Category: Євросоюз

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited Kyiv, Ukraine, this week, where they announced nearly $1.5 billion in additional aid. Kyiv in turn requested the two nations lift restrictions on using Western weapons to strike targets in Russia. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports. Lesia Bakalets contributed to this report. (Camera: Daniil Batushchak, Vladyslav Smilynets) …

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WARSAW, Poland — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with senior Polish government officials on Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia and deepening U.S. defense cooperation with Warsaw. Washington’s top diplomat travels to NATO ally Poland following a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, where he heard Ukrainian officials’ appeals to be allowed to fire Western-supplied missiles deep into Russian territory. Blinken is scheduled to meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, President Andrzej Duda and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, according to their offices. More than 2-1/2 years since Russia’s invasion began, Ukrainian forces are …

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washington — The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program remains in limbo with another court hearing set for October 10. Judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on the case, initiated in 2018 by Texas and other Republican-led states seeking to end DACA. The program offers temporary protection from deportation and work permits to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children who are often referred to as “Dreamers.” The case centers on whether DACA exceeds presidential authority, immigration advocates from the coalition “Home is Here” said during a recent conversation with …

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MOSCOW — A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American blasted off Wednesday for an express trip to the International Space Station.  The space capsule atop a towering rocket set off at 1623 GMT from Russia’s manned space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and was scheduled to dock with the space station three hours later, in contrast to some missions that last for days.  The mission commander is Alexei Ovchinin, with Russian compatriot Ivan Vagner and American Donald Pettit in the crew.  The blast-off took place without obvious problems and the Soyuz entered orbit eight minutes after liftoff, a relief …

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London — Support for far-right figures among young voters appears to be growing in several European countries. Much of the focus is on Germany, where the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is hoping to secure another victory in the upcoming Brandenburg state election in the east of the country on September 22.  AfD secured a resounding victory in the Thuringia state election earlier this month, winning 32.8% of the vote, well ahead of second-place Christian Democrats at 23.6%.  It was the first time the far right had won a state election since the end of World War II in 1945.  “More …

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LONDON/DAKAR — Among the dozens of Wagner mercenaries presumed dead after a lethal battle with Tuareg rebels during a desert sandstorm in Mali in July were Russian war veterans who survived tours in Ukraine, Libya and Syria, according to interviews with relatives and a review of social media data. The loss of such experienced fighters exposes dangers faced by Russian mercenary forces working for military juntas, which are struggling to contain separatists and powerful offshoots of Islamic State and Al Qaeda across the arid Sahel region in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The Mali defeat raises doubts over whether Moscow, which …

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Przemysl, Poland — The top U.S. and British diplomats headed together into Ukraine on Wednesday to discuss further easing rules on firing Western weapons into Russia, whose alleged acquisition of Iranian missiles has raised new fears. In a rare joint trip, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was taking the train to Kyiv with Foreign Secretary David Lammy, whose 2-month-old Labor government has vowed to keep up Britain’s role as a key defender of Ukraine. The pair, who boarded the train early Wednesday at the Polish border town of Przemysl, are expected to meet in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, …

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LONDON — Google lost its last bid to overturn a European Union antitrust penalty, after the bloc’s top court ruled against it Tuesday in a case that came with a whopping fine and helped jumpstart an era of intensifying scrutiny for Big Tech companies. The European Union’s top court rejected Google’s appeal against the $2.7 billion penalty from the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, for violating antitrust rules with its comparison shopping service. Also Tuesday, Apple lost its challenge against an order to repay $14.34 billion in back taxes to Ireland, after the European Court of Justice issued …

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WASHINGTON — A controversial law on “foreign influence transparency” is heading toward full implementation in Georgia, even though the country aspires to join the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. September 2 was the deadline for Georgian nongovernmental organizations and media organizations receiving more than one-fifth of their funding from abroad to register as “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power.” Only 1.6% of the country’s organizations chose to do so. Many organizations expect they will be forced to register and fined for allegedly serving foreign interests. Georgia’s so-called “foreign agent” law has been labeled a “Russian-style law” and …

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Taipei, Taiwan — Russia and China are holding a series of joint military naval and air force exercises this month in a bid to deepen ties and counter increased security coordination between the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific region, analysts say.  “Russia wants to demonstrate that they can engage in a full-scale war with Ukraine while deploying resources to the Indo-Pacific region and China wants to show that they can deepen its relationship with Russia and cause problems in the region, primarily in the South China Sea but also around Japan,” said Stephen Nagy, a regional security expert …

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London — The United States and Britain formally accused Iran on Tuesday of supplying short-range ballistic missiles to Russia to use in the war in Ukraine, and said they will take measures to punish those involved. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking alongside British Foreign Secretary David Lammy during a visit to London, said that sanctions would be announced later Tuesday. “Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine, against Ukrainians,” Blinken said. “The supply of Iranian missiles enables Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets that are …

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London — Google lost its final legal challenge on Tuesday against a European Union penalty for giving its own shopping recommendations an illegal advantage over rivals in search results, ending a long-running antitrust case that came with a whopping fine.  The European Union’s Court of Justice upheld a lower court’s decision, rejecting the company’s appeal against the $2.7 billion penalty from the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer.  “By today’s judgment, the Court of Justice dismisses the appeal and thus upholds the judgment of the General Court,” the court said in a press release summarizing its decision.  The commission’s …

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NOWY DWOR MAZOWIECKI, Poland — The new privates received their ranks amid military pomp in a town near Warsaw where a Napoleonic fortress attests to a long military history. The group was made up of a German shepherd, a Dutch shepherd and two Belgian Malinois. The dogs — Einar, Eliot, Enzo and Emi — were bestowed with their ranks Friday as part of a new Polish program aimed at honoring the service of dogs used to detect explosives, a job valued for its role in protecting human life. General Wiesław Kukuła, chief of the general staff of the Polish army, decided …

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washington — The U.S. Justice Department announced September 4 that two Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, had been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the Southern District of New York. “The Justice Department has charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in …

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