Category: Євросоюз

Five people, including four children, died and dozens were rescued Monday in two separate incidents involving migrant boats heading to Greek islands from nearby Turkish shores, Greek authorities said. The coast guard said four people died and 18 were rescued after a boat carrying migrants apparently sank northeast of the Greek island of Lesbos, which is near the Turkish coast. Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said all four were children: an 8-year-old boy and three girls aged 14, 8 and 11 months. Coast guard spokesperson Nikos Alexiou said the incident occurred within Turkish territorial waters but the Turkish coast guard did …

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France will ban children from wearing the abaya, the loose-fitting, full-length robes worn by some Muslim women, in state-run schools, its education minister said on Sunday ahead of the back-to-school season. France, which has enforced a strict ban on religious signs in state schools since 19th century laws removed any traditional Catholic influence from public education, has struggled to update guidelines to deal with a growing Muslim minority. In 2004, it banned headscarves in schools and passed a ban on full face veils in public in 2010, angering some in its 5 million-strong Muslim community. Defending secularism is a rallying …

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The Venice Film Festival celebrates its 80th edition next week, but a Hollywood strike means many stars may be missing, leaving the spotlight to controversial directors like Roman Polanski and Woody Allen.     The festival, which kicks off on Wednesday, has become a key launchpad for Oscar campaigns, helped by glamorous shots of stars arriving by gondola.    But an ongoing strike by Hollywood actors and writers, the biggest industry walk-out in more than 60 years, means most are banned from publicity work.   Missing from their Venice premieres will be Emma Stone, who plays a Frankenstein-like creature in “Poor Things,” and Bradley …

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Yevgeny Prigozhin smiled as a crowd of adoring fans surrounded his black SUV on June 24 in Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don and cheered him on. “You rock!” fans shouted while taking selfies with the chief of the Wagner mercenary group, who was sitting in the vehicle after nightfall. “You’re a lion! Hang in there!” Prigozhin and his masked, camouflage-clad fighters were leaving the city after a daylong mutiny against the country’s military leadership. President Vladimir Putin decried it as “treason” and vowed punishment, but then cut a deal not to prosecute Prigozhin. Beyond that, his fate looked uncertain. Two …

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Pope Francis described his visit later this week to Mongolia, the first-ever pilgrimage by a pontiff to the east Asian country, as a much-desired occasion to encounter a “noble, wise” people.  Speaking to the public in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said Sunday the trip would also be an opportunity to embrace the Catholic community there, describing the church in Mongolia as “small in numbers but lively in faith and great in charity.” The pilgrimage is also an opportunity “to meet up close with a noble, wise people,” he said.  Francis departs Thursday, returning to Rome four days later. There are …

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Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the best high jumper in the war-torn country of Ukraine, won a gold medal Sunday night to bring an emotional close to the track and field world championships.  The very last person competing in the final event of the nine-day meet, Mahuchikh cleared 2.01 meters (6 feet, 7 inches) to win her first major outdoor title and set herself up as a favorite at the Olympics next year.  Her evening came to a close moments after Femke Bol of the Netherlands, whose fall on opening night cost her team a medal in the mixed 4×400 relay, made up …

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Russia says the remains of Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, were confirmed among the dead from a fatal plane crash last week in Russia. The country’s Investigative Committee said genetic testing verified his identity. The crash of the private jet came two months after Prigozhin led a failed uprising against the Kremlin. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

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Russian investigators said Sunday that genetic and forensic testing showed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner mercenary fighters in Ukraine, was among the 10 people killed in a plane crash last week in Russia. Russia’s aviation agency said the testing confirmed that a previously published list of names of the people on board the flight was accurate, and that Prigozhin, his top two lieutenants, Dmitry Utkin and Wagner logistics mastermind Valery Chekalov, were among the ten victims. There had been some questions, especially on pro-Wagner Telegram channels, about whether Prigozhin — who was known to take various security …

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Spain’s soccer federation will meet urgently on Monday as its president, Luis Rubiales, faces a FIFA suspension and a storm of criticism over allegations he gave a player an unwanted kiss on the lips following Spain’s victory in the Women’s World Cup. Rubiales has steadfastly refused to resign over the incident with player Jenni Hermoso last Sunday in Sydney, saying the kiss was consensual. Players and a string of coaches on the women’s squad are demanding he go, and the government also wants him out. The Royal Football Federation (RFEF) has called regional federations to an “extraordinary and urgent” meeting …

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More than 600 firefighters, including reinforcements from several European countries, backed by a fleet of water-dropping planes and helicopters were battling three persistent major wildfires in Greece Sunday, two of which have been raging for days. A massive blaze in the country’s northeastern regions of Evros and Alexandroupolis, believed to have caused the deaths of 20 people, was burning for a ninth day. The blaze, one of the largest single wildfires ever to have struck a European Union country, has decimated vast tracts of forest and burnt homes in the outlying areas of the city of Alexandroupolis. On Sunday, 295 …

