Month: April 2021

Turkey says it summoned the U.S. ambassador to Ankara to condemn President Joe Biden’s declaration that the World War I-era massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire constituted a genocide. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal told U.S. Ambassador David Satterfield late Saturday that Biden’s statement had no legal basis and that Ankara “rejected it, found it unacceptable and condemned [it] in the strongest terms.” The Ankara government said the United States, a NATO ally, had caused a “wound in ties that will be hard to repair.” Earlier Saturday, Biden became the first U.S. president to make …

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Pope Francis said on Sunday that “now is the time for shame” after 130 migrants were feared dead in the Mediterranean and a U.N. organization accused states of not responding to distress calls. Merchant vessels and a charity ship searching the Mediterranean for boats with migrants found 10 bodies floating near a capsized rubber boat in international waters near Libya believed to have had 130 people on board, French humanitarian organization SOS Mediterranee said on Friday. “I confess to you that I am very pained over yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean,” Francis said to hundreds of people in St. Peter’s Square …

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England’s football authorities have joined forces to announce a social media boycott next weekend in response to continued online racist abuse of players.The boycott will take place across a full fixture program in the men’s and women’s professional game from 3 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Friday to 11.59 p.m. on May 3.Clubs across the Premier League, English Football League, Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship will switch off their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts to emphasize that social media companies must do more to eradicate online hate.“Racist behavior of any form is unacceptable and the appalling abuse we …

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UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has refused to rule out a ban from next season’s Champions League for all 12 clubs involved in trying to set up a breakaway European Super League.But Ceferin also told Britain’s Mail on Sunday that the six English clubs — Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester United — deserve greater leniency as they were the first to back out.He said their stance was in contrast to that of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, ridiculed by Ceferin as “the ones who feel that Earth is flat and… think the Super League still exists.”In the space …

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U.S. President Joe Biden’s recognition of the Armenian genocide was met Saturday with tempered satisfaction from the nation’s U.S. diaspora, with some saying the words need to result in more pressure against Turkey.”It’s a middle step, because (Biden) didn’t say Turkey,” said Yvette Gevorkian, who was among some 400 people who marched in New York City to mark the memory of the World War I-era killings.”But it’s a victory for all this time we’ve been working towards,” added the 51-year-old who arrived in the United States from Iran at the age of 9.As many as 1.5 million Armenians are estimated …

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Three Ukrainian television channels linked to an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin were blocked from broadcasting on Google’s YouTube on Saturday, the Ukrainian government said, following its request to YouTube to have the channels taken down.The YouTube channels of ZiK, 112 Ukraine and NewsOne did not play their content and instead showed a blank screen with a message saying the channel was not available.”We are pleased such an influential American company is willing to cooperate when it concerns issues of Ukrainian national security and Russian disinformation,” Ukraine’s embassy to Washington said in a tweet.YouTube did not respond to Reuters’ …

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Belarus’ authoritarian leader said Saturday that he would change the law on presidential succession so that power in the Eastern European nation will be transferred if he dies to the national security council, where his son plays a prominent role.Many observers have suggested that President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1994, aims to establish a political dynasty, although Lukashenko denies this.Lukashenko himself is the head of the national security council, but his eldest son, Viktor, also has a seat and is regarded as the council’s informal leader.Under current law, the prime minister takes presidential powers …

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French authorities have arrested three people in connection with the stabbing death of a police worker outside Paris Friday, as they explore possible terrorism motives of the assailant, who was killed by police.     Media report the three people detained include a father and two people who sheltered the 36-year-old Tunisian, who stabbed a police worker and mother of two Friday in the quiet town of Rambouillet, 60 kilometers from Paris.   Police shot the man dead. The police worker, who had been stabbed in the throat, died of her wounds. France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor said the assailant had made …

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U.S. President Joe Biden recognized Saturday the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.   Biden’s recognition of the mass killings fulfills a campaign promise and came on the same day that Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day was observed in Armenia and by the Armenian diaspora.   “Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” Biden said in a statement. “The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide …

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U.S. President Joe Biden praised world leaders for coming together on climate change and urged them to make good on promises as he closed a virtual climate change summit hosted from the White House.“The commitments we’ve made must become real,” Biden said Friday on the last day of the two-day summit that involved 40 world leaders.Biden pledged during the summit to cut U.S. greenhouse gas pollution by 50-52% by 2030. Japan and Canada also raised climate commitments during the summit while the European Union and Britain announced stronger climate targets earlier this week.John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, said that more than …

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Claims that Russian troops are beginning to pull back from positions in Crimea and along the Russian border with Ukraine are being met with caution in the West, where officials are demanding that Moscow be more transparent and refrain from additional saber-rattling.Western officials said Friday that they were watching the situation “very, very closely” but cautioned against taking Russian assurances “at face value.””We’ve seen the Russian comments about how they’re ending the exercises,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters during a briefing Friday. “It’s too soon to tell with any specificity.””[We] continue to call on Russia to cease their …

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