Category: Євросоюз

A small private plane crashed into an empty building on the outskirts of Milan, northern Italy, on Sunday, killing all eight people onboard, police said. The plane, which took off from Milan’s Linate city airport, was headed for the island of Sardinia, officials said. The crash occurred just outside a suburban metro station. People in the area could hear a blast when the plane collided with the two-story building, which was empty at the time as it was being renovated. Flames and smoke shot in the air and several vehicles parked along the street caught fire, witnesses said, but no …

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Greece has agreed to buy three state-of-the-art warships from France, boosting its military capabilities after a decade-long economic recession that cut its defense spending alone by nearly one-half. The deal boosts Greece’s military capabilities but critics fear it may stoke further tensions between Greece and age-old foe Turkey, both of them NATO members. The $5 billion deal will provide Athens with three Belharra frigates and three Gowind corvettes, with an option for one more of each.    Officials say the first vessels will be delivered as early as 2024 with the remainder shipped to Greece two years later.    Vice …

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday he would not return to “uncontrolled immigration” to solve fuel, gas and Christmas food crises, suggesting such strains were part of a period of post-Brexit adjustment.  At the start of his Conservative Party’s conference, Johnson was again forced to defend his government against complaints from those unable to get petrol for their cars, retailers warning of Christmas shortages, and gas companies struggling with a spike in wholesale prices.  The British leader had wanted to use the conference to turn the page on more than 18 months of COVID-19 and to refocus on …

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Born in exile, Rustem Skybin returned to his ancestral homeland Crimea in the mid-1990s only to be uprooted — just like his family before him — nearly 20 years later. The 45-year-old ceramics artist is among thousands of ethnic Tatars to have fled Crimea for mainland Ukraine since 2014, when Moscow captured the peninsula and made it part of Russia. The Muslim minority opposed Russia’s takeover, fearing a repeat of Soviet-era repressions like the mass deportations that drove Skybin’s relatives to Uzbekistan in Central Asia. Today, many among those fleeing say their fears of Kremlin rule are being borne out. …

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Paris, his first trip to France following an enhanced trilateral security partnership known as AUKUS (Australia, U.K., and the U.S.) that heightened tensions between the transatlantic allies. Experts said they expect Blinken, who has strong personal ties to France, to use the upcoming trip to try to improve U.S.-France relations. The top U.S. diplomat will chair the Ministerial Council Meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that is scheduled to take place Oct. 5-6, and commemorate the organization’s 60th anniversary. Blinken will have a bilateral meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le …

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Turkey’s newest park is an underwater museum of 14 shipwrecks that lie beneath the waves of the Dardanelles Strait, a glimpse into the fierce battles between the Ottoman and Allied forces in World War I. Turkish photographer Savas Karakas was one of the first to board a boat and dive to the seabed grave when the park opened Saturday. There, he says, he was able to reconnect with his grandfather who fought in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. “My grandfather’s hands were disfigured and burned in action, and I was always scared of them,” said Karakas, who lives in Istanbul …

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After enduring a decade of war in Syria, Boshra al-Moallem and her two sisters seized their chance to flee. Her brother, who escaped years earlier to Belgium, had saved enough money for their trip, and word was spreading online that a new migration route into Europe had opened through Belarus. But the journey proved terrifying and nearly deadly. Al-Moallem became trapped at the border of Belarus and Poland for 20 days and was pushed back and forth between armed guards from each side in an area of swamps. She endured cold nights, mosquitoes, hunger and terrible thirst. Only after she …

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Polls closed Saturday in Georgian municipal elections, a day after the dramatic arrest of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, who called from police custody for the country’s “peaceful transition to a genuine democracy.”  The detention on Friday of Georgia’s foremost opposition figure upon his return from exile raised the stakes in the polls seen as a key test for the increasingly unpopular Georgian Dream ruling party.  In comments to AFP through a representative, who visited him in prison on Saturday, Saakashvili said, “Georgia needs a peaceful transition towards a genuine democracy where political opponents are not locked up on falsified charges or …

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Authorities advised people to limit time outdoors Saturday in parts of La Palma as the erupting volcano on the Spanish island spewed red-hot lava and thick clouds of black smoke.   Emergency services lifted a stay-home order, however, that had been in effect in Los Llanos de Aridane, El Paso, and areas of Tazacorte — places near the volcano that had been affected by poor air quality.   “In response to the improvement in air quality measurements in the area, the lockdown in Tazacorte, El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane will be lifted,” the services said in a statement. …

