Month: May 2021

Britain’s storied BBC is preparing for its centennial next year, but the public broadcaster has been plunged into a major crisis of trust, linked to a notorious television interview with Princess Diana a quarter-century ago, and is now finding itself heading into a fight for its very survival.      Last week, an independent inquiry led by a former judge, John Dyson, found that an explosive 1995 BBC interview with Princess Diana had been secured through deception, fraud and forgery. As the publicly-funded BBC prides itself on its high ethical standards and transparency, the finding is calamitous, say opponents, including …

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International pressure is growing on Turkey over its military presence in Libya. Turkey deployed hundreds of soldiers and thousands of Syrian fighters in support of the Libyan Government of National Accord in its battle against forces of Libya’s General Khalifa Hafta, who is backed by Russian and Sudanese mercenaries. Now, with a cease-fire in force and elections scheduled for December, Aya Burweila, a visiting lecturer at the Hellenic National Defense College, says pressure is growing for all foreign troops to quit.”There has been two UN Security Council Resolutions already for the removal of all foreign presence from Libya, be it Turkish Russian …

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The European Union is urging member nations to close their airspace and airports to all Belarusian airlines after Belarus forced a commercial jetliner to make an emergency landing Sunday in Minsk and arrested an opposition blogger critical of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Conclusions on Belarus journalist Raman Pratasevich stands in an airport bus in the international airport outside Minsk, Belarus, May 23, 2021, in this photo released by telegram Chanel t.me/motolkohelp.Pratasevich, a former editor of the influential Telegram channels Nexta and Nexta Live, was detained by police when Belarusian authorities searched the plane. The Minsk government said Lukashenko ordered his military …

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An investigation into the cable car crash that left 14 people dead in Italy will focus on why a cable broke and the emergency brakes did not work, a prosecutor said Monday.“The brakes of the security system didn’t work. Otherwise, the cabin would have stopped,” Olimpia Bossi, the lead prosecutor in Verbania, told reporters Monday. “Why that happened is naturally under investigation.”Fourteen people, including two children under the age of 10, were killed when the Stresa-Mottarone cable car, which travels between the resort town of Stresa to the top of Mottarone mountain in Italy’s Piedmont region, crashed to the ground …

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Turkey and Poland have signed a deal for the sale of Turkish-made combat drones, making Poland the first NATO and European Union member country to purchase Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday. The agreement was signed during Polish President Andrzej Duda’s three-day visit to Turkey. Under the deal, Poland is set to receive 24 armed drones, ground control stations and data terminals, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The first drone is expected to be delivered next year. “We are one of the best countries regarding unmanned aerial vehicles,” Erdogan said during a joint news conference. “We …

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Pro-Palestinian demonstrations continued across Europe this past weekend despite a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. The protests are one result of the Middle East violence that has divided European Union member states and left some fearful of unrest at home.   Thousands joined rallies in Paris and other French cities Saturday — demonstrations echoed in other European capitals in solidarity for the Palestinian cause.     At the Place de le Republique in the French capital, protesters chanted “Palestine will conquer,” and “Israel, assassin” — voicing outrage at the recent clashes between Israel and Hamas, which mostly killed Palestinians. …

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Police in London say Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson is in critical condition after being shot in the head in south London in the early hours of Sunday. Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the scene in the Peckham area of south London around 3 a.m. Sunday after gunshots were reported. They found a woman, later identified at Johnson, with gunshot wounds to the head.    A close friend of Johnson’s, Imarn Ayton, told the BBC in an interview that Johnson was at a gathering in the neighborhood when shots were fired from a passing car. The friend …

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At least 14 people, including two children, were killed Sunday in northern Italy when a cable car popular among tourists fell 20 meters to the ground. A two-year-old child died instantly, and one nine-year-old died in the hospital after suffering two cardiac arrests. Another child, a five-year-old was seriously injured but conscious and speaking. He is being treated at the Regina Margherita children’s hospital in Turin.   Some passengers were stuck inside the cabin while others were thrown out during the crash. About half the passengers were foreign nationals, Italian authorities said. The Italian ANSA news agency has published the names of the victims.  The Stresa-Mottarone funicular travels between the resort town of Stresa on the shores …

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European leaders are vowing to punish Belarus for illegally diverting to Minsk Sunday a Lithuanian-bound Ryanair flight carrying a fugitive critic of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. Their fury was fueled as more details emerged Monday of the dramatic events leading up to the diversion of the plane. The Ryanair Boeing 737 was carrying 171 passengers and crew had taken off from Athens and was flying over Belarus. It was just moments from leaving Belarusian air space when the captain was signaled by the pilot of a Belarus MiG-29 jet to land in the Belarus capital and not to proceed to the …

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