Month: June 2023

Romanian prosecutors sent divisive internet personality Andrew Tate, his brother Tristan and two other suspects to trial on Tuesday on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. The Tate brothers and two Romanian female suspects are under house arrest pending a criminal investigation for abuses committed against seven women, accusations they have denied. The four were held in police custody from Dec. 29 until March 31 before a Bucharest court put them under house arrest. Andrew Tate has also been charged with raping one of the victims, while his brother Tristan has been …

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Chinese imports of Russian oil last month hit their highest level since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Beijing’s customs data showed Tuesday. China imported 9.71 million tons of oil from Russia in May, detailed customs data showed, up from 5.4 million tons in February 2022 and 6.3 million the following month. The figures show that imports of Russian crude by China since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine have almost doubled. They are in line with trade figures released this month that showed China’s trade with Russia soaring to levels not seen since February 2022. Trade between the two countries last …

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U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken traveled Tuesday to London where he is due to meet with his British and Ukrainian counterparts ahead of a conference focused on fostering international support for helping Ukraine recover from the effects of a Russian invasion.  Britain and Ukraine are co-hosting the conference taking place Wednesday and Thursday.  Blinken and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly are scheduled to take part in an event for World Refugee Day at a center set up to help Ukrainians who fled the war get the advice and support they need to adapt to life in Britain.  After bilateral talks with …

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In her years running Catholic youth programs in France, Sister Nathalie Becquart often invoked her own experience as a seasoned sailor in urging young people to weather the storms of their lives. “There’s nothing stronger than seeing the sunrise after a storm, the flat calm of the sea,” she said. That lesson is especially applicable to Becquart herself as she charts the global church through an unprecedented — and at times, tempestuous — period of reform as one of the highest-ranking women at the Vatican. Pope Francis named the 54-year-old nun as the first female undersecretary in the Vatican’s Synod …

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Four temples from ancient Rome, dating back as far as the 3rd century B.C. stand smack in the middle of one of the modern city’s busiest crossroads. But until Monday, practically the only ones getting a close-up view of the temples were the cats that prowl the so-called “Sacred Area,” on the edge of the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated. Now, with the help of funding from Bulgari, the luxury jeweler, the group of temples can be visited by the public. For decades, the curious had to gaze down from the bustling sidewalks rimming Largo Argentina (Argentina Square) to …

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The U.K. on Monday announced new sanctions against Syria’s defense minister and its head of the armed forces, as part of new curbs targeting conflict-related sexual violence. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said Ali Mahmoud Abbas and Abdel Karim Mahmoud Ibrahim would be subject to asset freezes and travel bans. Abbas has a “commanding role of the Syrian military and armed forces, who have systematically used rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence against civilians,” it said. Ibrahim, who is chief of the general staff of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces, “has been involved in …

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The chateau of Versailles will reopen the private rooms of Queen Marie-Antoinette as part of its ongoing 400th anniversary celebrations. The restored apartments will reopen to the public Tuesday, featuring 100 square meters (1,000 square feet) of luxurious living space where France’s last queen played with her children and received friends. It is the final part of a restoration of the Queen’s Hamlet and Trianon, a series of cottages and getaways built away from the main palace. It gives a “new understanding of history, with this paradox between public and private life, etiquette and intimacy, an extraordinary summary of history …

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Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, says that human rights around the world are in a perilous state as countries are failing to honor the fundamental rights and freedoms of all peoples as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The U.N. rights chief, who spoke Monday at the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s four-week session, told a packed chamber that human rights, the cornerstone of the United Nations, are now “at a critical juncture” due to what he said are the self-serving interests of repressive governments, which in his view are taking precedence …

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Nine Egyptians have made their first court appearance in Greece to face smuggling charges in connection with one of the worst shipwrecks off the Greek coast in recent years. The incident has sparked fierce debate and criticism against the Greek Coast Guard and whether it could have prevented the vessel, which was full of migrants, from sinking. Amid tight security and a police escort, the nine suspects were whisked to a courthouse to face smuggling and murder charges in a closed-door hearing in the Greek city of Kalamata. Shortly after they arrived, a special prosecutor gave the suspects a 24-hour …

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