Category: Євросоюз

As parts of southeastern Turkey struggle to recover from last month’s earthquake, many are questioning why so many relatively modern buildings collapsed in the 7.8 magnitude tremor, with some engineers pointing the finger at Turkish government policy. ‘Liquefied’ buildings Piles of concrete and twisted metal tower over the roadsides in southeast Turkey’s worst-hit towns and cities. Bodies are still buried inside. More than 45,000 people died in the earthquake in Turkey, while the death toll in Syria is estimated at more than 6,000 people. The damage extends across 11 provinces in Turkey. Millions of metric tons of debris are slowly …

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European Union foreign ministers gathered Wednesday in Stockholm with a push to provide more ammunition to Ukrainian forces high on their agenda. Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur advocated for EU countries to provide money to jointly procure ammunition for Ukraine, arguing that effort will boost the capacity of the industry and help EU security in the future. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters that in addition to a joint effort to expand defense industry capacity, EU members should also in the short term provide ammunition quickly to Ukraine from their existing …

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will soon travel to the United States to meet with President Joe Biden amid reports the two leaders will unveil details of a trilateral defense pact among Australia, Britain and the U.S. first announced in 2021.  Prime Minister Albanese told reporters Wednesday before departing for India that he will travel to the U.S. after his three-day visit to the South Asian nation. But he would not confirm a report in The Sydney Morning Herald that he, Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will meet in San Diego next Monday to unveil details of the …

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Thousands of workers will join a nationwide strike on Wednesday in protest over Greece’s deadliest train disaster that killed 57 people, and mass demonstrations are expected to culminate outside parliament in Athens.  The crash on February 28 has stirred public outrage over the crumbling state of the Greek rail network, and striking workers say years of neglect, underinvestment and understaffing — a legacy of Greece’s decade-long debt crisis — are to blame.  Many of the around 350 people aboard an intercity passenger train that collided head-on with a freight train while traveling on the same track were university students heading to the northern …

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In March 1990, Lithuania became the first republic to break away from the Soviet Union by declaring itself an independent state, a decision the White House applauded. Thirty-three years later, this Baltic country of around 2.7 million people is making bold moves to counter China, the century’s rising global power, and finding support from Washington as the Biden administration seeks to leverage transatlantic partnerships amid Western fears that Beijing is considering supplying Russia with weapons in its war on Ukraine. High-level, bilateral consultations were held Tuesday in Washington between Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis and U.S. National Security Council Coordinator …

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Weeks after U.S. Ambassador to Estonia George Kent took up his new post in the country, he spoke to VOA about the future of U.S.-Estonia relations, how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected attitudes toward defense spending, and military cooperation, as well as NATO expansion. Kent is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and previously served as deputy assistant secretary in the European and Eurasian bureau at the U.S. State Department. He was also the former deputy chief of mission in Kyiv, Ukraine. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1992. Kent spoke this week with VOA Eastern …

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The United Nations’ top human rights official says the proliferation of crises brought on by conflict, climate change, poverty and discrimination are eroding people’s fundamental rights and freedoms and threatening the stability of nations worldwide.  In a brisk overview of recent human rights developments around the globe, Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, told delegates attending the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday that “one quarter of humanity is living today in places affected by violent conflict, and it is the civilians who suffer the most.”  He then launched into a critique of Russia’s war in Ukraine, …

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South Africa’s ruling ANC party has brushed aside criticism of a large donation it accepted from a mining company linked to a Russian oligarch under U.S. sanctions. Viktor Vekselberg is an investor in United Manganese of Kalahari Ltd, which last year donated $826,000 to help fund the ANC’s electoral conference. Critics say the donation undermines the party’s claim to a “neutral stance” on the Ukraine war and its refusal to criticize Russia’s invasion. The donation, worth 15 million rand in the local currency, was made public recently when South Africa’s electoral commission released a statement detailing funds received by political …

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Nearly sixty years after one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents, Spain has asked the United States to clean up tens of thousands of cubic meters of radioactive soil and end a controversial chapter of the Cold War. Madrid hopes that improved relations with Washington may make the U.S. honor a promise made in 2015 to cart off the contaminated soil. In 1966, a B-52 bomber lost four hydrogen bombs after it collided with a refueling aircraft over the village of Palomares in southern Spain. While the hydrogen bombs did not explode, two of them released plutonium, contaminating a two …

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Garbage collectors, utility workers and train drivers are among people walking off the job on Tuesday across France to show their anger at a bill raising the retirement age to 64, which unions see as a broader threat to the French social model.  More than 250 protests are expected in Paris and around the country in what organizers hope is their biggest show of force yet against President Emmanuel Macron’s showcase legislation, after nearly two months of demonstrations. The bill is under debate in the French Senate this week. Unions threatened to freeze up the French economy with work stoppages …

