Month: June 2023

PARIS – Protesters shot fireworks at police and set cars ablaze in the working-class Paris suburb of Nanterre on Wednesday, in a second night of unrest following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop there.  The use of lethal force by officers against the teenager, who was of North African origin, has fed into a deep-rooted perception of police brutality in the ethnically diverse suburbs of France’s biggest cities.   Shortly before midnight, a trail of overturned vehicles burned as fireworks fizzed at police lines on Nanterre’s Avenue Pablo Picasso.   Police clashed with protesters in …

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged NATO on Wednesday to send Ukraine a clear signal at a summit next month that it can join the military alliance when Russia’s war on his country ends. In a speech to parliament on Ukraine’s Constitution Day, he suggested global leaders should stop thinking about how Moscow would react when making decisions about Ukraine and described Russia’s political and military leaders as “bandits.” He then set out what Kyiv expects of the July 11-12 NATO summit in Lithuania after holding talks in the Ukrainian capital with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda. “We …

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U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin had “absolutely” been weakened inside his country by last weekend’s short-lived mutiny led by mercenary Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. But Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House, said it was “hard to tell” the extent to which Putin had been diminished. “He’s clearly losing the war in Iraq,” Biden said, meaning to refer to Putin’s 16-month war against Ukraine. “He’s losing the war at home. And he has become a bit of a pariah around the world. And it’s not just NATO. It’s not just …

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The war in Ukraine remains high on the agenda as European Union leaders meet Thursday and Friday in Brussels, just days after the Wagner group’s short-lived revolt in Russia. Other hot-button issues to be discussed include European defense, relations with China, and immigration. Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising last weekend has added a new element of instability for the EU when it comes to the war in Ukraine — with Eastern European countries especially worried about Wagner mercenaries moving to nearby Belarus. The Brussels summit also comes ahead of a key NATO summit in Vilnius next month. Kyiv is pushing …

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France’s government on Wednesday announced heightened police presence around Paris and other big cities and called for calm after scattered violence erupted over the death of a 17-year-old delivery driver who was shot and killed during a police check.  The death prompted nationwide concern and widespread messages of indignation and condolences, including from soccer star Kylian Mbappe.  It also triggered unrest in multiple towns around Paris. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 31 people were arrested, 25 police officers injured and 40 cars burned in overnight unrest.  The tensions focused around the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where lawyers say 17-year-old Nael …

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South Korea has for the first time placed sanctions on a former South Korean national for setting up business entities to bypass United Nations Security Council resolutions against North Korea and its nuclear weapons program. Choi Chon Gon is suspected of engaging in illicit financial deals on behalf of Pyongyang, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Wednesday, including co-investing in a Russia-based trade company, Epsilon, with a North Korean. Choi fled South Korea while under investigation by local authorities, Yonhap reports, and is now based in Vladivostok, having acquired Russian citizenship. The 66-year-old set up a front company, Hanne Ulaan, in Mongolia …

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Latest developments:  Pope Francis’ peace envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi traveled to Moscow weeks after a visit to Kyiv, with the Vatican saying he seeks “a solution to the tragic current situation” of the war in Ukraine.      The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, arrived in Belarus days after an aborted mutiny.   Ukrainian officials said Wednesday a Russian missile attack on the city of Kramatorsk killed at least eight people and injured more than 50 others.  Emergency services posted photos of rescue teams searching through the rubble at the site that included a restaurant.  Kramatorsk is located …

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As a veteran correspondent for National Public Radio, Sylvia Poggioli spent the bulk of her 41-year career at the American broadcaster living and reporting in Italy.   Now, as she moves into retirement, the Rhode Island-born journalist is watching with interest at how the change in Italy’s government is affecting the media and some of the key issues she has covered there over the years, including immigration.   Last October, Giorgia Meloni — head of Fratelli d’Italia, or the Brothers of Italy party — became prime minister of Italy, the country’s first far-right leader since the end of World War II.  Under her administration, the government …

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