “a puppet show,” with Russia pulling his strings in order to relay a message. France and Germany, which are involved in diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine crisis, also condemned the proposal. However, the Kremlin said it warranted analysis, though it declined to discuss …

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Poland’s parliament moved closer on Tuesday to giving itself the power to appoint Supreme Court judges, ignoring opposition assertions that the move would politicize the judiciary. Lawmakers from the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party and their coalition partners passed the bill in its first reading and moved immediately to the second and final reading, amid frequent opposition cries of “Shame!” and “Cowards!” Opposition deputies vowed to extend the all-day debate as long as possible to delay the bill’s passage into law. Since winning an election in 2015, PiS has sought to increase the government’s influence over courts and …

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Turkey announced a new school curriculum Tuesday that excluded Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, feeding opposition fears President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is subverting the republic’s secular foundations. The chairman of a teachers’ union described the changes as a huge step in the wrong direction for Turkey’s schools and an attempt to avoid raising “generations who ask questions.” Education Minister Ismet Yilmaz said the main elements of evolution already underpinned the science curriculum, but there would be no mention of Darwin’s landmark theory until university. “Because it is above the students’ level and not directly related, the theory of evolution is …

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Croatia’s defense minister, Damir Krsticevic, offered to resign on Tuesday after the president said the army was too late in helping firefighters tame a fierce forest fire. The blaze, which spread over 20 km near the Adriatic city of Split, threatened the city suburbs late on Monday. The fire was largely under control on Tuesday. President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said on Tuesday during a visit to Austria that the army could have turned out faster to help the firefighters. “The size of the fire was such that every helping hand was needed,” she said. However, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic rejected the …

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Congress passed the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act” in 2012 to punish Russian human rights abusers by banning them from entering the United States. The Magnitsky Act is back in the headlines after it was reportedly on the agenda of a recently revealed meeting last June at Trump Tower in New York involving President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., along with the elder Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. VOA diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine spoke with former U.S. ambassadors and veteran diplomats Laura Kennedy and John Herbst, now …

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Progress is not moving fast enough to meet an ambitious set of global goals to conquer poverty, inequality and other international woes by a 2030 deadline, slowed largely by growing war and violence, the United Nations said on Monday. Advances have been few and uneven in reducing conflict and promoting gender equality, sustainable energy, infrastructure and other key areas, the U.N. said in a report assessing the pace of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Approved in September 2015, the sweeping 15-year agenda approved by the 193 U.N. member states is a global “to-do” list to tackle such issues as …

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The Russian government is funding international radio and television outlets to provide what it calls alternative news and views. The state-funded radio Sputnik has recently opened an office in Washington, just a few blocks away from the White House, and began its broadcasts on July 1st. It follows the Russian English-language television RT, which has had a bureau in Washington for several years. Both outlets have already built audiences in Europe. Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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The United States is applauding the European Union for imposing sanctions Monday on 16 Syrian senior military officials and scientists involved in chemical weapons attacks on civilians. “The combined efforts of the United States and European Union … are part of a continuing effort in the international community to hold the Assad regime responsible for violating longstanding global norms against the use of chemical weapons,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. The 16 officials sanctioned Monday will be banned from traveling in the EU, and their European assets will be frozen. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called Monday’s actions by …

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Italian firefighters fought more than 1,000 wildfires on Monday amid high temperatures and drought, including three near Rome’s beach neighborhood of Ostia, the fire brigade said. With half the average rainfall last month and temperatures higher than normal, occasionally touching 40 degrees Celsius in the south, fields and forests have turned into perfect kindling, the national agricultural association Coldiretti said. “The situation is very serious … Rome must not be left alone to face this environmental disaster,” the city’s mayor, Virginia Raggi, said during a tour of an area hit by fire. Raggi said fires in the capital could have …

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Danish troops will get training in how to deal with Russian misinformation before being sent to join a NATO military build-up in Estonia in January, Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said on Monday. “It is a whole new world. The Danish soldiers need to be extremely aware of that. Therefore I have arranged with the armed forces that the soldiers being sent out in January are informed and educated in how to protect themselves,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster DR. “It is easy to imagine they will become exposed to intimidation and fake rumors,” he said of the 200 Danish soldiers …

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