Category: Євросоюз

Simon Louagie dreaded losing Talbot House, a World War I soldiers’ club that has become an institution in remembrance tourism on the Western Front where soldiers from all corners of the globe fought amid untold carnage just over a century ago.  For months last year, a COVID-19 lockdown closed the club which had always been an open house. Once it was for Commonwealth soldiers who fleetingly shed the fear of battle in Flanders fields that was within earshot. For generations since, people found history, solace, wisdom and an understanding at Talbot House about why the motto of this region in …

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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is joining French President Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony Thursday in Paris to commemorate Armistice Day.  The ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe marks the 1918 agreement between Allied powers and Germany to end their fighting in World War I.  It follows a Wednesday visit by Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial outside of Paris where they took part in a wreath-laying ceremony in observance of Armistice Day and Thursday’s Veterans Day holiday in the United States.  The site honors American service members killed in both world wars and holds the remains …

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Ukraine’s foreign minister has held strategic security talks in Washington with the U.S. secretary of state. The meeting comes as Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reports that about 90,000 Russian troops have been positioned along their common border and in rebel-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. Camera: VOA Ukraine Service. Contributing: Ostap Yarysh. …

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Authorities in Turkey say they arrested a shop owner and two employees Wednesday, one day after the collapse of a commercial building that trapped several people. The private DHA news agency reported that those arrested are suspected of having conducted unauthorized renovations. An investigation is continuing by local authorities in the city of Malatya in central Turkey. At the time of the collapse on Tuesday, about 20 people were inside the two-story building, which housed a coffee shop and other retail businesses, according to the Associated Press. Turkish emergency agencies said they sent 260 personnel to the site to search for people trapped under the rubble and rescue them. Local authorities said workers helped 13 people escape. They were taken to area …

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The World Health Organization said in its weekly epidemiological COVID-19 update that Europe again was leading the world in percentages of new cases and deaths from the disease. The WHO said the number of new cases in Europe rose by 7% last week and the number of deaths rose by 10%. Africa was the only other region to report an increase in new cases. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday called for an urgent meeting with state governors after the nation’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious diseases reported a record number of COVID-19 cases for a single day. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert …

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to meet Wednesday with his Ukrainian counterpart in Washington as the Biden administration seeks to demonstrate support for the country in the face of Russian aggression while also pushing its leaders to carry out Western-backed reforms. Blinken’s talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and other high-ranking officials follows on an agreement reached between President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in September to relaunch the U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Commission. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said it had been an important mechanism for the United States and Ukraine “to communicate …

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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki Wednesday accused Belarus of “state terrorism” regarding the migrant crisis at the border between the two nations.   Morawiecki made the comments to reporters during a joint news conference in Warsaw with European Council President Charles Michel, who came to Poland to show European Union support for Poland on the migrant situation Poland and the EU accuse the government of Belarus President Alexander Lukeshenko of “weaponizing” migrants – largely from Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan – by inviting them to enter Belarus and shepherding them to the Polish border, sometimes by force. Polish troops …

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French President Emmanuel Macron is set to host U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris for talks Wednesday at Elysee Palace with an agenda that includes climate change, the economy, global health and supply chain issues.  A senior U.S. administration official told reporters Tuesday that the bilateral meeting is important because the U.S. relationship with France is a global one, and that France and other European allies are key to the future of the United States.  In addition to meeting with Macron, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are taking part in a wreath laying Wednesday at Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial outside of Paris to mark the …

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Turkey is being accused by Kurdish security forces of carrying out a drone attack Tuesday in northeastern Syria that killed three civilians in a car.  The strike took place in Qamishli, a city on the Syria-Turkey border that is controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The three victims were from the same family, according to a statement by SDF’s internal security forces, which also said the attack was “carried out by a Turkish drone.”  Turkey has not commented on the incident, but Kurdish forces say the Turkish military has increased targeted drone operations in northeastern Syria in recent …

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Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education, got married on Tuesday in a small ceremony in Birmingham, central England, she announced on social media. “Today marks a precious day in my life. Asser (Malik) and I tied the knot to be partners for life,” she wrote on Twitter, where she also posted images of herself and her new husband on their wedding day. “We celebrated a small nikkah ceremony at home in Birmingham with our families. Please send us your prayers. We are excited to walk together for the journey ahead,” …