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When Giorgia Meloni was running to become Italy’s first far-right head of government of the post-war era, she steeped her winning campaign in the sharply ideological rhetoric of national sovereignty, “traditional families” and fear of migrants. Since taking office in September, Premier Meloni has toned down the bombast reflected in the slogans she shouted last year at a rally in Spain for a far-right ally — ” Yes to natural families! No to LGBT lobbies!” But her government and her party’s lawmakers are still pursuing multiple far-right policies, including refusing to allow the names of some same-sex parents’ to be …

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A detachment of Russia’s navy warships returned from more than three weeks of joint patrolling of the Pacific Ocean with Chinese navy ships, the Russian Interfax news agency reported Sunday. Warships of Russia’s Pacific Fleet, together with a detachment of Chinese navy ships traveled more than 7,000 nautical miles through the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean, Interfax reported, citing the Fleet’s press service. During the patrol, the Russian-Chinese detachment passed along the Kuril ridge, the agency reported. The islands, off the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, are known in Russia as …

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Despite the killings of four of her colleagues for their reporting, Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko never considered that she had been poisoned when she fell ill on a train to Berlin. “When you work as an investigative reporter in Russia you are always careful,” she told Reuters. “You have lots of protocols you’re following all the time. But when I found myself in Europe, I totally forgot all these security measures.” German prosecutors are investigating whether Kostyuchenko, who is now living in hiding, was the victim of an attempted murder when she became ill last October. Her symptoms started with …

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Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has appealed a Moscow court’s decision to extend his pretrial detention in Russia until the end of November, according to documents on the court’s website.  The American journalist was arrested in March during a work trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, almost 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) east of Moscow. He is the first U.S. journalist since the Soviet era to be held on espionage charges in Russia.  An order that authorized keeping Gershkovich in jail before trial was set to expire on August 30. The Moscow City Court extended the custody order on Thursday …

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Fire department officials in Greece arrested two men Saturday for allegedly starting wildfires on purpose, while hundreds of firefighters battled blazes that have killed at least 21 people in the past week. One man was arrested on the Greek island of Evia for allegedly setting fire to dried grass in the Karystos area. The fire department said the man confessed to having set four other fires in the area in July and August. A second man arrested in the Larissa area of central Greece also was accused of intentionally setting fire to dried vegetation. Officials blamed arson for several fires …

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Russia’s military cooperation with Iran will not succumb to geopolitical pressure, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Saturday, following reports that Washington has asked Teheran to stop selling drones to Moscow. “There are no changes, and cooperation with Iran will continue,” Ryabkov said, according to a report Saturday from Russian state news agency RIA. “We are independent states and do not succumb to the dictates of the United States and its satellites.” The U.S. is pressing Iran to stop selling the armed drones, which Russia is using in the war in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported earlier this month, …

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Norway is rebuilding a dilapidated reindeer fence along its border with Russia in the Artic to stop the animals from wandering into the neighboring country — costly strolls for which Oslo has to compensate Moscow over loss of grassland. Norwegian officials said Thursday that so far this year, 42 reindeer have crossed into Russia seeking better pastures and grazing land. The reindeer barrier along the Norway-Russia border spans 150 kilometers (93 miles) and dates back to 1954. The Norwegian Agriculture Agency said a stretch of about 7 kilometers (4 miles) between the Norwegian towns of Hamborgvatnet and Storskog would be …

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Russia hopes to increase its marine product exports to China in the wake of China’s ban on Japanese seafood imports after the release of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. Russia is one of the biggest marine product suppliers to China, with 894 Russian companies allowed to export seafood, Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian food safety watchdog, said in July. In a statement late Friday, Rosselkhoznadzor said it was seeking to increase the number of exporters. “The Chinese market in general is promising for Russian fish products. We hope to increase the number of certified …

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The rescue ship Ocean Viking has saved 438 migrants in distress in the Mediterranean over the last two days, the organization that runs it, SOS Mediterranee, said Friday. The rescues took place in international waters off the coasts of Libya and Tunisia, the France-based NGO said. Earlier in the day, the NGO said that Thursday it had “rescued 272 people” of 23 different nationalities from three boats in the central Mediterranean, the most perilous maritime crossing in the world for the migrants. Those rescued included “32 unaccompanied minors, nine babies and five people with disabilities,” said the organization, which is …

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The United States on Friday accused China and Russia of blocking a unified U.N. Security Council response to North Korea’s missile launches, including Thursday’s attempt by Pyongyang to put a spy satellite in space.  During an emergency Security Council meeting, 13 of the 15 members — all but Moscow and Beijing — condemned Pyongyang’s second spy satellite test in three months, which used ballistic missile technology.  “This should be an issue that unifies us. … But since the beginning of 2022, this council has failed to live up to its commitments because of China’s and Russia’s obstructionism,” said U.S. Ambassador …

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