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Greece has rejected a request by the European Union to set up an independent process to monitor border controls and illegal migration.     The Greek snub is said to have infuriated Brussels, which has been extremely critical of Athens for its alleged illegal practice of migrant pushbacks. The rejection could imperil millions of dollars in financial support that Greece needs to boost its capabilities in fending off illegal migration. That is especially true as Europe braces for a wave of Afghan migrants streaming to the West after the Taliban takeover.   Asked in parliament, Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis …

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French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will hold talks with United States’ Secretary of State Antony Blinken on October 5. The two will aim to work on restoring confidence between the two countries, said a statement issued by Le Drian’s office.   Diplomatic relations between the United States and France hit a low point last month, after Australia cancelled a previous $40 billion submarine deal with France to build instead at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with U.S. and British technology.   In retaliation, France briefly withdrew its ambassador to the United States, although the envoy has since returned to Washington. …

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Twitter has appealed a French court decision that ordered it to give activists full access to all of its relevant documents on efforts to fight hate speech, lawyers and a judicial source said on Saturday.   In July, a French court ordered Twitter to grant six French anti-discrimination groups full access to all documents relating to the company’s efforts to combat hate speech since May 2020. The ruling applied to Twitter’s global operation, not just France.   Twitter has appealed the decision and a hearing has been set for December 9, 2021, a judicial source told AFP, confirming information released …

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Starting Monday, Britain will deploy military tanker drivers to deliver fuel to gas stations, many of which were still dry on Friday after a chaotic week that saw panic-buying, fights at the pumps and drivers hoarding gas in water bottles.  With an acute shortage of truck drivers straining supply chains to the breaking point, the government said Friday that 200 military tanker personnel, 100 of whom are drivers, will complete their training over the weekend and start deliveries on Monday.  “While the situation is stabilizing, our armed forces are there to fill in any critical vacancies and help keep the …

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A 49-year-old lawyer who favors closer ties with the European Union pledged to unseat Viktor Orban as Hungary’s prime minister, after she won the first round of a contest that will produce his challenger in an election next year. Klara Dobrev, the leftist Democratic Coalition’s candidate, won the first round of primary vote ahead of another leftist, Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony, who also campaigned on a pro-European agenda. In next year’s parliamentary vote Orban will, for the first time since he came to power in 2010, face a united front of opposition parties that also includes the Socialists, the liberals …

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“It’s easy to be green,” Boris Johnson said at the United Nations General Assembly last week. He and other European leaders equally committed to net-zero carbon emissions, however, may discover turning green is not so simple, and there may be a high electoral price to pay, analysts say. The energy crisis buffeting the continent has placed Johnson and other European leaders in the difficult position of decrying fossil fuels while urgently prioritizing affordable access to them to avoid a political backlash by voters and businesses furious at the spiking costs of heating homes and running factories. Energy prices have hit …

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A popular Chinese-manufactured phone has a built-in censorship tool that can blacklist search terms on the web, according to research by the Lithuanian government, which is urging owners of the phones to replace them.  The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense analyzed three popular Chinese-made phones currently sold in Europe: the Xiaomi Mi 10T 5G; the Huawei P40 5G; the OnePlus 8T 5G. It reported finding a censorship tool built into the Xiaomi phone that can block certain search terms, including “Long live Taiwan’s independence,” “Free Tibet,” “Democratic Movement,” and “Voice of America.”    “It is very, very worrying that there is …

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A popular Chinese-made phone has a built-in censorship tool that can blacklist search terms on the web, according to research by the Lithuanian government. The country is urging owners of the phones to replace them, as Henry Ridgwell reports. …

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A London Metropolitan Police officer has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty in July to the murder of Sarah Everard, whose disappearance and death in March sparked nationwide grief and outrage. Wayne Couzens confessed to abducting Everard on the evening of March 3, 2021, during a 50-minute walk home from her friend’s house in south London. Prosecutors said he falsely accused her of violating COVID-19 restrictions to lure her into his car.   Everard’s body was discovered a week later near Ashford in County Kent, about 90 kilometers southeast of London.   Following Couzen’s sentencing …

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As Armenia and Azerbaijan mark the one-year anniversary of the start of their campaign in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Baku is vowing to rebuild the region, and Turkish companies see an economic bonanza. Dorian Jones in Istanbul reports. …

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The wrangling over who will control Germany’s government has begun among the top four finishing parties following parliamentary elections. The Social Democrats (SPD), led by Olaf Scholz, defeated outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) 25.8% to 24.1%, handing the conservative party its worst ever defeat.   But since neither party won enough votes to control the Bundestag – the lower house of parliament – they must work with the third-place finishers, the Green party, which received 14.8% of the vote, and fourth place finishers, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), which received 11.5%. The Greens and FDP agreed Tuesday to …

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