Category: Євросоюз

Spanish company PLD Space launched its reusable Miura-1 rocket early on Saturday from a site in southwestern Spain, carrying out Europe’s first fully private rocket launch and offering hope for the continent’s stalled space ambitions. The startup’s test nighttime launch from Huelva came after two previous attempts were scrubbed. The Miura-1 rocket, named after a breed of fighting bulls, is as tall as a three-story building and has a 100-kilogram cargo capacity. The launch carries a payload for test purposes, but this will not be released, the company said. Mission control video showed engineers cheering as the rocket gained altitude …

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Polish voters face a stark choice in parliamentary elections set for October 15, which are likely to have a significant impact not only on a deeply polarized Polish society but also on the future of Europe as a whole.    According to a recent public opinion poll, the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party and the opposition Civic Coalition bloc are in a close race for seats in the two-house, 460-member Parliament.    One of these political forces will likely have to form a coalition in order to govern what is the largest post-communist EU and NATO member and a …

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Russian lawmakers will evaluate whether to revoke ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the speaker of the lower house of parliament said Friday. Vyacheslav Volodin’s statement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow could consider rescinding the ratification of the international pact, since the United States never ratified it. “It conforms with our national interests,” Volodin said. “And it will come as a quid pro quo response to the United States, which has still failed to ratify the treaty.” The 1996 treaty prohibiting “any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion” anywhere in the world …

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Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.  US Government to Resume Deportations to Venezuela The Biden administration announced Thursday it will resume the deportation of migrants back to Venezuela in hopes of decreasing the numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. On a background call with reporters — a method often used by U.S. authorities to share information with reporters without being identified — Biden officials said Venezuelan nationals who cross into the United States unlawfully will still be processed. But if it …

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Ukrainian officials bitterly condemned a Russian attack Thursday that blew apart a café where a wake was being held, killing at least 51 people, including a child. The Associated Press reported that after the attack in the eastern village of Hroza, “body parts were strewn across a nearby children’s playground that was severely damaged by the strike.” Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov told the BBC, “One-fifth of this village has died in a single terrorist attack.” “Today, Russian terrorists launched an attack that one can’t even call ‘beastly,’” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday night in his daily address, “because it …

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U.S. future funding for Ukraine was up in the air Thursday, as the Biden administration discussed how best to support Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders without a House speaker to bring Ukraine aid packages to a vote. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb reports. …

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Almost 50 European leaders used a summit in the southern Spanish city of Granada on Thursday to stress that they stand by Ukraine at a time when Western resolve appears weakened. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that besides maintaining such unity, more military aid to get through the winter was essential. Despite the political, economic and military support, the desperate struggle to rid Ukraine territory of invading Russian forces has ground to a stalemate, and Zelenskyy insisted that it was no time for wavering in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin – especially now that questions about continued support …

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The Belarus Red Cross says it is examining a call by the international Red Cross to fire its chief, who made headlines earlier this year for bragging that his organization was ferrying children from Russian-occupied Ukraine to Belarus. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva said Wednesday it wants Dzmitry Shautsou ousted for violating its rules on neutrality and integrity. He was seen in occupied cities of the Donbas region in a military uniform with the “Z” insignia of Russian forces and said he favored deployment of nuclear arms in Belarus. Yulia Sytenkova, a spokeswoman …

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The Belarus Red Cross says it is examining a call by the international Red Cross to fire its chief, who made headlines earlier this year for bragging that his organization was ferrying children from Russian-occupied Ukraine to Belarus. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva said Wednesday it wants Dzmitry Shautsou ousted for violating its rules on neutrality and integrity. He was seen in occupied cities of the Donbas region in a military uniform with the “Z” insignia of Russian forces and said he favored deployment of nuclear arms in Belarus. Yulia Sytenkova, a spokeswoman …

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The G7 group of rich nations is pushing for a ban on diamonds mined in Russia – the world’s biggest producer – following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. But as Henry Ridgwell reports, it will be difficult to stop Russian diamonds from entering the global market, which is worth $87 billion a year. …

