Category: Євросоюз

Pope Francis made an urgent plea for a halt to the conflict in Gaza on Sunday, calling for humanitarian aid and help for those injured in order to ease the “very grave” situation.  “I keep thinking about the grave situation in Palestine and Israel where many people have lost their life. I pray you to stop in the name of god, cease the fire,” he said, speaking to crowds in St Peter’s Square after his weekly Angelus prayer.  “I hope that all will be done to avoid the conflict from widening, that the injured will be rescued and aid will …

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Moldovans are casting ballots in nationwide local elections on Sunday amid claims by Moldovan authorities that Russia has been conducting “hybrid warfare” to undermine the vote in the European Union candidate country. While local elections in Moldova, a country of about 2.5 million people situated between Romania and Ukraine, would not usually garner much international attention, ongoing accusations of Russian meddling add a geopolitical dimension to the vote. Sunday’s ballot will elect nearly 900 mayors and 11,000 local councilors for a four-year term, including key positions such as mayor of the capital, Chisinau. The ballot will be monitored by around …

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A diver who spotted something metallic not far from Sardinia’s coast has led to the discovery of tens of thousands of ancient bronze coins. Italy’s culture ministry said Saturday that the diver alerted authorities, who sent divers assigned to an art protection squad along with others from the ministry’s undersea archaeology department. The coins dating from the first half of the fourth century were found in sea grass, not far from the northeast shore of the Mediterranean island. The ministry didn’t say exactly when the first diver caught a glimpse of something metallic just off shore, not far from the …

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Countries moved a step closer Saturday to getting a fund off the ground to help poor states damaged by climate disasters, despite reservations from developing nations and the United States.   The deal to create a “loss and damage” fund was hailed as a breakthrough for developing country negotiators at United Nations climate talks in Egypt last year, overcoming years of resistance from wealthy nations.   But in the past 11 months, governments have struggled to reach consensus on the details of the fund, such as who will pay and where the fund will be located.   A special U.N. …

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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests Saturday in London, Berlin, Paris, Ankara, Istanbul and Washington to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and castigate Israel after its military intensified its assault against Hamas. In London, television footage showed large crowds holding sit-down protests blocking parts of the city center, before marching to Trafalgar Square. Protesters held “Freedom for Palestine” placards and chanted “cease-fire now” and “in our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.” Police said they had made 29 arrests. One person was arrested for displaying a placard that could incite hate, contrary to terrorism legislation. Britain has supported Israel’s …

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The protest movement that erupted in Iran last year has transformed the country both outside and inside prison, a French-Iranian academic, who returned to Paris last month after being held in the country since 2019, told AFP.   Fariba Adelkhah was finally allowed to leave Iran in October after a four-and-a-half-year ordeal that began with her sudden arrest in 2019 and saw her spend years in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.  But there she was also able to witness the courage of her fellow women inmates, who included this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, amid the “Woman. Life. Freedom.” …

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is in Kyiv. Her Saturday visit takes place days before the European Union is set to announce Ukraine’s progress in fulfilling necessary steps to begin membership negotiations with the bloc. Ukraine applied to become a member of the EU days after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. The membership process usually takes years, but Ukraine considers membership vital as it battles Russia’s invasion and wants to join as soon as possible. The EU is set to announce Wednesday whether Ukraine can begin accession talks with the group, which would begin in December. Grateful for …

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A new, permanent addition to the sprawling National WWII Museum in New Orleans is a three-story complex with displays as daunting as a simulated Nazi concentration camp bunk room, and as inspiring as a violin pieced together from scrap wood by an American prisoner of war. The Liberation Pavilion, which opened Friday, is ambitious in scope. Its exhibits filling 3,065.80 square meters commemorate the end of the war’s death and destruction, emphasize its human costs and capture the horror of those who discovered the aftermath of Nazi atrocities. Films, photos and recorded oral histories recount the joys and challenges awaiting …

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The U.S. Department of Treasury on Friday sanctioned Ekaterina Zhdanova, an accused Russian money launderer who allegedly helped her country’s oligarchs move funds out of Moscow using cryptocurrency to evade Western sanctions.   According to an official Treasury announcement, Zhdanova allegedly also helped ransomware groups and other “illicit actors” launder their gains.   “We remain focused on safeguarding the U.S. and international financial system against those who seek to exploit this technology [cryptocurrency], among other illicit finance risks in the virtual assets ecosystem,” said Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.  Zhdanova has reportedly used cryptocurrency …

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Officials in Western Europe said Storm Ciaran killed at least 14 people over three days as it swept from the North Atlantic across Britain and northwestern France and into the North Sea, bringing with it record-breaking wind, heavy rain, high seas, hail and possibly a tornado. The storm, named Ciaran by Britain’s meteorological agency, known as the Met Office, brought record-breaking wind to France, with 193-kph (120-mph) wind gusts reported in Brittany. The nation’s energy minister reported 1.2 million households lost power. Officials in Italy’s Tuscany region declared a state of emergency with trees down and streets flooded. Nearly 200 …

