Category: Євросоюз

The United States and its European allies are planning for “a number of contingencies,” fearing that Moscow’s saber-rattling may be more than tough talk.  Multiple U.S. officials cited serious concerns Tuesday about what they consistently described as Russia’s “unusual military activity” along its border with Ukraine, as well as Moscow’s harsh rhetoric, insisting that no matter what happens next, Washington’s support for Kyiv is “rock solid.”  “We have demonstrated that the United States is willing to use a number of tools to address harmful Russian actions, and we will not hesitate from making use of those and other tools in the …

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The top U.S. and Russian generals spoke by phone Tuesday, as tensions along the Russian-Ukrainian border appeared to reach new highs.    Both Washington and Moscow quickly issued readouts of the call between U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, and chief of Russian General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov.  According to the U.S. statement, the two generals “discussed several security-related issues of concern.” It further said the call was “a continuation of communication between both leaders to ensure risk reduction and operational de-confliction.”   The U.S. statement also said both sides had agreed to keep details …

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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Tuesday diplomatic efforts with Turkey, middle eastern nations and others have helped ease the situation at the Polish border with Belarus, but he said there are also signs the crisis “will not come to swift end.”  For weeks, Poland and the European Union have accused the government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of “weaponizing” migrants, largely from Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan, by inviting them to enter Belarus and taking them to the Polish border, sometimes by force. Polish and Euro ((pean Union leaders believe the action is “pay back” by Lukashenko for …

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The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Europe regional office Tuesday said the 53-country area could see another 700,000 COVID-19 deaths in the next four months if vaccination efforts are not increased.  In a statement, WHO Europe reports the region saw nearly 4,200 deaths from COVID-19 in the past week, double the number of daily deaths reported at the end of September.  The region has passed 1.5 million COVID-19 deaths for the pandemic and data compiled for WHO-Europe by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation shows the disease is now the number one cause of death across Europe and central Asia.  The WHO regional office projects there will be high or extreme stress for hospital …

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North Macedonia’s chief prosecutor says that 12 children were among the some 45 people who died in a fiery bus crash in Bulgaria early Tuesday morning. Lubomir Jovevski spoke to reporters as he visited the scene of the accident on a highway in the west of the country. The cause of the crash was not immediately confirmed, but it appeared that the bus hit a highway guard rail, crashed and caught fire. The bus was one of four carrying Macedonian tourists home from a trip to the Turkish city of Istanbul. The crash happened at 2 a.m. Seven survivors were …

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A flight carrying more than 100 Afghans arrived Monday in northern Greece.  According to Greek officials, the group of 119 people included Mohibullah Samim, Afghanistan’s former minister of border and tribal affairs, as well as a lawyer who prosecuted Taliban fighters, women’s rights activists and a female judge.  The evacuees are expected to remain in Greece until arrangements are made for them to travel on to other countries, including the United States and Canada.  Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, Greece has flown in about 700 Afghans.  Some information for this report came from the Associated Press. …

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Amid concerns about the unusual buildup of Russian troops near the Russia-Ukraine border, the Ukrainian minister of defense came to Washington to talk about defense and strategic issues. Ostap Yarysh reports. Camera: Oleksii Osyka …

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Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn said Monday the current surge of COVID-19 cases in the country likely means that over the next three months – by the end of winter – everyone in the country will be “vaccinated, recovered or dead.” Spahn made the stark comment to reporters in Berlin as he discussed efforts to slow the surging COVID-19 situation in the country. The Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) on Monday reported more than 30,000 newly confirmed cases in Germany over the past 24 hours, an increase of about 50% compared with a week ago. RKI reports the …

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Russia’s troop buildup along the Ukrainian border is drawing alarm from U.S. officials who are warning of a potential new invasion. Ukrainian officials estimate 90,000 Russian troops are now positioned along the border and in Russian-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine. The issue topped the agenda earlier this month when Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, that Washington was monitoring the situation “very closely.”   “We’re concerned by reports of unusual Russian military activity,” Blinken said at the State Department. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Ukraine is prepared. He met at the Pentagon last week …

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Human rights groups and Western lawmakers are warning that Interpol’s powerful network of global police officers could end up under the sway of authoritarian governments, as the world police agency meets in Istanbul this week to elect new leadership. Representatives of countries like China and the United Arab Emirates are bidding for top posts in the France-based policing body when its general assembly convenes in Turkey on Tuesday. Interpol says it refuses to be used for political ends. Critics contend that if these candidates win, instead of hunting down drug smugglers, human traffickers, war crimes suspects and alleged extremists, their …

