Category: Євросоюз

Washington — On a quiet May morning, two months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the homepage of Kremlin-owned news website Lenta.ru was flooded with anti-war and anti-government articles. The articles disappeared from the webpage within the hour, but because of the effort of internet archivists, they can still be viewed separately today.  This is one of many examples of the Russian government’s attacks on free media, one that activists and archivists hope to counter. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, almost all independent media has been banned or blocked, and journalists are frequently …

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Since 2015, one of America’s oldest eye clinics, Wills Eye Hospital, has been helping wounded Ukrainian soldiers with severe head or face injuries get their vision back. For one surgeon with Ukrainian roots, the work is personal. Iryna Solomko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Pavlo Terekhov. …

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Budapest — Ukraine’s new foreign minister held a “frank” conversation with his Hungarian counterpart on “difficult issues” on Monday, against a backdrop of a frosty relationship between the neighboring countries. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been the only EU leader to maintain close ties with the Kremlin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He has repeatedly stalled efforts to punish Moscow and to aid war-torn Ukraine in its fight against the invading forces. Budapest refuses to approve the release of more than $7.25 billion to Kyiv, complaining about discriminatory measures against Hungarian companies. “We had a very frank …

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VIENNA — Picknicking with friends in the park after prayers at a Vienna mosque, Saima Arab, a 20-year-old pedicurist originally from Afghanistan, is thankful for her freedoms in Austria. “We could never do this in Afghanistan, never cook, go out, just sit in public like this,” said Arab, who came to Austria in 2017. “Home is like a prison there.” Many Austrians, however, are worried about their country’s ability to integrate migrants, especially Muslims, and their desire for stricter immigration laws was a key issue in Sunday’s election which gave victory to the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) for the first time. …

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Moscow — Russia announced Sunday that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will meet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on Monday. The announcement came as Russia has condemned Israel’s “political murder” of Iran-backed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. Mishustin will hold talks with Pezeshkian and First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, the government statement said. “It is planned to discuss the full range of Russian-Iranian cooperation in the trade and economic and cultural and humanitarian spheres,” Russia said.   The talks will focus on “carrying out large joint projects in fields involving transport energy, industry and agriculture,” the statement added.   …

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HELSINKI — Norway may put a fence along part or all the 198-kilometer (123-mile) border it shares with Russia, a minister said, a move inspired by a similar project in its Nordic neighbor Finland. “A border fence is very interesting, not only because it can act as a deterrent but also because it contains sensors and technology that allow you to detect if people are moving close to the border,” Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said in an interview with the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK published late Saturday. She said the Norwegian government is currently looking at “several measures” to beef …

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Lisbon — Thousands of protesters waving Portuguese flags and roaring the national anthem rallied in Lisbon on Sunday to express their anger at “illegal” and “uncontrolled” immigration. The demonstrators marched behind banners demanding the “end of mass immigration” and the expulsion of immigrants guilty of crimes, at the protest called by the far-right Chega party, the country’s third-largest political force. Immigration is “very good” but “rules are needed,” said Cecilia Guimaraes, a 66-year-old teacher whose parents emigrated to Canada.  “We emigrated legally. That’s how it should happen in a developed country,” she told AFP, complaining of a rise in insecurity she …

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Berlin — A man has been arrested after allegedly setting two fires in the western German city of Essen that left 30 people injured and driving a van into two shops, authorities said Sunday.  Emergency services were alerted to two fires in residential buildings in quick succession shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday, police said. The injured people included eight children who were seriously hurt, and two of them were in a life-threatening condition after inhaling smoke.  Shortly after the fires broke out, a van drove into two shops in the city, causing damage to property but no injuries. The suspect then …

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Puerto de la Estaca, Spain — Rescue teams on Sunday resumed searching for at least 48 migrants who went messing the day before when their boat overturned just as it was being rescued off Spain’s Canary Islands, killing at least nine people. Hopes of finding survivors were slim as sea rescue teams searched the waters off El Hierro, an island in the Atlantic archipelago. It is the latest in a series of such disasters off the coast of Africa. “The search operation is resuming,” Spain’s maritime rescue organisation told AFP. The 48 are “presumed dead,” Canaries regional president Fernando Clavijo told …

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KYIV — More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia Sunday, officials said, sparking a wildfire and setting an apartment block alight in one of the largest barrages seen over Russian skies since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that it had shot down 125 drones overnight across seven regions. The southwestern region of Volgograd came under particularly heavy fire, with 67 Ukrainian drones reportedly downed by Russian air defenses. Seventeen drones were also seen over Russia’s Voronezh region, where falling debris damaged an apartment block and a private home, said local governor Aleksandr …

