Category: Євросоюз

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to have a telephone conversation Saturday as tensions continue to grow amid concerns that Russia is ready to mount an invasion of Ukraine. Washington has received intelligence reports that the invasion could happen as early as Wednesday. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has begun evacuating its staff. In addition, the State Department has issued a travel advisory warning people not to travel to Ukraine “due to the increased threats of Russian military action” and advised “those in Ukraine should depart immediately.” A few U.S. diplomats are expected to be …

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Ukraine’s LGBT+ community is on high alert in the face of a potential Russian invasion. Under President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, they enjoy free speech and assembly protections, but fear discrimination if Ukraine falls under Moscow’s authority. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. …

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Unnamed U.S. intelligence officials say Washington is ready to evacuate its embassy in Kyiv in anticipation of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to an Associated Press report. The AP story says the State Department will announce the plans early Saturday that would require all American embassy staff to leave Ukraine because of the anticipated invasion. A few U.S. diplomats may be relocated to far western Ukraine, near Poland, a NATO ally, the anonymous government officials, who are not authorized to speak, told AP.  That move would allow the U.S. to maintain a “diplomatic presence” in Ukraine. White House …

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Facing increasing pressure from China, Lithuania has been gaining support this week in a standoff that began over trade and was elevated when the small Baltic nation became the first European Union member to allow Taiwan to use its name on a de facto embassy. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis met on Wednesday and agreed to step up cooperation on challenges rising from China’s pressure on both countries. Landsbergis traveled to Canberra to open Vilnius’ first embassy in Australia. Payne said it’s important for like-minded countries to work together to maintain an international rules-based …

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The International Criminal Court will next week hear an appeal by Ugandan former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen against his conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity.  Ongwen, a former child soldier in the notorious rebel group led by the fugitive Joseph Kony in the early 2000s, was sentenced by the ICC in May last year to 25 years in jail for murder, rape and sexual enslavement.  Ongwen, whose nom de guerre was “White Ant,” had protested his innocence and cited his own history of being kidnapped while on his way to school by the LRA, and brutalized.   …

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Spanish power company Iberdrola is suing the holding company of business news site El Confidencial over coverage of an industrial espionage case, a move the site’s director says threatens its survival. The multinational energy firm, which is seeking $20 million in damages, said that for more than two years up to November 2021, El Confidencial published 225 stories on the espionage case, including 68 that harmed the company and 12 that were untrue. The company contends the reports were a “violation of its right to honour,” a term that in Spanish law refers to reputational damage. Such cases are rare …

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World leaders met Friday in the French northwest coastal city of Brest for a three-day summit aimed at taking action to clean and protect the earth’s oceans. The One Ocean Summit is being hosted by France, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union Council, along with the United Nations. The goal of the meetings is to raise awareness on issues such as pollution and over-fishing and get international commitments to address and reverse the situation. French President Emmanuel Macron opened the summit with a call for such commitments “and useful actions, in hopes of setting “an international …

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Friday that Russia could attack Ukraine at “any time” and warned Americans to leave Ukraine immediately. Blinken issued the warning in Australia after meeting leaders of the Quad countries, the United States, Australia, Japan and India. Blinken cited “troubling signs” regarding Russia, including adding to the more than 100,000 troops it has amassed at the Ukrainian border. “As we’ve said before, we’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time. And to be clear, that includes during the Olympics,” Blinken said at a joint news conference in Canberra. “We’re continuing …

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U.S. President Joe Biden cautioned American citizens about staying in Ukraine on Thursday, urging them to leave the country immediately and warning of a potential major conflict with Russia should a clash erupts between U.S. and Russian troops. Speaking in a televised interview on the U.S.-based television network NBC News, Biden said “American citizens should leave, should leave now.” “We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. This is a very different situation, and things could go crazy quickly,” Biden said. The U.S. president said he would not send troops to Ukraine, even to rescue Americans in …

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As Russia builds up forces along Ukraine’s borders and Chinese officials seek to punish Lithuania for opening a door to Taiwan, the heads of the Lithuanian parliament’s defense and foreign affairs committees called on their allies in Washington for support. Their message was clear: Lithuania is holding the line against two of America’s most powerful challengers and that U.S. support is critical to its success in defending against aggression from Moscow and Beijing. “This week in Washington, we’re here to address two issues. One is security, and it’s about Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic region. The other one is …