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Exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is seeking support from the European Union and individual European countries for a “New Belarus” passport for exiled citizens of her country whose official documents have expired. The move is in response to a decree issued in September by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko ordering the nation’s consulates to stop renewing or extending passports, requiring citizens to return to Belarus if they want their documents renewed. Hundreds of thousands of Belarus opposition supporters fled the country following the contested 2020 presidential election, in which Tsikhanouskaya challenged after her husband, opposition candidate Sergei Tikhanovsky, was jailed …

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One of the largest synagogues in Ukraine opened in 1865 in the western Ukranian town of Drohobych. During World War II, nearly all of the town’s approximately  17,000 Jews were wiped out by the Nazis and their collaborators. Today, members of the town’s Jewish community continue to support the Choral Synagogue and hope the people of Israel and Ukraine will stand victorious. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Produced by: Yuriy Dankevych …

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Thursday that he is grateful to the United States for “the new and very powerful sanctions” on more than 220 Russian “entities that work on aggression.” The U.S. imposed sanctions Thursday on more than 100 people and firms from China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates who aid Russia in obtaining tools and equipment that are vital for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian leader said every sanction “must work in full, so that there is no chance for Russia to circumvent sanctions.”  Zelenskyy said, “The power of sanctions is the …

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Record-breaking winds in France and across much of western Europe left at least seven people dead and injured others as Storm Ciarán swept through the continent Thursday. The storm devastated homes, causing travel mayhem and cut power to a vast number of people. Winds of more than 190 kph slammed the northern tip of France’s Atlantic coast, uprooting trees and blowing out windows. Huge waves slammed into French ports and shorelines, as wind flattened street signs and ripped off roofing. Felled trees blocked roads around western France. A truck driver was killed when his vehicle was hit by a tree …

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Russian shelling on Thursday killed two more civilians — an 81-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man — in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to local authorities, marking the latest deaths in Russia’s assault on the area. The shelling targeted several villages, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Four others were injured in the strikes, which also damaged buildings. The two deaths came after one person died Wednesday in Russian shelling in the region’s capital, which is also called Kherson. Prokudin called the damage left by the assault “an apocalyptic scene.” Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson last November after nearly nine months …

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A former political prisoner in Iran is facing imminent deportation back to that country after a decade of waiting in Turkey for resettlement and despite having once been granted asylum status by the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR. Journalist and rights activist Shahram Elyasi, an Iranian Kurd, has been given 10 days to appeal the decision before being returned with his family to Iran. Speaking to VOA, Elyasi said UNHCR granted asylum to him, his wife and two daughters in Turkey in 2015, and they waited to be transferred to the United States. But with a flood of Syrian refugees fleeing to …

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North Korea has decided to close diplomatic missions in at least four locations across the globe, a significant diplomatic shift that some observers say may indicate severe economic challenges. According to a series of media reports that began emerging last week, North Korea will shutter its embassies in Uganda, Angola and Spain, as well as its consulate in Hong Kong. North Korean state media have not publicly explained the reasons behind the closures. However, a North Korean ambassador was quoted in The Independent, a Ugandan newspaper, as saying Pyongyang is reducing its number of embassies in Africa to “increase the …

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The final Beatles recording is here. Titled “Now and Then,” the almost impossible-to-believe track is four minutes and eight seconds of the first and only original Beatles recording of the 21st century. There’s a countdown, then acoustic guitar strumming and piano bleed into the unmistakable vocal tone of John Lennon in the song’s introduction: “I know it’s true / It’s all because of you / And if I make it through / It’s all because of you.” More than four decades since Lennon’s murder and two since George Harrison’s death, the very last Beatles song has been released as a …

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The United States on Thursday imposed sweeping new measures against Moscow over the war in Ukraine, targeting Russia’s future energy capabilities, sanctions evasion and a suicide drone that has been a menace to Ukrainian troops and equipment, among others, in sanctions on hundreds of people and entities. The latest measures target a major entity involved in the development, operation and ownership of a massive project in Siberia known as Arctic-2 LNG, the State Department said in a statement. The project is expected to ship chilled natural gas, known as liquefied natural gas, to global markets. Washington also targeted the KUB-BLA …

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Storm Ciaran smashed into northwestern Europe on Thursday with strong winds and driving rain, killing one person in France and forcing the closure of schools, airports, and rail and ferry services. A truck driver was killed by a falling tree northeast of Paris and 1.2 million French households were left without electricity. Authorities in Finistere, Brittany, urged people to stay at home and avoid winds which were hitting 207 kph, leading to reports of 20-meter waves off the coast. Storm Ciaran, which follows on the heels of Storm Babet two weeks ago, was driven by a powerful jet stream that …

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