Category: Євросоюз

Europe’s top rights court said Tuesday condemned Russia for failing to properly investigate the 2020 poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny which the West says was an assassination bid. The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Russia had notably failed “to explore the allegations of a possible political motive for the attempted murder, as well as possible involvement of state agents,” unanimously finding Russia had violated the European Convention on Human Rights. It said Russia had refused to open criminal proceedings into the poisoning, which led to Navalny falling into a coma and being put on life support. …

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An overwhelming sound of gunfire and men’s screams. That’s how World War II veteran Marie Scott described D-Day, as Tuesday’s ceremonies got underway in honor of those who fought for freedom in the largest naval, air and land operation in history. This year’s tribute to the young soldiers who died in Normandy also reminds veterans, officials and visitors what Ukraine faces today. On Tuesday, the whistling sound of the wind accompanied many reenactors who came to Omaha Beach at dawn to mark the 79th anniversary of the assault that led to the liberation of France and Western Europe from Nazi …

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Latest developments: Britain’s defense ministry said Tuesday that during the previous 48 hours “there has been a substantial increase in fighting along numerous sectors of the front, including those which have been relatively quiet for several months.” Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican said he hopes a visit from Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the pope’s peace envoy, will help in “finding appropriate answers” in the name of “just peace.” Ukraine and Russia accused each other of blowing up a major dam Tuesday near Kherson in southern Ukraine. The destruction of the Kakhovka dam in an area of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces …

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A new management team could be announced at Slovenia’s public broadcaster RTV in the coming weeks, as a new law takes effect. On Monday, a newly formed RTV Council — which has the power to name RTV SLO’s chief executive and approve production plans — met for the first time. The body was unable to meet until the Constitutional Court issued its ruling on some parts of the law, the Act on RTV Slovenia, that were being contested.  Passed by Slovenia’s center-left government, the law is designed to protect public media from political interference. The reform also restructures the management …

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While U.S. military officers here caution against too direct a comparison between the 1944 D-Day landings and Ukraine’s upcoming counteroffensive, the echoes of what Kyiv faces today are a dominant theme of this year’s commemorations of the young U.S. soldiers who died on the Normandy beaches nearly 80 years ago.  For days the villages and towns surrounding Omaha and Utah beaches have held parades, memorial events, flyovers and parachute demonstrations to build up to the annual celebration of D-Day, the launch of Operation Overlord. The June 6, 1944, invasion marked the beginning of the Allies’ massive ground invasion which would …

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Chinese research on some key military technologies is so far ahead that the United States and its key allies may never be able to catch up, according to a new analysis by an Australian think tank. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) issued its findings Tuesday based on a review of the top 10% of the most highly cited research papers, concluding China leads in 19 of 23 key categories, including some that are likely to play a major role in Beijing’s push for military prominence in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. China “has a commanding lead in hypersonics, electronic warfare …

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Moscow announced that journalists from what it deems “unfriendly countries” would not be allowed to attend this year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, marking the latest move by the Kremlin to hinder Western journalists from covering Russia.  Held annually since 1997, the economic forum is considered Russia’s version of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. President Vladimir Putin uses the forum, one of the country’s showpiece events, to advertise Russia’s economy to global investors. This year the forum will be held June 14-17. Western journalists have never been banned from covering the forum in such a sweeping way, according to Reuters. …

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Latest developments: In a meeting with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in Kyiv on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed preparations for a NATO summit and Ukraine’s plan for ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden is hosting talks Monday with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen that are expected to include discussion of support for Ukraine and training of Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation fighter jets.   Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had retaken part of a village near Bakhmut, Ukraine, after his Wagner paramilitary group handed its positions there to the regular Russian …

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Prince Harry’s highly anticipated showdown against the publisher of the Daily Mirror kicked off Monday without him present in court — and the judge was not happy. Harry’s lawyer said the Duke of Sussex would be unavailable to testify following opening statements because he’d taken a flight from Los Angeles after the birthday of his 2-year-old daughter, Lilibet, on Sunday. “I’m a little surprised,” Justice Timothy Fancourt said, noting he had directed Harry to be in court for the first day of his case. Mirror Group Newspaper’s lawyer, Andrew Green, said he was “deeply troubled” by Harry’s absence on the …

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 PARIS (AP) — France’s beloved abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel has reached a ripe old age. It’s been 1,000 years since the laying of its first stone.  The millennial of the UNESCO World Heritage site and key Normandy tourism magnet is being celebrated until November with exhibits, dance shows and concerts. French President Emmanuel Macron is heading there on Monday.  Macron plans to deliver a speech and to see a new exhibit tracing the Romanesque abbey’s history via 30 objects and pieces, including a restored statue of Saint Michael.   Legend has it that the archangel Michael appeared in 708, duly instructing the …