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Britain’s government will set out details for a new law barring the entry of asylum seekers to the UK in small boats, a proposal that some refugee charities say could be impractical and criminalize the efforts of thousands of genuine refugees. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping boat arrivals one of his five key priorities after the number of migrants arriving on the south coast of England soared to more than 45,000 last year, with around 90% applying for asylum. The new legislation will mean anyone who arrives on small boats will be prevented from claiming asylum and deported …

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New York is a city that never sleeps. But this New York, once known as Novgorodske, is in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. In its empty streets, half-abandoned buildings and dark cellars, the sound of cannons seems louder, even more frightening. Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are around, entrenched within a few kilometers of each other. The artillery never seems to stop. “I take barbiturates every night, but when the bombs start to fall too close, they just wear off, I don’t relax, I don’t rest, I don’t sleep,” Ianna Nikolaivna, 55, told VOA on a cold, sunny day in late February. Nikolaivna …

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The Italian health minister’s proposals to extend a smoking ban include the outdoor areas of bars and parks, according to details reported by local media, drawing the ire of right-wing Cabinet colleagues who labeled him a “communist.”  Minister Orazio Schillaci, a technocrat with no party affiliation, said in January he would crackdown on smoking, including e-cigarettes, which are being widely used by teenagers.  The new rules will include the outside areas of bars and at public transport stops, La Stampa newspaper reported on Monday. The prohibition will also be extended to parks if pregnant women and children are present, it …

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Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was handed a 15-year jail term Monday after being convicted in absentia for treason and “conspiracy to seize power,” a verdict she said was punishment for her efforts to promote democracy.  Tsikhanouskaya, 40, a former English teacher, fled to neighboring Lithuania in 2020 after running against incumbent leader Alexander Lukashenko in a presidential election, which official results showed Lukashenko won by a landslide.  She and the opposition said at the time that the results had been doctored to hand victory to Lukashenko instead of herself. Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand …

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Several hundred thousand Russian citizens are thought to have fled their home country since February 2022, when the Kremlin launched the invasion of Ukraine. Critics of the war face imprisonment for “discrediting” the Russian military. Henry Ridgwell spoke to a Russian artist who has found sanctuary in London, and whose latest work addresses the war in Ukraine. …

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Turkey’s right wing IYI Party has proposed that the mayors of Ankara and Istanbul serve as vice presidents if the opposition wins the May election, a spokesperson said Monday, after the party left the main opposition alliance last week. The suggestion could pave the way for IYI to return to the bloc. IYI, which was the second-biggest party in the alliance of six parties, exited the group last week after its leader Meral Aksener rejected the expected nomination of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) as the bloc’s presidential candidate. Instead she had proposed that …

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Azerbaijani troops and ethnic Armenians exchanged gunfire on Sunday in Azerbaijan’s contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, killing at least five people, according to reports from Azerbaijan and Armenia.  Nagorno-Karabakh was the focal point of two wars that have pitted Azerbaijan against Armenia in the more than 30 years since both ex-Soviet states have achieved attendance.  Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said two servicemen were killed in an exchange of fire after Azerbaijani troops stopped a convoy it suspected of carrying weapons from the region’s main town to outlying areas. It said the convoy had used an unauthorized road.  Armenia’s foreign ministry said three …

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Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’s center-right Reform Party won Estonia’s general election by a wide margin on Sunday, according to near-complete results, beating out a far-right rival that had campaigned against further arms deliveries to Ukraine.    Reform won 31.6 percent of the vote, with right-wing runners-up EKRE taking 16 percent. In order to stay in power, Reform will again have to form a coalition with one or more of the parties in the Baltic state’s 101-seat parliament.     The Centre Party secured 14.7 percent of Sunday’s ballot, Estonia 200 got 13.5 percent, the Social Democrats received 9.4 percent and the Isamaa (Fatherland) …

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Industrial action in France over the government’s planned pensions overhaul will cause heavy disruption to public transport again on Tuesday, the transport minister and several public transport authorities said Sunday. For the sixth time since the start of the year, unions are calling for a nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations, aiming to repeat the large turnout seen on the first major protest Jan. 19 when more than a million people marched against the pension reform. “There will be very strong impacts,” Transport Minister Clement Beaune said in an interview with France 3 TV, adding that he expected the strike …

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Voters in Estonia elected a new parliament Sunday with initial results suggesting the center-right Reform Party of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, one of Europe’s most outspoken supporters of Ukraine, had won overwhelmingly with nearly all votes counted. Kallas faced a challenge from the far-right populist EKRE party, which seeks to limit the Baltic nation’s exposure to the Ukraine crisis and blames the current government for Estonia’s high inflation rate. Nine political parties in all fielded candidates for Estonia’s 101-seat parliament, or Riigikogu. Over 900,000 people were eligible to vote in the general election, and nearly half voted in advance. With …

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