Category: Євросоюз

“We thought we could die.” The Russian invasion had just begun when Nancy Pelosi made a surprise visit to Ukraine, the House speaker then the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to lead a congressional delegation to Kyiv. Pelosi and the lawmakers were ushered under the cloak of secrecy into the capital city, an undisclosed passage that even to this day she will not divulge. “It was very, it was dangerous,” Pelosi told The Associated Press before Sunday’s one-year anniversary of that trip. “We never feared about it, but we thought we could die because we’re visiting a serious, serious war zone,” …

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A walrus that became a global celebrity last year after it was seen frolicking and basking in a Oslo fjord before it was euthanized by the authorities has been honored with a bronze sculpture in Norway.  The life-size sculpture by Norwegian artist Astri Tonoian was unveiled Saturday at the Oslo marina not far from the place where the actual 600-kilogram (1,300-pound) mammal was seen resting and relaxing during the summer of 2022.  The walrus, named Freya, quickly became a popular attraction among Oslo residents but Norwegian authorities later made a decision to euthanize it — causing public outrage — because …

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Wednesday that Beijing will send an envoy to Ukraine to discuss a possible “political settlement” to Russia’s war with the country. Beijing has previously avoided involvement in conflicts between other countries but appears to be trying to assert itself as a global diplomatic force after arranging talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March that led them to restore diplomatic relations after a seven-year break. Xi told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call that a Chinese envoy, a former Chinese ambassador to Russia, would visit Ukraine and “other countries” to discuss a possible …

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The European Commission said Friday that it had reached a deal in principle to allow the transit of Ukrainian grain to resume through five European Union countries that had imposed restrictions. Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia cited concerns that grain from Ukraine meant to be exported to other countries had ended up in their local markets, which was pushing down prices for local farmers. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis tweeted that the EU executive had reached “an agreement in principle” with the five “to address concerns of both farmers in neighboring EU countries and Ukraine.” He said the …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled his election appearances for a third day Friday after falling ill with what officials described as an intestinal infection. Erdogan, who has governed Turkey for two decades as prime minister and then president, is seeking a third presidential term in Turkey’s May 14 elections. He had been due to appear at a bridge opening and a political rally in the southern city of Adana, but his schedule changed to show he would attend the opening ceremony via video link. Erdogan spoke by phone Friday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on several matters, including the …

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Four Kurdish journalists appeared in court in Turkey this week, accused of having ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). JinNews reporter Beritan Canozer, journalist Remzi Akkaya, Mesopotamia News Agency (MA) editor Abdurrahman Gok, and MA reporter Mehmet Sah Oruc were taken into custody in coordinated dawn raids Tuesday, in which Turkish police detained at least 128 people in 21 cities. Among those detained are 10 journalists, a lawyer representing arrested Kurdish journalists in other court cases, and members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third-biggest party in the Turkish parliament. HDP faces a party closure case in …

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Pope Francis, starting a trip to Hungary, pointedly warned Friday of the dangers of rising nationalism in Europe and told the Budapest government that accepting migrants along with the rest of the continent would be a true sign of Christianity.  In a hard-hitting speech to government leaders — including Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has had a series of run-ins with the European Union — Francis also urged a rejection of “self-referential forms of populism” and strictly nationalist interests.  Francis called for a return to the “European soul” envisioned by those who laid the groundwork for modern Europe after World …

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Pope Francis arrived in Hungary on Friday. During his three-day visit, he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Francis will also preside over an open-air Mass on Sunday in front of parliament. Francis’ visit occurs as Europe is experiencing a migrant crisis and the war in Ukraine. He is expected to address both issues during his visit and he is scheduled to meet with some Ukrainians who fled their homes after Russia’s invasion. Orban famously erected a razor wire fence in 2015 to keep Serbs out of Hungary, but he has welcomed Ukrainians. However, unlike some of …

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BBC Chairman Richard Sharp resigned on Friday after an independent report found he had breached public appointment rules by not disclosing potential conflict of interest in his role in securing a $1 million loan for the then-prime minister, Boris Johnson. His exit comes at a time of heightened political scrutiny of the British public broadcaster. A high-profile dispute with highly paid presenter Gary Lineker over neutrality dominated headlines in Britain last month. Sharp, a former Goldman Sachs banker who became BBC chairman in 2021, had been under pressure since February when a committee of lawmakers said he had made “significant …

