Month: May 2021

Among the many stories of World War Two, Nazi Germany’s Siege of Leningrad —  the Soviet city now known as Russia’s Saint Petersburg —  stands among the most harrowing. It also helped shape the world we live in today, as Charles Maynes reports for VOA, from St. Petersburg.Camera: Ricardo Marquina Montañana   …

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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth delivered the official Opening of Parliament speech Tuesday, her first ceremonial appearance since the death of her husband, Prince Philip.The speech, traditionally a large-scale event full of pageantry in which the queen opens the new parliament, was scaled back considerably due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the queen wearing a day dress instead of the usual robes and crown.The queen presented Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s agenda, focusing on economic recovery and development in a post-pandemic Britain. Johnson’s Conservative majority party made gains in regional elections late last week and is expected to press that advantage by pushing …

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Turkey’s foreign minister is visiting Saudi Arabia in a bid to repair deeply strained relations. The visit is part of broader regional efforts by Ankara to stem its growing isolation in the region.  Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s two-day visit to Saudi Arabia that started Monday follows this month’s phone call between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi King Salman.  The visit comes as an escalating rivalry between the two countries plunges relations to a historic low, with Turkey at one point accusing Saudi Arabia of enforcing a trade embargo.  Turkish presidential adviser Mesut Casin says Ankara is now looking …

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A rocket attack on a Turkish military supply convoy in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province has killed one soldier and wounded four others, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday. Turkish forces retaliated to the attack by firing on targets they identified in the region, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. It did not elaborate or say who was responsible for the attack late Monday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said a roadside bomb exploded when a Turkish convoy of seven vehicles was passing on a road between the border crossing point of Bab al-Hawa and the Syrian border …

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Nearly 200 jihadists imprisoned in France are due to be released over the next two years and French security officials are pressing French lawmakers to approve fresh antiterrorist measures to impose enhanced restrictions on those freed and to give police new legal powers to fight terrorism. British officials, likewise, are fearful of a resurgent jihadist threat and are considering overhauling Britain’s 650-year-old treason law to make it easier to prosecute militants returning from Syria and Iraq.  And it is not only returnees from the Levant who are preoccupying European security officials.  During the pandemic jihadist assaults have subsided — the consequence, officials …

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Mosques across Turkey broadcast prayers Monday in support of Palestinians injured in violent confrontations with Israeli police in Jerusalem. The unrest, which coincides with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, comes amid the possible eviction of Palestinians from east Jerusalem homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers.Also Monday, hundreds of people, many waving Palestinian flags, massed in front of Israel’s consulate in Istanbul in protest of Israeli police actions around the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City. The site is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, considered the holiest site in …

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European and Chinese leaders are urging swift ratification of the trade deal they agreed to in December, after tensions over accusations of human rights abuses in China delayed approval of the deal by European Union lawmakers.  The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) took seven years of negotiations and was finally agreed to in principle December 30, 2020, following a virtual summit between EU and Chinese leaders. Europe said it was the most ambitious trade deal China had ever undertaken with a third party.  However, EU Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said last week that efforts to get the …

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Disquiet is growing within France’s military ranks, with the publication of a second open letter — this time by serving soldiers — warning growing Islamism, delinquency and violence threaten the country’s very survival.This latest open letter by members of France’s armed forces is making headlines — and stirring debate. Like one last month signed by some 20 retired generals, it too warns of civilian insurrection — fueled, it claims, by President Emmanuel Macron’s alleged concessions to fundamentalist Islam.But this newest missive, published late Sunday by right-wing magazine Valeurs Actuelles, is from an anonymous group of solders currently serving in the …

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Boris Johnson’s resounding victory in local and regional elections in Britain last week is dismaying not just for the country’s storied Labour Party, but also for mainstream leftist parties on the continent of Europe, most of which are also struggling for electoral relevancy.  From Italy to Germany, France to the countries of Central Europe, the traditional parties of social democracy are largely in the doldrums and have increasingly become political bystanders rather than participants. Britain’s Labour Party saw its vote slump by an extraordinary 25% last week in the elections for local and regional governments in England.  Labour politicians had thought …

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