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Russia has successfully tested an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, while also warning that the country’s parliament could revoke its ratification of a treaty banning nuclear tests. In a speech at a forum of foreign policy experts, Putin announced that Russia has effectively completed the development of the Burevestnik cruise missile and the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile and will work on putting them into production. “We conducted the last successful test of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered global-range cruise missile,” he said without elaborating. His statement was the first announcement of a successful test of the Burevestnik, …

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As is the case in Italy, Greece is facing new wave of illegal immigration, and as it boosts measures to contain the influx, the government is now pressing its European Union partners to join forces in deporting migrants back to their countries. Greece is expected to raise the proposal at a meeting of national leaders in Spain this week but mustering an agreement among the EU’s 27 members may be difficult. Greek migration minister Dimitris Keridis revealed the proposal as the government in Athens grows “wary and concerned,” as he put it, of a new migration crisis.  Concerns have mounted …

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Norwegian author Jon Fosse has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy highlighted what it said were Fosse’s “innovative plays and prose, which give voice to the unsayable.” “His immense oeuvre written in Norwegian Nynorsk and spanning a variety of genres consists of a wealth of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations,” the academy said. The Nobel announcements began Monday with the prize in Medicine going to Hungary’s Kataline Kariko and Drew Weissman of the United States for their joint research that led to the rapid development of the mRNA COVID vaccines. The …

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Ukraine’s military said Thursday it destroyed 24 drones launched by Russian forces overnight. The Ukrainian air force said Russia sent a total of 29 drones in attacks directed at the Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kirohovrad regions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to attend a meeting of European leaders in Spain on Thursday as he seeks more support for his military, including air defense systems. Zelenskyy said ahead of the meeting that Ukraine is doing its best to boost its air defenses ahead of the coming winter season. “We are expecting certain decisions from our partners,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly …

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NATO’s most senior military official has warned that European ammunition stocks are running short – as the West continues to send large amounts of military aid to Ukraine to fend off invading Russian forces. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

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Pope Francis has opened a synod – or meeting of Roman Catholic bishops from all over the world – that, this time, includes lay people and women. A number of thorny issues are on the agenda over the next few weeks – all behind closed doors. With a solemn Mass in Saint Peter’s Square Wednesday, Pope Francis formally opened a four-week meeting that gathers 365 select members with voting rights, including lay people and not just bishops. It will also see women voting for the first time. No binding decisions will be made, but controversial topics are up for discussion …

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NATO’s most senior military official has warned that European ammunition stocks are running short as the West continues to send large amounts of military aid to Ukraine to fend off invading Russian forces.   Admiral Rob Bauer, who chairs the NATO Military Committee, said Europe needed to ramp up production as the war enters its 20th month.    “We now give away weapons systems to Ukraine, which is great, and ammunition — but not from full warehouses. We started to give away from half full or lower warehouses in Europe. And therefore, the bottom of the barrel is now visible, and …

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France has urged the public not to worry about reports of bedbug outbreaks on public transportation in Paris and throughout the country. At least 37 sightings of bedbugs on public transportation have been reported over the past few weeks by national rail operator SNCF, with a dozen additional reports made to Paris public transport operator RATP. French Transport Minister Clément Beaune said that each report had been checked out, and that none were proved to be true. “When there is a problem, we deal with it. We won’t deny it,” Beaune said. “There is no outbreak of bedbugs in public …

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The dog’s ribs are visible and her owner’s skeletal shoulders poke through a gray sweater. The dog’s name is Chalo, essentially “Spot” in Armenian, and the owner, 69, tells us to call her Tamar. She is a refugee in Armenia and wants her real name withheld for security reasons.  We meet her in a park hours after she arrives in Goris, Armenia, where workers man humanitarian tents in the last days of September for the 100,000-plus people fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh. Tamar brought her dog and a plastic shopping bag of belongings when she fled her home city, which, last week, was …

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The Serbian High Court Wednesday released from detention Milan Radoicic, a Kosovo Serb politician accused of illegal manufacturing and trafficking of firearms to Kosovo after he admitted involvement in a deadly shootout with Kosovo police.  Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have soared since Sept. 24, when around 30 armed Serbs barricaded themselves in a Serbian Orthodox monastery near the village of Banjska, in the predominantly Serb north of Kosovo. The incident ended in a shootout in which three attackers and a Kosovo police officer were killed.  In a statement, the court said it rejected a motion by the High Prosecutor’s …

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