Category: Євросоюз

Istanbul — Wildfires raged across western Turkey for a third straight day Saturday, exacerbated by high winds and warm temperatures, authorities said.  More than 130 fires have erupted across the country in the past week, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate. Most have been brought under control, but eight major fires continued in the provinces of Izmir, Aydin, Manisa, Karabuk and Bolu.  Thousands of firefighters were tackling the blazes on land and from the air, with dozens of aircraft and hundreds of vehicles aiding in the emergency response.  Thousands of people have been evacuated from the affected areas, but …

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LONDON — A fire broke out Saturday at Somerset House, a large arts venue on the River Thames in central London. Smoke billowed from the building and flames could be seen coming from the roof as firefighters on tall ladders showered it with water. The cause of the fire was not yet known, the London Fire Brigade said. Fifteen engines and about 100 firefighters were deployed. Somerset House said all staff and the public were safe and the site was closed. The venue had been scheduled to host a breakdancing event. The neoclassical building, which is nearly 250 years old, houses …

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Helsinki, Finland — Western officials and analysts are suspicious of Beijing’s admission this week that a Chinese container ship damaged the Balticconnector — a vital Baltic Sea gas pipeline linking Estonia and Finland — in October. The South China Morning Post reported August 12 that the Chinese government notified Finland and Estonia 10 months after the incident that it was caused by a Hong Kong-registered ship called Newnew Polar Bear, but blamed a storm for what it called the accident. In an interview August 13 with Estonia’s public radio, ERR, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said he was skeptical of China’s …

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Stockholm — Health authorities warned Friday that Europe must be ready for more cases of a deadly strain of mpox that has killed hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The World Health Organization urged pharmaceutical firms to ramp up vaccine production and China said it would screen travelers for the disease after the first cases of the more deadly strain to be recorded outside Africa were announced in Sweden and Pakistan. France’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said his country was on the “highest alert” and would implement “new recommendations” for travelers to risk areas. Mpox is caused by …

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LONDON/KYIV, UKRAINE — In the hours before Ukrainian soldiers stormed across Russia’s western border, there was no sign from Moscow that anything was amiss. At midnight at the start of August 6, the Russian Defense Ministry posted good news: More than 2,500 members of the regiment responsible for the capture of a town in eastern Ukraine would receive state awards for heroism. Later that morning, as Ukraine began the biggest invasion of Russia since World War II, the ministry published video showing General Valery Gerasimov, commander of the Russian war effort, visiting a different combat zone, also in Ukraine. He heard …

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kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine’s air defenses shot down all 14 Russian drones fired in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said Saturday. The air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that the Shahed drones were downed over six Ukrainian regions in the south and center of the country. Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry said Ukraine had used Western rockets, likely U.S.-made HIMARS, to destroy a bridge over the Seym river in the Kursk region, killing volunteers trying to evacuate civilians. “For the first time, the Kursk region was hit by Western-made rocket launchers, probably American HIMARS,” Maria …

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BEIJING — BMW was recalling more than 1.3 million vehicles in China that might have Takata airbag inflators following a similar recall in the United States last month, officials said Friday. The recall covers nearly 600,000 vehicles made in China between 2005 and 2017 and more than 750,000 imported vehicles made between 2003 and 2018, the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation said. It includes a wide range of models, from series 1 to series 6 cars and the X1, X3, X4, X5 and X6 SUVs. A small number of vehicles in the recall may have Takata inflators if the owner …

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ISTANBUL — Firefighters were tackling blazes across Turkey on Friday as dry, hot and windy weather conditions led to a series of fires, including one that threatened World War I memorials and graves at the Gallipoli battle site. At the peninsula where an Allied landing was beaten back by Ottoman troops in a yearlong campaign in 1915, the flames reached Canterbury Cemetery, where soldiers from New Zealand are interred. Images of the site in northwest Turkey showed soot-blackened gravestones in a scorched garden looking out over the Aegean Sea. The fire was brought under control by Friday. Officials said it was …

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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine shot down all five Russia-launched drones during an overnight attack, the country’s air force said Friday. Russian forces also used three ballistic Iskander-M missiles during the attack, according to the air force’s statement on the Telegram messaging app. Russia used three Shahed-type drones and two drones of an unidentified type for the attack, it said. Reuters previously reported that Russia turned to using cheaply made drones in some of its attacks on Ukraine to try to identify air defenses and act as decoys. The governors of Kyiv and Kirovohrad regions reported no damage or casualties following the …

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Help for Ukraine comes not only from international organizations, foreign governments and large foundations, but also from ordinary citizens across the globe. Among them – a group of individuals in Norfolk, England, who have been helping Ukrainians since the start of Russia’s invasion. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Video: Yuriy Dankevych …

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More than two and a half years into Russia’s war in Ukraine, Germany is considering slashing military assistance to Kyiv by 50%. Berlin is the European Union’s largest donor of military aid to Ukraine and second only to the United States, but domestic politics are casting doubt on that role. Marcus Harton narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina in Berlin. Camera: Ricardo Marquina  …

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Prague — When the opposition activist Ilya Yashin spoke after being freed from a Russian prison as part of the historic prisoner swap between Washington and Moscow, he said he had been warned never to return. Speaking in Bonn, Germany, Yashin said that a Federal Security Service agent told him that if he came back from exile, his “days will end like Navalny’s” — a reference to opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony in February. But as the experiences of Russian journalists and critics already in exile show, distance from Moscow is no assurance of safety. …

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With the 2024 Summer Olympics wrapped up, Paris is now getting ready to host the Paralympics later this month. More than 4,000 athletes with disabilities along with tens of thousands of spectators will attend the events that run from August 28 to September 8. Olympic authorities praise the city for the steps it has taken to make them accessible to all. But disability advocates say much more needs to be done — across France — to change infrastructure and mindsets. Lisa Bryant reports from Paris. …

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As Ukrainian forces continue their push deeper into Russia, questions are emerging on what Kyiv plans to do with the territory that Ukraine is capturing. Anna Chernikova reports from Kyiv. …

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PARIS — French prosecutors opened an investigation into an online harassment complaint made by Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif after a torrent of criticism and false claims about her sex during the Summer Games, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Wednesday. The athlete’s lawyer Nabil Boudi filed a legal complaint Friday with a special unit in the Paris prosecutor’s office that combats online hate speech. Boudi said the boxer was targeted by a “misogynist, racist and sexist campaign” as she won gold in the women’s welterweight division, becoming a hero in her native Algeria and bringing global attention to women’s boxing. The …

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