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Belarus does not want confrontation with Poland but wants the European Union to take in 2,000 migrants stranded on its border, President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday, after Warsaw warned that tensions over the trapped people could flare up. The EU accuses Belarus of flying in thousands of people from the Middle East and pushing them to cross into the EU via Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in response to European sanctions. Minsk denies fomenting the crisis. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned on Sunday that the migrant crisis on the Belarus border may be a prelude to “something much worse”, …

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Charging points for electric vehicles will be required to be installed in new buildings in Britain from next year under new legislation to be announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his office said in a statement on Sunday. It said the regulations would lead to up to 145,000 extra charge points being installed in England each year in the run-up to 2030, when the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will end in Britain. The requirement will apply to new homes and to non-residential buildings such as offices and supermarkets. It will also apply to buildings undergoing large-scale renovations …

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Riots broke out in cities across the Netherlands on Sunday, the third night in a row that police clashed with mobs of angry youths who set fires and threw rocks to protest COVID-19 restrictions. Unrest was reported in locations including Leeuwarden and Groningen in the north, the eastern town of Enschede and Tilburg in the south. In Enschede, where an emergency ordinance was issued, police used batons to try to disperse a crowd, according to video on social media. In Leeuwarden, police vans were pelted with rocks and black-clad groups chanted and set off flares. Responding to the worst disturbances …

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People took to the streets in several European cities over the weekend to protest tighter coronavirus restrictions. As parts of the EU see record spiking cases, lawmakers in some of the bloc’s countries have begun limiting public life for the unvaccinated. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

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China reduced the level of its diplomatic relations with Lithuania to below ambassador level Sunday in retaliation for the Baltic nation allowing Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory, to open a representative office. China earlier expelled the Lithuanian ambassador, reflecting its intense sensitivity over the status of Taiwan, which Beijing says has no right to conduct foreign affairs. China also withdrew its own ambassador from Lithuania. The Foreign Ministry said relations would be downgraded to the level of charge d’affaires, an embassy’s No. 2 official. Lithuania’s move reflects growing interest among governments in expanding …

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Violence broke out at a protest against anti-covid measures in Brussels on Sunday, where police said tens of thousands of people were participating. The march began peacefully but police later fired water cannon and tear gas in response to a group of participants throwing projectiles, an AFP photographer witnessed. Several of the demonstrators caught up in the clash wore hoods and carried Flemish nationalist flags. The stand-off with riot police took place near the Belgian capital’s EU and government district. Police said 35,000 protesters marched from the North Station in Brussels against a fresh round of COVID measures announced by …

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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Sunday called the migrant crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border, the EU’s eastern frontier, the “greatest attempt to destabilize Europe” since the Cold War. The premier issued his strong remarks as he prepared to meet with EU leaders at a time when Warsaw is facing not only a border crisis but heightened tensions with Brussels over allegations it is breaching its commitment to the bloc’s democratic principles. The West accuses Belarus of artificially creating the crisis by bringing in would-be migrants — mostly from the Middle East — and taking them to the border with promises of …

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Seven Turkish citizens who were being held in eastern Libya have been brought back safely to Turkey, the country’s foreign ministry said on Sunday. The seven people were mostly restaurant employees and had been held in Libya’s east for two years, according to state-owned Anadolu news agency. Qatari intelligence cooperated with Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT) in their efforts to secure the safe release of the seven Turks, Anadolu said. “We thank the Libyan and Qatari governments, especially the related institutions that contributed to the process of the release of our citizens,” Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Turkey …

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They are shivering in barracks without heat, going hungry and have no money. They say their passports have been taken by their Chinese employer and that they are now stuck in Serbia with no help from local authorities. These are the Vietnamese workers who are helping build the first Chinese car tire factory in Europe. The Associated Press visited the construction site in northern Serbia where about 500 of the workers are living in harsh conditions as China’s Shandong Linglong Tire Co. sets up the huge facility.  The project, which Serbian and Chinese officials tout as a display of the …

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Police arrested seven rioters in The Hague on Saturday night after youths set fires in the streets and threw fireworks at officers. The unrest came a day after police opened fire on protesters in Rotterdam amid what the port city’s mayor called “an orgy of violence” that broke out at a protest against coronavirus restrictions. Elsewhere in the Netherlands, two soccer matches in the top professional league had to be briefly halted after fans — banned from matches under a partial lockdown in force in the Netherlands for a week — broke into stadiums in the towns of Alkmaar and …

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