Month: June 2022

Fine Italian knitwear packed in boxes addressed to retailers in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kursk sit stacked in a Lombardy warehouse awaiting dispatch. Although not subject to sanctions to punish Russia for invading Ukraine, the garments are not likely to ship any time soon. Missing payments from the Russian retailers who ordered the garments are piling up due to restrictions tied to the banking sector, putting pressure on small fashion producers like D. Exterior, a high-end knitwear company with 50 workers in the northern city of Brescia. “This is very painful. I have 2 million euros worth of merchandise in …

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Czech Senate Leader Milos Vystrcil was little known to the world until he led a Czech parliamentary and business delegation to Taiwan in autumn 2020, defying threats of severe retaliation from Beijing. And that is just how his late father would have preferred it. “He would always insist that we live a normal, average life, not too visible,” Vystrcil told VOA during a visit to Washington last week. Vystrcil was born in the town of Telc in 1960, 12 years after the Soviet-backed local communist party took control of what was then the Czechoslovak Republic. In order for him and …

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Lithuanian authorities said a ban on the transit through their territory to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad of goods that are subject to EU sanctions was to take effect Saturday. News of the ban came Friday, through a video posted by the region’s governor Anton Alikhanov. The EU sanctions list notably includes coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology, and Alikhanov said the ban would cover around 50% of the items that Kaliningrad imports. Its immediate start was confirmed by the cargo arm of Lithuania’s state railways service in a letter to clients following “clarification” from the European Commission on …

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A third suspect in the murder of British journalist Dom Phillips in the Amazon rainforest was arrested Saturday, Brazil’s federal police said. Jeferson da Silva Lima was on the run, but he surrendered at the police station of Atalaia do Norte in the remote Javari Valley bordering Peru and Colombia. “The detainee will be questioned and referred to a custody hearing,” federal police said in a statement. A forensic exam carried out on human remains found in the region on Friday confirmed they belonged to Phillips. The remains of a second person, believed to be indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, were …

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The far-right Alternative for Germany on Saturday elected two prominent figures to lead the party for the next two years, after one of its co-chairs quit in January saying it had become too radical. Delegates voted for Alternative for Germany’s remaining co-chair, Tino Chrupalla, to head the party together with parliamentary caucus leader Alice Weidel. The vote became necessary after European lawmaker Joerg Meuthen stepped down from the leadership in January, warning that the party risked being driven into “total isolation and ever further toward the political edge” with its current course. Meuthen was the party’s third leader to quit …

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A former hotel housekeeper who fought for the rights of her coworkers has become a symbol of the recent revival of France’s left, which is expected to emerge as the main opposition force in the French Parliament to President Emmanuel Macron’s government. Rachel Kéké, 48, is poised to win election as a lawmaker when France holds the decisive second round of parliamentary elections Sunday. She placed first in her district with more than 37% of the vote in the election’s first round. Her nearest rival, Macron’s former sports minister, Roxana Maracineanu, received less than 24%. Macron’s centrist alliance is projected …

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A celebrated Ukrainian medic whose footage was smuggled out of the besieged city of Mariupol by an Associated Press team was freed by Russian forces on Friday, three months after she was taken captive on the streets of the city.  Yuliia Paievska is known in Ukraine as Taira, a nickname she chose in the “World of Warcraft” video game. Using a body camera, she recorded 256 gigabytes of her team’s efforts over two weeks to save the wounded, including both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.  She transferred the clips to an Associated Press team, the last international journalists in Mariupol, one …

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Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.    UN human rights chief won’t seek second term  U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Monday that she will step down when her term finishes at the end of August. The news was welcomed by China rights activists, who have criticized Bachelet for failing to more forcefully criticize Beijing’s incarceration of nearly 2 million Uyghurs in Xinjiang, including during her recent visit to China.  Activists Welcome UN Rights Chief’s Decision to Step …

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News that police in France arrested two men suspected of traveling to the city of Nantes to kill an Azeri blogger will be of little surprise to journalists in Azerbaijan. Attacks, especially over reporting that is critical of authorities, are common, and a lack of bringing perpetrators to justice makes matters worse, journalists and analysts say. Reporting on crime, corruption, human rights abuses or alleged wrongdoing by the government can result in attacks or pressure, with orders appearing to come from high up, some journalists told VOA. A culture of impunity adds to the risks. Last month, an assailant attacked …

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