Category: Євросоюз

A German court on Tuesday handed a five-year jail sentence to a 101-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard, the oldest person to go on trial for complicity in war crimes during the Holocaust.  Josef Schuetz was found guilty of being an accessory to murder in at least 3,500 cases while working as a prison guard at the Sachsenhausen camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, from 1942 to 1945.  Given his age, Schuetz is highly unlikely to be put behind bars. The pensioner, who now lives in Brandenburg state, had pleaded innocent, saying he did “absolutely nothing” and had not even …

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NATO ally Turkey lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden’s bid to join the Western alliance on Tuesday after the three nations agreed to protect each other’s security, ending a weeks-long drama that tested allied unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The breakthrough came after four hours of talks just before a NATO summit began in Madrid, averting an embarrassing impasse at the gathering of 30 leaders that aims to show resolve against Russia, now seen by the U.S.-led alliance as a direct security threat rather than a possible adversary. It means Helsinki and Stockholm can proceed with their application …

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President Joe Biden’s administration added five companies in China to a trade blacklist on Tuesday for allegedly supporting Russia’s military and defense industrial base, flexing its muscle to enforce sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The Commerce Department, which oversees the trade blacklist, said the targeted companies had supplied items to Russian “entities of concern” before the February 24 invasion, adding that they “continue to contract to supply Russian entity listed and sanctioned parties.” The agency also added an additional 31 entities to the blacklist from countries including Russia, UAE, Lithuania, Pakistan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan and …

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One of France’s most high-profile trials in history wraps up this week amid a sharply changing security landscape across Europe, where the war in Ukraine and far-right violence have reshaped threat perceptions once dominated by Islamist extremism. Verdicts are expected Wednesday in Paris, where 20 men stand accused of being involved in the November 2015 Islamic State attacks around the French capital in which 130 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. Top defendant Salah Abdeslam, considered the lone surviving attacker, has captured news headlines throughout the months-long trial. He risks life without parole, France’s toughest sentence. Since opening last …

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NATO leaders began arriving in Madrid Tuesday for a crucial summit on the alliance’s future – dominated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the threat Moscow poses to the West. Henry Ridgwell reports from the Spanish capital. …

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday he stressed the need for a “powerful missile defense system for Ukraine to prevent Russian terrorist attacks” in talks with NATO’s leader. The phone call with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg came ahead of the start of a summit of NATO leaders in Madrid where Ukraine is expected to be among the major topics of discussion. “At our NATO summit we will step up support for our close partner Ukraine, now and for the longer term,” Stoltenberg tweeted after speaking with Zelenskyy. “NATO allies stand with you.” Stoltenberg said Monday that the Western military …

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Anita Powell reports from Telfs, Austria on the close of the G7 Summit and looks ahead to the NATO summit in Madrid. Producer: Marcus Harton …

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Giving aid to Ukraine and pain to Vladimir Putin – those are the measures leaders of the world’s wealthiest liberal democracies zeroed in on Monday as they listened to Ukraine’s president plea for more help. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Telfs, Austria. …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads to this week’s NATO summit in Madrid, threatening to veto Finland’s and Sweden’s bid to join the Atlantic alliance. Ankara is warning it’s not ready to lift its veto threat of their NATO membership bid ahead of the alliance’s summit in Madrid on Tuesday.   Erdogan’s chief adviser Ibrahim Kalin, speaking on Turkish TV Sunday, said Turkish demands had not been met.  Kalin said Turkey has brought negotiations to a certain point and it is not possible for Turkish leaders to take a step back. He said Turkish diplomats told this to their counterparts …

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Shackled and looking wary, WNBA star Brittney Griner was ordered to stand trial Friday by a court near Moscow on cannabis possession charges, about 4 1/2 months after her arrest at an airport while returning to play for a Russian team.  The Phoenix Mercury center and two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist also was ordered to remain in custody for the duration of her criminal trial. Griner could face 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of large-scale transportation of drugs. Fewer than 1% of defendants in Russian criminal cases are acquitted, and unlike in the U.S., acquittals can be …

