Month: October 2022

A Russian court on Tuesday dismissed U.S. WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal against a nine-year sentence for possessing and smuggling vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. Griner and her lawyers had asked for acquittal or at least a reduction in her sentence, which they said was disproportionate to the offense and at odds with Russian judicial practice. After retiring for no more than 30 minutes to consider the appeal, the presiding judge said the original verdict was upheld “without changes” except for the counting of time served in pretrial detention as part of the sentence. Griner, a two-time Olympic gold …

READ MORE

Finland and Sweden’s aspirations to join NATO are in doubt as Turkey has renewed its objections to their membership bids. Finnish diplomats met with their Turkish counterparts Tuesday in Ankara, according to local media reports. The meeting marked the latest diplomatic effort by Helsinki to persuade Ankara to agree to its bid to join NATO. For the Atlantic alliance to expand, all members must agree. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has voiced reservations over Finland and Sweden’s bid to join, accusing the countries of giving sanctuary to Kurdish groups that Ankara considers terrorists. Speaking to parliament earlier this month, Erdogan …

READ MORE

A Uyghur organization and a human rights group are taking the U.K. government to court to challenge Britain’s failure to block the import of cotton products associated with forced labor and other abuses in China’s far western Xinjiang region. Tuesday’s hearing at the High Court in London is believed the first time a foreign court hears legal arguments from the Uyghurs over the issue of forced labor in Xinjiang. The region is a major global supplier of cotton, but rights groups have long alleged that the cotton is picked and processed by China’s Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in …

READ MORE

Germany and the European Commission are hosting a conference Tuesday in Berlin to discuss the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine and to show the international community’s ongoing support.  The conference involves representatives from national governments, academic institutions and international organizations. The EU says the talks will cover how to prioritize Ukraine’s needs and what options exist for financing projects.  No financial pledges or political agreements are expected.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to address the conference.  Ukraine’s government, along with the European Commission and the World Bank, estimated in a September report that it could cost $350 billion to …

READ MORE

Bees pollinate 71 of the 100 crop species that provide 90% of food worldwide. They also pollinate wild plants, helping sustain biodiversity and the beauty of the natural world. But climate change, pesticides and parasites are taking a terrible toll on bees, and they need protecting, said European beekeepers, who held their annual congress in Quimper, western France, this week. The congress, which said some European beekeepers were suffering “significant mortalities and catastrophic harvests due to difficult climatic conditions,” was an opportunity for beekeepers and scientists to respond to the major concerns. The European Union, the world’s second-largest importer of …

READ MORE

Despite rebuffs from Western nations, Russia continued to accuse Ukraine of preparing to use a “dirty bomb” and said it would bring the matter to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. Diplomats said Russia has told council counterparts it will bring up the issue during a closed-door meeting of the 15-member body. Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya sent a letter, seen by VOA, to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council late Monday, saying Russia “will regard the use of the dirty bomb by the Kiev regime as an act of nuclear terrorism.” Ukraine has strongly …

READ MORE

A Spanish man trekking from Madrid to Doha for the 2022 FIFA World Cup has not been heard from since the day after he crossed into Iran three weeks ago, his family said Monday, stirring fears about his fate in a country convulsed by mass unrest. The experienced trekker, former paratrooper and fervent soccer fan, 41-year-old Santiago Sanchez, was last seen in Iraq after hiking through 15 countries and extensively sharing his journey on a popular Instagram account over the last nine months. Sanchez’s family last heard from him Oct. 2, a day after he crossed the Iraq-Iran border. “We …

READ MORE

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner “does not expect miracles” at her appeal hearing on Tuesday against a nine-year Russian jail term for having cannabis oil in her luggage, her lawyers said in a statement.  The two-time Olympic gold medalist was arrested on February 17 at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia. She was sentenced on August 4 to nine years in a penal colony on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs.  Griner’s lawyers, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, said she would take part in Tuesday’s hearing by video link from the detention …

READ MORE

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak won the backing of Conservative Party lawmakers Monday to become Britain’s new prime minister, after the resignation of Liz Truss, who spent less than two months in office. Sunak will visit King Charles III Tuesday to accept the invitation to form a government. As Henry Ridgwell reports, years of political chaos have dented Britain’s global image. …

READ MORE