Month: November 2018

The leader of the German Social Democrats’ youth wing said Monday that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition with the SPD would not survive the next year.  The awkward alliance has been marred by disputes about immigration and the fate of the domestic spy chief since it took office in March, coming close to collapse twice. Voters punished both Merkel’s conservatives and the SPD in two recent regional elections.  SPD youth wing leader Kevin Kuehnert, who campaigned against the conservative-SPD tie-up from the outset, said the SPD would be closely watching what happens when Merkel steps down as leader of her Christian Democrats (CDU) in December.  “Next year is full of …

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Armistice Day, the last official day of World War I, is annually observed on Nov. 11. For this, the 100th commemoration, a British film director and the UK’s official arts program marked the day with artwork called “Pages of the Sea,” which honors soldiers who fought in World War I. Arash Arabasadi reports. …

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U.S. President Donald Trump wrapped up his visit to France on Sunday after attending events commemorating the end of World War I a hundred years ago. In addition to participating in the Armistice Day ceremony in Paris with about 70 other world leaders, Trump visited an American military cemetery outside Paris before flying back to the United States. As VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, Trump’s visit was marked by some controversy. …

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Voters in the Kremlin-backed regions of eastern Ukraine are voting Sunday for local government leaders. The elections have been denounced by Kyiv, Washington and the European Union. Federica Mogherini, the European Union foreign policy chief, said her group found the polls “illegal and illegitimate and will not recognize them.” “These particular elections are a mockery,” said Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and has supported the insurgency in eastern Ukraine. .         …

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Poland is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its rebirth as an independent state on Sunday with a multitude of events across the country, including marches, Masses, and the national hymn being sung in more than 600 public places. The national white-and-red flag fluttered from buildings and buses, dignitaries and regular citizens placed flowers and wreaths at memorials to the father of Polish independence, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, and the historic Sigismund Bell, reserved only for the most important national events, rang out over Krakow. Poland regained its independence at the end of World War I in 1918, reborn from the ashes …

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Russia’s Foreign Ministry is complaining that the interrogation of a website editor at a U.S. airport shows authorities are persecuting Russian journalists. Alexander Malkevich, editor of the USA Really website, reportedly was detained and questioned for several hours Friday at a Washington airport and told that his site must register in the U.S. as a foreign agent. The website is funded by the sponsors of the Russian “troll factory” accused of interference in the 2016 U.S. vote. Malkevich was released and traveled to Paris, according to state news agency RIA-Novosti. A ministry statement on Sunday said the incident was “evidence …

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At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month — precisely 100 years after fighting halted in the first world war — leaders from 70 nations gathered at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, to remember the millions who died in the conflict. …

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French police arrested two topless female protesters Sunday on the Champs-Elysees where France was holding a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. One of the women was apprehended within just a few meters of the motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump as it approached the site. She had the words “Fake Peacemaker” written across her chest. Femen, the radical feminist activist group, based in Paris, appeared to take responsibility for the demonstration. Femen leader Inna Shevchenko wrote on Twitter: “FEMEN activists ‘welcomed’ the cortege of @realDonaldTrump twice on his way to Arc de …

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European Council head Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, on Saturday denounced the euroskeptic populists governing Poland as “contemporary Bolsheviks” who threaten the nation’s independence, but can be defeated. Tusk, seen as a likely contender in Poland’s 2020 presidential election, spoke in the city of Lodz on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the country regaining its statehood at the end of World War I after 123 years of foreign rule. He honored the statesman who restored Polish independence and as chief of state went on to defeat the Bolsheviks’ Red Army in 1920, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski. He …

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The Central African Republic might seem like an unusual venue for Russia’s evolving strategy in Africa. The CAR doesn’t boast Ethiopia’s booming economy or Angola’s deep oil reserves. It lacks a developed mining industry like Zambia or a strategic location like Djibouti. But the landlocked country of fewer than 5 million people, most of whom survive on subsistence farming, has something else of interest to Moscow: conflict. Since 2013, the CAR has grappled with a protracted civil war. Mass displacements, political instability, and competing factions of rebels and militia groups have weakened the government and eroded peoples’ trust in its …

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