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Visiting NATO headquarters Thursday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that Europe is facing its biggest security crisis in decades and pledged more military deployments in eastern Europe, in response to Russia’s troop buildup on the border with Ukraine. “The stakes are very high, and this is a very dangerous moment. And at stake are the rules that protect every nation, every nation big and small,” Johnson said after talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Britain is strengthening its deployments in Estonia and Poland and is considering further deployments in southeastern Europe in the event of a Russian invasion of …

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The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service in London, Cressida Dick, announced her resignation Thursday following multiple accusations of misogyny, racism and sexism in the capital force’s ranks.   Mayor Sadiq Khan said Thursday that he was dissatisfied with Dick’s response when he told her last week that the force needed to change to “root out the racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination, and misogyny.”   “It’s clear that the only way to start to deliver the scale of the change required is to have new leadership right at the top of the Metropolitan Police” the mayor said, as quoted in …

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French researcher Luc Montagnier, who won a Nobel Prize in 2008 for discovering HIV and more recently spread false claims about the coronavirus, has died at age 89, local government officials in France said.  Montagnier died Tuesday at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a western suburb of the capital, the area’s city hall said. No other details were released.  Montagnier, a virologist, led the team that in 1983 identified the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, leading him to share the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine with colleague Francoise Barré-Sinoussi. The French minister for higher education and …

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Visiting NATO headquarters Thursday, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that Europe is facing its biggest security crisis in decades – and pledged more military deployments in eastern Europe in response to Russia’s troop build-up on the border with Ukraine. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

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Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian superstar who was expected to deliver her nation its third straight Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating, practiced as usual on Thursday, hours after reports surfaced that she had tested positive for a banned substance.    Valieva tested positive for the heart medication before the Beijing Games, the Russian newspaper RBC reported.    The sample was reportedly obtained before Valieva won the European championship last month in Estonia, a performance that solidified her status as the leader of Russia’s “quad squad” of elite women’s figure skaters.    It’s unclear if Russia is appealing or fighting the result, …

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France will build at least six new nuclear reactors in the decades to come, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, placing nuclear power at the heart of his country’s drive for carbon neutrality by 2050. Macron said the new plants would be built and operated by state-controlled energy provider EDF and that tens of billions of euros in public financing would be mobilized to finance the projects and safeguard EDF’s finances. “What our country needs, and the conditions are there, is the rebirth of France’s nuclear industry,” Macron said, unveiling his new nuclear strategy in the eastern industrial town of …

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Turkey’s media regulator on Wednesday gave three international broadcasters, including Voice of America’s Turkish Service, short notice to obtain broadcast licenses or have their content blocked. The order from the Radio and Television Supreme Council, known as RTUK, also affects German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Euronews, the regulator’s opposition board member said. “A decision was taken with a majority of votes that 72 hours be granted to the websites of amerikaninsesi.com, dw.com/tr, and tr.euronews.com to get licenses,” Ilhan Tasci, a member of RTUK’s board, said in a tweet. Tasci, who was appointed to the board by the opposition Republican People’s …

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is meeting Thursday with leaders of Poland and NATO as he urges what his office called “solidarity with NATO allies who bear the brunt of Russian aggression.” Johnson has ordered 1,000 British troops be ready to respond to a potential humanitarian crisis resulting from a Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine. “What we need to see is real diplomacy, not coercive diplomacy,” Johnson said in a statement. “As an alliance we must draw lines in the snow and be clear there are principles upon which we will not compromise. That includes the security of every NATO …

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Britain ordered 1,000 troops to be on a state of readiness to provide support in the event of a humanitarian crisis caused by any Russian aggression, ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the leaders of NATO and Poland on Thursday.  Johnson will go to Brussels and Warsaw to stress the need to hold firm on NATO’s principles and discuss ways that Britain can provide military support while Russia amasses its troops near Ukraine’s border.  Johnson’s trip is one among a wave of international diplomatic efforts. French President Emmanuel Macron met Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this …

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