Month: March 2023

German Transportation Unions Strike for Higher Wages

Germany’s public transportation workers are striking Monday as unions demand higher wages for their members.   The schedules of trains, buses and planes are being disrupted by the 24-hour work stoppage.   The strike is intended to pressure employers as a new round of negotiations begins this week.   German news outlet Deutsche-Welle reports that Frank Werneke, head of Verdi, one of the unions involved in the strike, said, “What employees right up into the middle-income groups find to be a burden, above all, are the enormous price increases for electricity, gas, and groceries.”  Some German airports began canceling flights Sunday in anticipation …

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Spain Tells ‘Fire Tourists’ to Stay Away From Forest Blaze

Officials told “fire tourists” to keep away from blazes raging in eastern Spain on Sunday, saying onlookers were putting themselves at risk and disrupting efforts to quell the flames. More than 500 firefighters backed by 20 planes and helicopters were battling the fire four days after it broke out near the village of Villanueva de Viver in Valencia region, emergency services said. Police had spotted 14 cyclists near the scene trying to get a closer look, Gabriela Bravo, the regional head of interior affairs in the Valencia region, told reporters. “We ask once again and above all tourists not to …

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North Sea Shell Survey Brings Out Volunteers

Hundreds of volunteers descended on the beaches of the North Sea coast this weekend to collect sea shells as a measure of the sea’s biological diversity. While there is a serious scientific purpose to the exercise, it is also a fun day out on the coast for Belgian, French and Dutch families with kids. On Saturday, Natascha Perales and her children marked a wide spiral pattern on the sand in Middelkerke, in Flanders, and filled their plastic buckets with shells. The harvests were taken to a sorting center run by volunteers, to be counted and divided up by species. “We …

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Зеленський провів нараду з військовими – обговорювали посилення захисту і ситуацію на передовій

«Оборона, посилення нашого захисту – як від зовнішньої загрози, так і від внутрішніх. Готуємо наші відповідні кроки. Незмінно максимум уваги – ситуації на передовій» …

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 Russia’s Putin to Deploy Tactical Nukes in Belarus

As the United States prepares to co-host the second Summit for Democracy in Washington, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports on how the weapons that Russia has used so far in its war on Ukraine have already taken a heavy toll not only on the civilian population in Ukraine, but also on that country’s environment. …

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Після заяви Путіна у Білому домі розповіли, чи Росія переміщувала ядерну зброю

У Білому домі стверджують, що поки що немає жодних ознак того, що російський президент Володимир Путін виконав свою обіцянку розмістити ядерну зброю в Білорусі. Відповідаючи на запитання щодо заяви Путіна про тактичну ядерну зброю в Білорусі, координатор зі стратегічних комунікацій Ради національної безпеки Джон Кірбі сказав: «Нам просто доведеться спостерігати та дивитися, куди це прямує». «Ми не бачили жодних ознак того, що він виконав цю обіцянку або переміщував будь-яку ядерну зброю», – сказав Кірбі в ефірі CBS, повідомляє СNN. …

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Berlin Votes on Tighter Climate Goals in Test of Germans Commitment to Change 

Berlin votes on Sunday on making the city climate neutral by 2030, in a binding referendum that will force the new conservative local government to invest heavily in renewable energy, building efficiency and public transportation. Climate campaigners gathered over 260,000 signatures in support of the referendum, which will make Berlin one of few major European cities with a legally binding goal to become carbon neutral in seven years. The European Union last year started a scheme to help 100 cities inside and outside of the bloc become climate neutral by 2030, but the scheme and the financial support it offers …

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Poland’s Ruling Nationalists Push John Paul II’s Legacy to Election Center Stage 

A controversy over John Paul II’s legacy looks set to spur some undecided voters in Polish elections due by November, political analysts say, as allegations that the late pope concealed child abuse deepen rifts in the predominantly Catholic country. Claims in a new book and TV documentary that the late pope, born Karol Wojtyla, knowingly hid clerical pedophilia scandals as archbishop of Krakow have led some Poles to demand that his legacy be reassessed. This has provoked a furious response from religious conservatives, with politicians from the ruling nationalists Law and Justice (PiS) defending John Paul II in the face …

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Azerbaijan Violated Cease-Fire Agreement with Armenia, Russia Says

Russia on Saturday accused Azerbaijan of violating the Moscow-brokered cease-fire that ended a 2020 war with Armenia by letting its troops cross over the demarcation line. Arch foes Baku and Yerevan have been locked for decades in a territorial conflict over Azerbaijan’s Armenian-majority region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The fragile Russian-mediated truce, which ended six weeks of fighting in autumn 2020, has stood despite occasional shootouts along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and in Karabakh. “On March 25 … a unit of the armed forces of Azerbaijan crossed a line of contact in the district of Shusha, in violation” of the agreement of November …

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Love, Pain And Loss at Ukraine’s Lychakiv Cemetery

At a historic military cemetery in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, Valeriy Pushko lights up two cigarettes. One is for himself, the other for his son whose portrait is fixed to a cross planted in the ground. “I smoke with my son,” the gray-haired man said. “We used to take cigarette breaks together. It’s a bad habit but it makes things easier. I talk to him, think about him and that makes me feel better.” Pushko said many others come here to smoke with their fallen husbands or sons. In southeastern Lviv, the Lychakiv cemetery is one of the …

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Wildfire in Spain Forces Hundreds to Flee, Leave Animals Behind

Spain’s first major wildfire of the year scorched more than 4,000 hectares of forest and forced 1,700 villagers to leave their homes in the Valencia and Aragon regions. Residents recounted fleeing their houses and leaving animals behind. “Bad, how am I supposed to feel? Your town is burning, your life is burning. Our animals were there, and no one can tell us anything,” Antonio Zarzoso, 24, who had to leave the village of Puebla de Arenoso, told Reuters. More than 500 firefighters supported by 20 planes and helicopters were working to bring the blaze under control near the village of …

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West Regains ‘Unity, Purpose’ in Light of Russian Ukraine War, Poll Indicates 

A poll of global attitudes toward Russia’s Ukraine war suggests the West has regained its “unity and sense of purpose” following the invasion, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations. The survey, conducted in nine EU countries, Britain, China, India, Turkey, Russia, and the United States in December and January, portrays markedly different attitudes in non-Western nations. “We asked the question whether they agree strongly with the idea that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine needs to stop as soon as possible, even if that means giving Russia control of some areas of Ukraine,” Susi Dennison, an analyst at …

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