Month: July 2021

France’s champagne industry group on Monday blasted a new Russian law that forces foreign producers to add a “sparkling wine” reference to their bottles of Champagne, and called for the halting of exports of the bubbly drink to Russia. The law, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, requires all foreign producers of sparkling wine to describe their product as such on the back of the bottle — though not on the front — while makers of Russian “shampanskoye” may continue to use that term alone. The French Champagne industry group called on its members to halt all shipments to Russia …

READ MORE

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britons will no longer be required by law to wear face masks indoors once the government lifts coronavirus restrictions later this month.  Johnson confirmed Monday that the government aims to end its latest lockdown on July 19 despite a growing number of coronavirus cases caused by the highly transmissible delta variant. However, he said a final decision on the reopening date would take place next week. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a media briefing on coronavirus in Downing Street, London, July 5, 2021.Johnson said the social distancing requirement would also end, but said …

READ MORE

A press watchdog group, Reporters Without Borders, named 37 world leaders Monday as media “predators” who “crack down massively” on press freedom, including for the first time a Western European leader, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.The Paris-based group, in its first such list in five years, included two women, Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s prime minister since 2009, and Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since 2017.Reporters Without Borders said the “most notable” name on the new list “is undoubtedly Saudi Arabia’s 35-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who is the center of all power in his …

READ MORE

Euro zone businesses expanded activity at the fastest rate in 15 years in June as the easing of more coronavirus restrictions brought life back to the bloc’s dominant service industry, a survey showed on Monday.   But that surge in growth has come at a cost as inflationary pressures mounted due to labor shortages and disruptions to supply chains caused by the pandemic.   IHS Markit’s final composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), seen as a good gauge of economic health, jumped to 59.5 last month from May’s 57.1, its highest level since June 2006.   That was ahead of the …

READ MORE

British royal Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, is self-isolating and has cancelled her engagements after someone she came into contact with subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, her office said on Monday.   “Last week the Duchess of Cambridge came into contact with someone who has subsequently tested positive for COVID-19,” a spokesperson for Kensington Palace said.   “Her Royal Highness is not experiencing any symptoms, but is following all relevant government guidelines and is self-isolating at home.”   Kate, wife of Queen Elizabeth’s grandson Prince William, attended a number of events last week, most prominently the Wimbledon tennis championships on …

READ MORE

From scanning residents’ faces to let them into their building to spotting police suspects in a crowd, the rise of facial recognition is accompanied by a growing chorus of concern about unethical uses of the technology.A report published on Monday by U.S.-based researchers showing that Russian facial recognition companies have built tools to detect a person’s race has raised fears among digital rights groups, who describe the technology as “purpose-made for discrimination.”Developer guides and code examples unearthed by video surveillance research firm IPVM show software advertised by four of Russia’s biggest facial analytics firms can use artificial intelligence (AI) to classify faces based on their perceived ethnicity or race.There is no indication yet that Russian police …

READ MORE

A strong explosion shook the Caspian Sea area where Azerbaijan has extensive offshore oil and gas fields and a column of fire rose late Sunday, but the state oil company said none of its platforms were damaged.  The cause of the blast was not immediately determined, but state oil company SOCAR said preliminary information indicated it was a mud volcano.The Caspian Sea has a high concentration of such volcanoes, which spew both mud and flammable gas.  SOCAR spokesman Ibrahim Ahmadov was quoted by the Azerbaijani news agency APA as saying the blast took place about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from …

READ MORE

The Vatican says Pope Francis has gone to a Rome hospital for scheduled surgery for a stenosis, or restriction, of the large intestine. The brief announcement Sunday afternoon didn’t say when the surgery would be performed but it said there would be announcement when the surgery is complete. Just three hours earlier, Francis had cheerfully greeted the public in St. Peter’s Square in keeping with a Sunday tradition and told them he will go to Hungary and Slovakia in September. A week earlier, Francis, 84, had used the same traditional appearance to ask the public for special prayers for the pope, which, …

READ MORE

A car with wings recently completed a test flight in Slovakia. Its designers say the successful journey brings us one step closer to flying cars, but experts aren’t so sure that’s happening any time soon. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.Produced by:  Arash Arabasadi …

READ MORE