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KRITZENDORF, Austria — While shoveling mud out of gardens almost two weeks after torrential flooding battered the small Austrian town of Kritzendorf, Abulhkeem Alshater gestures towards a banner: “Austro-Syrians say: Thank you, Austria.”  Alshater, 45, originally from Homs, Syria, has been working with dozens of his countryfolk to help clean up the mess left by floods. The work is a gesture of gratitude to Austria at a time when immigration has become a hot topic in Sunday’s general election.  Alshater hopes the sight of Syrians devoting time and energy to bring relief to the hard-hit state of Lower Austria will take …

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MUNICH — The head brewmaster for Weihenstephan, the world’s oldest brewery, has a secret: He really likes alcohol-free beer. Even though he’s quick to say he obviously enjoys real beer more, Tobias Zollo says he savors alcohol-free beer when he’s working or eating lunch. It has the same taste but fewer calories than a soft drink, he said, thanks to the brewery’s process of evaporating the alcohol. “You can’t drink beer every day — unfortunately,” he joked last week at the Bavarian state brewery in the German town of Freising, about 30 kilometers north of Munich. Zollo isn’t alone in his …

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VIENNA — Austrians elect a new parliament Sunday with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) aiming to secure its first general election win in a neck-and-neck race with the ruling conservatives that has been dominated by economic worries and immigration. Having led opinion polls for months, the FPO’s edge over the Austrian People’s Party (OVP) has shrunk to almost nothing as Chancellor Karl Nehammer casts himself as a statesman and depicts his rival, FPO leader Herbert Kickl, as a toxic menace. Whoever wins will fall well short of an absolute majority, polls show but claim the right to lead a coalition government. …

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UNITED NATIONS — European, Arab and Islamic nations have launched an initiative to strengthen support for a Palestinian state and prepare for a future after the war in Gaza and escalating conflict in Lebanon, Norway’s foreign minister said Friday. Espen Barth Eide told The Associated Press that “there is a growing consensus in the international community from Western countries, from Arab countries, from the Global South, that we need to establish a Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian government, a Palestinian state — and the Palestinian state has to be recognized.” Eide said many issues need to be addressed, including the security interests …

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paris — Hundreds of people came out Saturday in Paris, marching in support of the right to abortion for women across the world, just six months after France became the first country to guarantee in its constitution a woman’s right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy.  The protest, organized by civil society groups to mark International Safe Abortion Day, also called for greater and easier access to abortion in France, denouncing budget cuts, staff reductions and the closure of abortion centers and maternity wards, which organizers say all contribute to penalizing women.  Sarah Durocher, president of France’s not-for-profit family planning services, said …

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united nations — Russia’s foreign minister reinforced the Kremlin’s disagreements with the West in his United Nations General Assembly remarks Saturday and showed no interest in a genuine peace with Ukraine.  “I’m not going to talk here about the senselessness and the danger of the very idea of trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power, which is what Russia is,” Sergey Lavrov said.  Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin revised his government’s nuclear doctrine, in a clear attempt to discourage the West from lifting its restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons to strike inside Russian territory.  Lavrov dismissed …

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Madrid — A boat carrying migrants capsized off Spain’s Canary Islands overnight, killing at least nine people and leaving 48 missing, the national maritime rescue service said Saturday. Eighty-four people were on board and 27 were saved after rescuers responded to a distress call received shortly after midnight from off El Hierro, one of the islands in the Atlantic archipelago, a statement said. This follows the death of 39 migrants in early September when their boat sank off Senegal while attempting a similar crossing to the Canaries, from where migrants hope to reach mainland Europe. Thousands of migrants have died in …

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United Nations — China ‘s Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Saturday against the expansion of the war in Ukraine, which has accused Beijing of assisting Russia in its war. Kyiv has been particularly scornful of Beijing’s calls for talks to resolve the conflict, but Wang reiterated China ‘s offer to help broker an end to fighting. “The top priority is to commit to no expansion of the battlefield, no escalation of fighting, and no provocation by any party, and push for de-escalation of the situation as soon as possible,” he told the U.N. General Assembly. “China is committed to playing a …

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Islamabad — Taliban leaders in Afghanistan have defended their Islamist rule amid intensified accusations of “gender-based” discrimination against women and girls at this week’s U.N. General Assembly. “The situation is not as it is portrayed and propagated abroad,” Maulavi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban deputy prime minister for political affairs, asserted in an interview with an Afghan television channel aired Friday. Kabir’s comments came a day after nearly two dozen countries jointly supported Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia in their initiative to hold the Taliban accountable for their alleged campaign to systematically exclude women from public life since the Taliban regained …

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