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NATO allies have delivered almost all promised combat vehicles to Ukraine, including more than 1550 armored vehicles and 230 tanks. Russia has canceled this year’s Russian International Army Games.  The British Defense Ministry said Russia “has likely canceled the games mainly because it is concerned the event would be seen as frivolous in wartime.” Russia launched missile attacks early Friday on cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, the capital. At least five people were killed in the strikes, a mother and her 3-year-old in Dnipro, plus three people in the central city of Uman, where eight people were wounded. The damage …

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Reports emerged this week that the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group could be supplying weapons to one of the warring parties in the conflict in Sudan. Salem Solomon has the story with Patsy Widakuswara contributing. …

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 A Ukrainian journalist working with an Italian newspaper was shot dead by suspected Russian snipers in southern Ukraine on Wednesday. His Italian colleague was injured, the paper reported. “Our correspondent Corrado Zunino and his fixer Bohdan Bitik were victims of an ambush near the bridge in Kherson by Russian snipers on the outskirts of Kherson, in southern Ukraine,” the daily newspaper La Repubblica reported Wednesday in an article on its website. “Bitik unfortunately did not make it and died; he leaves behind his wife and a son. Corrado, who was wounded in the shoulder, is in the civil hospital in …

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Pakistan said Thursday that it is buying discounted Russian crude oil with the implicit approval of the United States and the first shipment is expected to arrive in the country soon. Masood Khan, the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., made the remarks at a conference in Washington organized by the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute on the future of relations between the two countries. “We have placed the first order for Russian oil, and this has been done in consultation with the United States government. There’s no misunderstanding between Washington and Islamabad on this count,” Khan said. The top diplomat …

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Germany is condemning as “unacceptable” the death sentence handed down in Iran against Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German dual citizen and opposition figure accused of masterminding a deadly 2008 bombing of a mosque in Shiraz. Sharmahd’s U.S.-based family vehemently denies the charges. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock questioned the proceedings in the case and wrote in a tweet that Sharmahd never had “even the semblance of a fair trial.” She asked Iran to reverse the death sentence immediately. Iran’s Supreme Court this week upheld the death sentence that was issued by a lower court. Baerbock said Germany’s ambassador to Iran had …

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A new poll shows that the war in Ukraine has hurt not only Russian efforts on the front lines but also the country’s reputation worldwide. Maxim Moskalkov has the story. Camera: Aleksandr Bergan. …

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A Russian court on Thursday fined the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, two million rubles ($24,510) for not deleting what it said was “banned content” related to the Russian military, Interfax reported. It said this was the seventh fine imposed on Wikimedia in 2023 for not removing prohibited information. The fines now total 8.4 million rubles. The latest penalty was for not removing an article about a military unit that contained “classified military information” about its location, composition and equipment, including information related to the progress of what Russia calls its special military operation in Ukraine. Wikimedia did not immediately …

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One dead, 23 wounded in Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s Mykolaiv – officials NATO allies, partners have given 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks to Ukraine: NATO Chief Stoltenberg welcomes Xi’s call with Zelenskyy but says it doesn’t change the fact that China has still not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine British defense ministry says imagery shows that by March 2023, Russian forces had established sandbag fighting positions on the roofs of several of the six reactor buildings at Zaporizhzhia A Russian missile strike on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv early Thursday has killed one person and injured 23 others. …

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The humanitarian suffering created by Russia’s war on Ukraine has been accompanied by an economic shock that resonates globally, driving up food and energy prices on distant continents. With Russia’s shelling of energy infrastructure and industrial plants, its destruction of cities, mining and agricultural sites, Ukraine lost a third of its economic output in 2022 as 8 million people fell into poverty — a 15-year setback in poverty reduction goals, according to World Bank data. Even so, Ukraine’s government continues to function, making social and compensation payments, conducting emergency repairs of heating and electrical grids struck by Russian missiles in …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced he was canceling a day of election campaigning Wednesday to rest at home, a day after he was forced to briefly interrupt a television interview over what he said was a stomach complaint. Erdogan was being interviewed live by Turkey’s Ulke TV and Kanal 7 stations late Tuesday when the program was suddenly stopped. When the interview resumed around 20 minutes later, Erdogan, 69, explained that he had developed a serious “stomach flu” while campaigning and apologized for the interruption. The president, who was scheduled to make a series of appearances in the cities …

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Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny said Wednesday that he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for life, as authorities set the stage for a new trial against the Kremlin’s leading critic.  Navalny said by video link from prison during the hearing that the extremism charges which he rejected as “absurd” could land him in prison for 30 years. He noted that an investigator had told him he also would face a separate military court trial on terrorism charges that could potentially carry a life sentence, adding on a sardonic note that the …

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