Month: June 2021

A Belarusian opposition leader has called for creation of an international tribunal to investigate war crimes allegedly committed by authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.The request was made Wednesday by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko’s most powerful challenger in the Belarusian president election last year.“We cannot allow dictators to write history,” Tsikhanouskaya said in remarks before the Czech Senate in Prague.Tsikhanouskaya, who now resides in Lithuania, called for the establishment of the tribunal “to investigate the crimes of the Lukashenko dictatorship in the past and in the period following the 2020 election.”Months of anti-government protests in Belarus were fueled by Lukashenko’s reelection to a …

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A Russian court has begun considering a request from prosecutors to ban organizations founded by jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Along with a new law, a ruling to outlaw the organizations would prohibit people linked to the groups from seeking public office, including seats in parliament, before a vital parliamentary election in September.Prosecutors have asked the Moscow City Court to declare Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his group of offices across Russia as extremist organizations.Attorneys in the case said the court is expected to issue a ruling on the case on Wednesday.Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law …

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When to unlock? Britain’s Boris Johnson is coming under mounting pressure from Conservative lawmakers and their allies in the media to keep to a previously outlined timetable that would see virtually all pandemic restrictions relaxed on June 21 in England.    But a sudden surge in coronavirus infections has triggered fierce counter-lobbying from the government’s scientific advisers, who want a delay to the final easing of restrictions to assess the latest data and to ensure that variants, including the now-dominant Delta variant, first detected in India, aren’t resistant to vaccines.  FILE – Pedestrians walk past a sign warning members of the public …

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The Biden administration is forming expert working groups with Canada, Mexico, the European Union and the United Kingdom to determine how best to safely restart travel after 15 months of pandemic restrictions, a White House official said on Tuesday. Another U.S. official said the administration will not move quickly to lift orders that bar people from much of the world from entering the United States because of the time it will take for the groups to do their work. The White House informed airlines and others in the travel industry about the groups, the official said. “While we are not reopening travel …

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President Joe Biden is heading to the United Kingdom and Europe on his first trip abroad, sending a signal that his administration values close trans-Atlantic relationships as it deals with challenges like emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and threats from China and Russia. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.    …

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The World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations climate agency, reported Tuesday that Europe saw its coldest March through May since 2013, with temperatures 0.45 C below the 1991-2020 average.During a briefing from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis cautioned that Europe’s cool start did not reflect any pause in the world’s climate change problems.In fact, data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service show that the global average temperature for May was 0.26 C higher than the 1991-2020 mean, according to the U.N. News website.  Greenhouse Gases Threaten Ocean Ecosystems: WMOThe ocean absorbs around 23 …

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French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped Tuesday while shaking hands across a barrier in a small southeastern French town.   Video from the scene showed Macron striding toward a small crowd of people waiting behind a barrier. According to Reuters, as Macron reached out to shake hands, a man in the crowd shouted “A bas la Macronie” (Down with Macronia) and slapped Macron in the face.#Macron se fait gifler en direct de #Tainpic.twitter.com/tsXdByo22U— ⚜️ (@AlexpLille) June 8, 2021The president was swept away by security, and the man was seized immediately.  French news agency Agence France-Presse quoted the local prosecutor’s office …

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French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face on Tuesday by a man in a crowd of onlookers while on a walkabout in southern France, video of the incident showed.Macron’s security entourage quickly intervened to pull the man to the ground and move Macron away from him. Two people were arrested in connection with the incident, broadcasters BFM TV and RMC radio reported.#Macron se fait gifler en direct de #Tainpic.twitter.com/tsXdByo22U— ⚜️ (@AlexpLille) June 8, 2021French Prime Minister Jean Castex said the incident was an affront to democracy.The incident took place while Macron was on a visit to the Drome …

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Momentum is clearly growing within the United States and the world’s other major economies behind plans to make it more difficult for large international businesses to avoid paying taxes in countries where they are located. But experts warn there is still plenty to be done to achieve that elusive goal.   Over the weekend, the finance ministers of the G-7, which includes the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Japan, agreed in principle to the creation of a global minimum tax on corporations that would force companies that shift profits to subsidiaries in low- or no-tax jurisdictions to pay …

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