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Among the thousands of fans in the stands at Europe’s biggest soccer games are a few people operating undercover. Trained volunteer observers listen for racist chants and watch for extremist symbols on banners. “You have to be aware of the environment and fit in without standing out. You have to be discreet,” one observer, who has worked at games involving some of soccer’s best-known clubs and national teams, told The Associated Press. “Obviously nothing gets published on social media. You have to be anonymous. You have to just sort of blend in. Don’t engage in conversations with anybody.” A way …

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The life of a German Iranian detained in Iran is in danger and she is in such pain she can barely move, a fellow prisoner who is a prominent rights activist said Sunday. Nahid Taghavi, 68, was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in jail in August 2021 after being arrested at her Tehran apartment in October 2020, and is being held in solitary confinement at Tehran’s Evin prison. Even after recent releases, more than a dozen Western passport holders remain detained in Iran, held according to rights groups as part of a deliberate policy of hostage-taking by Tehran …

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Latest developments: A 2-year-old girl was killed and 22 other injured, five of them children, from a Russian missile strike near the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor, Serhiy Lysak, said Sunday. “Overnight, the body of a girl who had just turned two was pulled from under the rubble of a house,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging channel. Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate response from Moscow. Saudi Arabia plans new oil production cuts in 2024 as part of a broader OPEC+ deal to curb output as the group faces flagging oil …

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Tour de France organizers have set up an anti-COVID protocol for this year’s race, with riders and team staff banned from signing autographs and eating out of their hotels, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters Saturday.  Riders and staff members were allowed out of their hotels last year. Access to the paddock at the start of the stages was open to reporters until midway through the race, when organizers decided to close it to “fight against the propagation of COVID-19.”  Access to the paddock will be allowed when the Tour starts in Bilbao, Spain, on June …

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A fire at a refugee shelter in eastern Germany killed one person and injured 10 others early Sunday, according to local police.  Police in the German state of Thuringia said the fire broke out around 5 a.m. local time at a facility in the city of Apolda and that one body was recovered from the burned building.  A 9-year-old child was reported missing, police said. They did not say if the recovered body belonged to a child.  Writing on Twitter, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the incident “terrible news.” She confirmed an investigation was under way to determine the …

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Turkey, Sweden and Finland will meet later this month to try to overcome objections that have delayed Sweden’s NATO membership bid, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday after meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey in March ratified Finland’s bid for membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but still objects to Sweden joining the alliance, as does Hungary. Turkey has said Stockholm harbors members of militant groups it considers to be terrorists. “Sweden has taken significant concrete steps to meet Turkey’s concerns,” Stoltenberg told reporters, referring to a constitutional change by Sweden and its stepping up of counter-terrorism cooperation …

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Thousands gathered in Warsaw on Sunday, the 34th anniversary of Poland’s first postwar democratic election, for a protest march the liberal opposition has billed as a test of its ability to end nearly eight years of nationalist rule later this year. Opinion polls show an election due after the summer will be closely fought, with Russia’s war in neighboring Ukraine giving a boost to the Law and Justice (PiS) government which has emerged as a leading voice against the Kremlin in Europe. The opposition has struggled to galvanize support despite widespread criticism at home and abroad of the PiS, which …

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President Tayyip Erdogan signaled Saturday his newly elected government would return to more orthodox economic policies when he named Mehmet Simsek to his Cabinet to tackle Turkey’s cost-of-living crisis and other strains. Simsek’s appointment as treasury and finance minister could set the stage for interest rate hikes in the coming months, analysts said, a marked turnaround from Erdogan’s longstanding policy of slashing rates despite soaring inflation. After winning a runoff election last weekend, Erdogan, 69, who has ruled for more than two decades, began his new five-year term by calling on Turks to set aside differences and focus on the …

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Kaija Saariaho, who wrote acclaimed works that made her the among the most prominent composers of the 21st century, died Friday. She was 70.  Saariaho died at her apartment in Paris, her family said in a statement posted on her Facebook page. She had been diagnosed in February 2021 with glioblastoma, an aggressive and incurable brain tumor.  “The multiplying tumors did not affect her cognitive facilities until the terminal phase of her illness,” the statement said. Her family said Saariaho had undergone experimental treatment at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris.  “Kaija’s appearance in a wheelchair or walking with a cane have …

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Green and other groups have given mixed reviews to the sometimes-rocky talks on eradicating plastic pollution, which ended Saturday in Paris with an agreement to write the first draft of a groundbreaking global treaty. The deal reached after five days of negotiations in the French capital sees a rough-cut “zero draft” produced before representatives of 175 countries next meet in Nairobi in November — with goals for a legally binding ban in force by 2025. “It will happen, it must happen, because we all don’t want plastic pollution in our territories, or in the oceans or anywhere,” Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, executive …

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