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As France approaches an election in which questions over the country’s image of itself are being raised, hunting has come under the spotlight. As the nation’s third most popular pastime, growing debate over the practice raises the issue of French tradition versus modernity. Jacob Russell reports for VOA from Charente-Maritime. …

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Poland has warned of a possible armed escalation on its border with Belarus. Europe accuses Belarus of directing the migrants towards the border as part of a campaign of ‘hybrid warfare’. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. Producer: Henry Ridgwell, Barry Unger …

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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris began a four-day visit to France Tuesday aimed at improving soured relations with America’s oldest ally. Relations between the two countries plunged to a historic low in September when Australia scrapped a $65 billion deal to buy traditional submarines from France in favor of an agreement in which Australia will build nuclear subs with the help of the United States and Britain. Harris will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron after U.S. President Joe Biden told Macron in Rome last month the U.S. had been “clumsy” in its handling of the matter. Harris will first visit the renowned Institut Pasteur to underscore what U.S. officials said were longstanding scientific exchanges between the U.S. and France. She will meet with French and American …

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Some of Britain’s prestigious colleges — including the ancient universities of Cambridge and Oxford — are being accused of losing their moral compass by accepting donations from what critics say are dubious sources. The University of Oxford, London School of Economics and University College, London, have prompted a firestorm of criticism for accepting millions of pounds from the charitable trust of the late motor-racing tycoon Max Mosley, whose fortune was largely inherited from his father Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists during the 1930s and 1940s. Oxford was given $8 million from a charitable trust set up …

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Poland and Belarus traded accusations Tuesday as a group of migrants remained on the Belarus side of the border between the two countries.  Poland says the migrants, mostly from the Middle East, are being encouraged to push their way into European Union member Poland by the government of Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko.  Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Twitter that it is in Poland’s interest to seal its border, and that with Belarus’ actions “the stability and security of the entire EU is at stake.”  Belarus denies the accusations, with its defense ministry saying in a statement Tuesday they are “unfounded and unsubstantiated.”  The Belarussian foreign …

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A European human rights group alleged Monday that Israeli-made Pegasus spyware was used to hack the phones of staff members of six Palestinian civil society groups that Israel’s defense ministry has designated as terrorist organizations. Dublin-based Front Line Defenders said its allegation was confirmed independently by researchers for Amnesty International and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. Front Line Defenders stopped short of blaming the Israeli government for installation of the spyware on the phones of the Palestinian human rights workers. But it condemned Israel’s designation of their organizations as linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, …

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U.S. prosecutors on Monday said they had charged a Ukrainian man with launching a July ransomware attack on an American firm that had infected 1,500 businesses throughout the world. Authorities also announced they had seized $6 million in ransom payments made to a Russian national accused of launching more than 3,000 other attacks targeting American companies. An indictment filed in the southwestern state of Texas by the Justice Department accused Yaroslav Vasinskyi, a Ukrainian national arrested in Poland last month, of unleashing the ransomware attack known as REvil on Florida-based firm Kaseya, a global information technology software infrastructure supplier, which …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed regional conflicts and a crisis in ties with the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency who paid a rare trip to Moscow last week, the Kremlin said Monday. CIA chief William Burns was in Russia for two days of meetings with top officials at the request of President Joe Biden, the US embassy has said. CNN reported last week that Burns had been sent to Moscow to warn the Kremlin about the alleged build-up of troops near Ukraine’s border. It said that after his meetings in Russia, Burns spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky …

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The eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma entered its eighth week Monday, powerful as ever and showing no signs of stopping.  From its official Twitter account, INVOLCAN, the Canary Islands Volcanology Center, reported lava and huge plumes of smoke and ash have been spouting from the crater all day. Citing a report from Italy’s volcano department, INVOLCAN said the minimum height of the volcano’s plume Monday was 1,600 meters.  The eruption has alternately surged and ebbed since September 19 and scientists say the eruption could last for up to three months.  But experts …

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Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, convicted by Russia of spying, will continue to fight for his transfer to the United States despite losing a court appeal on Monday, Interfax news agency quoted his lawyer as saying. Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was sentenced last year to 16 years in jail. He denies espionage and has said he was set up in a sting operation. Washington has demanded his release.  Whelan had challenged the refusal of a regional court to hear his case for being sent home, but an appeals court in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, around …

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