Category: Євросоюз

WASHINGTON — A prominent Ukrainian news outlet reported Wednesday it is facing “ongoing and systematic pressure” from the office of the Ukrainian president that is threatening the outlet’s work. In a statement on its website, the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda said officials are being blocked from communicating with the outlet’s journalists, its reporters are being denied access to official events and businesses are being pressured to stop advertising on its website. In the statement, the outlet also highlighted a tense exchange between Ukrainska Pravda journalist Roman Kravets and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a recent press conference. During the interaction, Zelenskyy …

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LONDON — That long-held Wimbledon tradition of line judges dressed in elegant uniforms is no more.  The All England Club announced Wednesday that artificial intelligence will be used to make the “out” and “fault” calls at the championships from 2025.  Wimbledon organizers said the decision to adopt live electronic line calling was made following extensive testing at the 2024 tournament and “builds on the existing ball-tracking and line-calling technology that has been in place for many years.”  “We consider the technology to be sufficiently robust and the time is right to take this important step in seeking maximum accuracy in our …

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BEIJING — China’s anti-dumping measures against brandies imported from the European Union are “legitimate trade remedy measures,” the commerce ministry said on Wednesday, a day after imposing the temporary curb. French brands such as Hennessy and Remy Martin will face the strictures, adopted just days after the 27-nation bloc voted for tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), sparking its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade. China’s commerce ministry said preliminary findings of an investigation showed that dumping of brandy from the European Union threatened “substantial damage” to domestic industry. On Wednesday the ministry said the EU’s actions against Chinese …

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BEIJING — Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy will visit China next week, sources familiar with the plan said, as the new Labor government seeks less confrontational ties with the world’s second-largest economy and to resume trade and investment talks. British officials have said they want to recalibrate many of the previous Conservative Party-led government’s positions on China, which it described as an “epoch-defining challenge,” particularly around accepting Chinese job-creating investment. But Britain is unlikely to budge on issues such as Chinese firms’ involvement in providing key infrastructure, human rights and restoring the license of state broadcaster CGTN, as it is controlled …

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LONDON — Renewable energy sources are set to meet nearly half of all electricity demand by the end of the decade, but to fall short of a U.N. goal to triple capacity to reduce carbon emissions, an International Energy Agency (IEA) report showed on Wednesday. The world is set to add more than 5,500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity between now and 2030, almost three times the increase between 2017 and 2023, the IEA Renewables 2024 report said. It said the increase is equivalent to the current power capacity of China, the European Union, India and the United States combined, …

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PARIS — France’s minority government survived a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, two weeks after taking office, getting over the first hurdle placed by left-wing lawmakers to bring down new conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier.  The vote was a key test for Barnier, whose Cabinet is forced to rely on the far right’s good will to be able to stay in power.  The no-confidence motion was brought by a left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front. It received 197 votes, far from the 289 votes needed to pass. The far-right National Rally group, which counts 125 lawmakers, abstained from voting.  Following June-July parliamentary …

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The European Commission has filed a lawsuit over Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection legislation, saying it violates EU law. Opponents see the law as a threat to the few remaining independent media outlets in Hungary, which rely on international funding sources. VOA’s Eastern Europe bureau chief Myroslava Gongadze reports from Budapest. VOA footage and video editing by Daniil Batushchak. …

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Beijing/Paris — China imposed temporary anti-dumping measures on imports of brandy from the EU on Tuesday, hitting French brands including Hennessy and Remy Martin, days after the 27-state bloc voted for tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, or EVs. China’s commerce ministry said preliminary findings of an investigation had determined that dumping of brandy from the European Union threatens “substantial damage” to its own sector. France’s trade ministry said the temporary Chinese measures were “incomprehensible” and violated free trade, and that it would work with the European Commission to challenge the move at the World Trade Organization. In a sign of the …

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moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin is to meet Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian for talks Friday at a forum in the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan, a senior aide said Monday.  Yury Ushakov, Putin’s aide on foreign policy, told journalists the leaders would meet in Ashgabat while attending an event celebrating a Turkmen poet.  “This meeting has great significance both for discussing bilateral issues as well as, of course, discussing the sharply escalated situation in the Middle East,” Ushakov said.  Leaders of Central Asian countries are meeting to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the birth of 18th-century poet Magtymguly Pyragy.  Putin’s …

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With most flights out of Lebanon canceled and ticket prices skyrocketing, a small port in Turkey is operating as an alternative route for people fleeing the country. VOA’s Onur Erdogan has more from Mersin province. Bezhan Hamdard narrates. …

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The European Union is braced for retaliation from China after the bloc voted Friday to impose tariffs on the import of Chinese electric vehicles, which Brussels says receive unfair state subsidies. As Henry Ridgwell reports, there’s speculation that Beijing could target individual European countries that voted for the measures. …

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London — The European Union is bracing for retaliation from China after the bloc voted last week to impose tariffs on the import of Chinese electric vehicles, or EVs, amid speculation that Beijing could seek to target individual European countries that voted for the measures. The EU is divided on the issue, with 10 member states in favor in Friday’s vote, five countries voting against the measures and 12 abstaining. After the vote, China’s Commerce Ministry said it opposed the planned tariffs, calling them “unfair, non-compliant and unreasonable.” Cognac France is among the countries that pushed for the EU to adopt …

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Tirana, Albania — Opposition forces in Albania on Monday were holding a nationwide protest in the country’s capital demanding that the government be replaced by a technocratic caretaker Cabinet before next year’s parliamentary election. The conservative opposition accuses the leftist government of manipulating earlier voting and of usurping powers, including that of the judiciary. The Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Sali Berisha has been holding protests at the parliament in the last week after one of their colleagues was convicted of slander and imprisoned, which they considered as being politically motivated. Ervin Salianji in 2018 demanded the resignation of the …

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GENEVA  — Billions of people are facing a future of water scarcity as global rivers dry up, glaciers melt, and intense heat and other extreme weather events caused by climate change create critical changes in water availability around the world, according to the State of Global Water Resources report issued Monday by the World Meteorological Organization.  “Water is the canary in the coal mine of climate change,” said Celeste Saulo, WMO secretary-general. “Water is the basis of life on this planet, but it can also be a force of destruction.”   She told journalists at a briefing in Geneva that “water is …

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MOSCOW — A Russian court on Monday sentenced a 72-year-old American in a closed trial to nearly seven years in prison for allegedly fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.  Prosecutors said Stephen Hubbard signed a contract with the Ukrainian military after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and he fought alongside them until being captured two months later.  He was sentenced to six years and 10 months in a general-security prison. Prosecutors had called for a sentence of seven years in a maximum-security prison.  Hubbard, from the state of Michigan, is the first American known to have been convicted …

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