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Russia moved closer Sunday to defaulting on international debt payments for the first time in a century.  Interest payments totaling $100 million on two bonds were originally due May 27, but carried a 30-day grace period.  Russia has struggled to make such payments due to restrictions on its financial activities and sanctions imposed in response to its invasion of Ukraine that began in late February.  Russian forces launched new missile attacks Sunday on Ukraine’s two biggest cities, the capital of Kyiv and Kharkiv.  Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least two apartment buildings in the city were hit, leaving at …

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will attend a round of talks with the leaders of Sweden and Finland, as well as NATO on Tuesday ahead of the summit in Madrid, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Sunday. Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the bids have faced opposition from Turkey, which has been angered by what it says is Helsinki and Stockholm’s support for Kurdish militants and arms embargoes on Ankara. Speaking to broadcaster Haberturk, Kalin said he and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal would also attend a round of talks with …

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The war in Ukraine could allow illegal drug production to flourish, while the opium market’s future hinges on the fate of crisis-wracked Afghanistan, the United Nations warned Monday.  Previous experience from the Middle East and Southeast Asia suggests conflict zones can act as a “magnet” for making synthetic drugs, which can be manufactured anywhere, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its annual report. “This effect may be greater when the conflict area is near large consumer markets.”  The UNODC said the number of dismantled amphetamine laboratories in Ukraine rose from 17 in 2019 to 79 …

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Greece is set to further seal its land frontiers with rival neighbor Turkey, tripling the length of a soaring fence built to block illegal migrants from sneaking in. The plan comes as Greece faces a sudden surge in refugees, both along its land and sea frontiers, as relations with its age-old foe deteriorate. Greece began extending the security fence along its rugged border with Turkey last year, a decade after Athens initially built a 13-kilometer fence in the region to stem the tide of illegal migration. But a sudden surge in refugee flows has authorities concerned now. “There is a …

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Germany will start charging for rapid COVID-19 tests that were previously free, though vulnerable groups will be exempt from the fee. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said that starting July 1 the rapid tests widely available at centers across Germany will cost citizens 3 euros ($3.16) each, with the rest subsidized by the government. The tests will remain free for people who can prove they belong to vulnerable groups, for visitors to care homes and hospitals, and for small children. The planned end to free tests at the end of June has raised concerns that Germany might experience an undetected rise …

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Vladimir Putin will visit two small former Soviet states in Central Asia this week, Russian state television reported Sunday, in what would be the Russian leader’s first known trip abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and led to severe financial sanctions from the West, which Putin says are a reason to build stronger trade ties with other powers such as China, India and Iran. Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin correspondent of the Rossiya 1 state television station, said Putin would visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and then meet Indonesian …

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Russia launched new missile attacks Sunday on Ukraine’s two biggest cities, the capital of Kyiv and Kharkiv, even as leaders of the Group of Seven nations from the world’s leading democracies held talks in the Bavarian Alps to determine new ways to isolate Moscow. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least two apartment buildings in the city were hit, leaving at least one person dead, and four others injured. Russia ramped up its use of cruise missiles, striking targets across northwestern Ukraine. Air raid sirens blared in several cities. “It’s more of their barbarism,” U.S. President Joe Biden said of …

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Air traffic is booming this summer, but after European vacations are over will passenger demand hold up? The question was the focus of the annual congress of the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe in Rome this week, held at the cusp of the approaching peak season. The summer period is shaping up to be by far the best since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis that has severely affected the airline industry since 2020. Some airlines, such as Ryanair, and countries, in particular Greece, have already recovered or even exceeded their 2019 daily flight numbers, according to Eurocontrol, a pan-European …

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Norway paid tribute on Sunday to the victims of a deadly shooting near a gay bar in the capital that shocked the normally peaceful country and led to the cancellation of a Pride march. The altar of Oslo cathedral was draped in a rainbow cloth for a service to remember the victims of the attack, attended by Crown Princess Mette-Marit. Investigators are probing  the motives of the suspected gunman, who opened fire in the early hours of Saturday, killing two and wounding 21. “Oslo is in mourning. The whole country has been shaken by this attack,” the Norwegian Protestant Church …

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Germany welcomes the leaders of the G-7 wealthy democracies Sunday. The summit for the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States is being held in a castle in the Bavarian Alps. The three-day meeting is being held in the shadow of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Political analysts say the G-7 leaders are expected to present unanimous support for Ukraine in its battle with Russia. “The summit must send not only the message that NATO and the G-7 are more united than ever,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told German parliament recently, “but also that the …

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