Category: Євросоюз

Spain’s Rafael Nadal will not play at Wimbledon or at the Tokyo Olympics, saying Thursday he has decided to skip the two tournaments after “listening” to his body.Nadal, who reached the French Open semifinals this month but lost to Novak Djokovic, won the title at Wimbledon twice. He also won the Olympic gold medal in singles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.”The goal is to prolong my career and continue to do what makes me happy, that is to compete at the highest level and keep fighting for those professional and personal goals at the maximum level of competition,” Nadal said.He …

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Britain on Thursday said it had agreed on a truce with the United States over a 17-year long tariffs dispute involving European planemaker Airbus and US rival Boeing.   It comes in the wake of a similar deal between the European Union and U.S. announced Tuesday.   The dispute, the longest-running in the history of the World Trade Organization, has seen damaging retaliatory tariffs levied on products on both sides of the Atlantic owing to disagreements over support for large civilian aircraft, the U.K. government explained in a statement Thursday.   But both sides have finally agreed “to suspend retaliatory …

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U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin ended their summit with positive assessments of their meeting, but clear differences remain. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report from Geneva. Producer: Kimberlyn Weeks …

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French forces in Mali have captured a man they describe as a “high-ranking fighter of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” (EIGS), the French military said Wednesday.  Dadi Ould Chouaib, also known as Abou Dardar, was arrested June 11 in the flashpoint “tri-border” region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, the site of frequent attacks by extremist groups, the military said in a statement. He was carrying “an automatic weapon, a night vision telescope, a combat vest, a telephone and a radio,” but surrendered without resistance. He was located during a helicopter sweep as part of a joint mission between troops …

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U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have ended their summit in Geneva, with Biden describing it as “good” and “positive.”     But he further described the summit in a realistic tone, saying the next several months would serve as a “test” of whether relations between the two countries can improve.   “I am not sitting here saying because the president and I agreed that we would do these things that all of a sudden it’s going to work,” Biden said during the press conference after his more than three-hour meeting with Putin. “I’m not saying that. …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny got what he deserved when he was sentenced to prison. Putin, speaking at a news conference in Geneva after his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, said, without mentioning Navalny’s name, “He deliberately moved [back to Russia] to be arrested.” Navalny, Putin’s most prominent political foe, was arrested in January when he returned from Germany, where he had been treated at a Berlin hospital for five months while recovering from a poisoning. Navalny contends Russian agents applied the nerve agent Novichok to his underwear in August, a claim Moscow has …

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U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have ended their summit in Geneva, chosen as a location for the talks for its history of political neutrality.      In a press conference after the summit, Putin, speaking through an interpreter, described the meeting as “constructive” and said there were “no hostilities,” calling the U.S. leader a “constructive person, well balanced and experienced, a seasoned politician.” Putin said that in a bid to lower tensions, he and Biden agreed to return their ambassadors to their posts. U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan and Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov returned home earlier this year amid worsening U.S.-Russia relations. Both of them participated in the P+5 part …

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“There is no king in Catalonia!” cried the protesters as they burned pictures of King Felipe VI.   As the monarch visited Barcelona Wednesday, the strength of feeling was apparent among separatists who want to rid the turbulent region of any trace of Spain.   Despite the bitter divisions in Catalonia over the issue of independence, Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is about to take what analysts say is an audacious gamble which he hopes will diffuse tensions that have divided the country for years.   By early July, Spain’s leftist government is expected to order the partial pardon …

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U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have begun their highly anticipated summit in Geneva, the Swiss capital chosen as a location for the summit for its history of political neutrality.   The leaders thanked each other during the brief, and chaotic press opportunity at the beginning of their meeting where American and Russian media jostled each other. “Mr. President, I’d like to thank you for your initiative to meet today. I know that you’ve been on a long journey,” said Putin via an interpreter. “The U.S. and Russian relations have a lot of issues accumulated that require the highest-level meeting. And I …

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The United Nations is urging reforms that make it easier for migrants to send money back to their home countries, as it observes its annual International Day of Family Remittances.   “Migrants have shown their continued commitment to their families and communities during the pandemic with more remittances transfers made digitally than ever before,” Gilbert Houngbo, president of the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, said in a statement.  “Unfortunately, families in rural and remote areas — where remittances are a true lifeline — battle to access cash outlets or even more convenient alternatives such as mobile money accounts. Governments …

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Turkey’s Sea of Marmara is battling an explosion of sea algae, dubbed sea snot, which is now threatening an ecological disaster. As Dorian Jones reports for VOA from Istanbul, the mucus-like substance is fast becoming politically toxic as well. …

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U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet Wednesday in Geneva with both sides expressing low expectations for any major agreements. U.S. and Russian officials said there would likely be four to five hours of talks. The agreed-upon format includes an initial session with the two leaders along with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and then further discussions with an expanded group. A senior Biden administration official told reporters en route to Geneva that one potential outcome Wednesday is reversing the recall of each country’s ambassador.  U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan and Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov returned home earlier this year amid …

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Several spectators were treated in the hospital for injuries caused by a protester who parachuted into the stadium before France played Germany at the European Championship, UEFA said Tuesday.Debris fell on the field and main grandstand, narrowly missing France coach Didier Deschamps, when the parachutist struck wires for an overhead camera attached to the stadium roof.The governing body of European soccer called it a “reckless and dangerous” act and said “law authorities will take the necessary action.””This inconsiderate act … caused injuries to several people attending the game who are now in hospital,” UEFA said.The incident happened just before the …

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U.S. President Joe Biden meets with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the first time Wednesday in Geneva amid deteriorating relations between the world powers. The meeting takes place in the final hours of Biden’s first trip abroad as president during which he has already attended the 47th G-7 summit in the English city of Cornwall, as well as talks with NATO and EU leaders in Brussels. An armored vehicle and a truck block roadway access to the Inter Continental hotel before the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden, in Geneva, Switzerland, June 15, 2021.In an interview with NBC News, Putin said …

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Hungary’s Parliament passed a bill Tuesday banning homosexuality in any content portraying or “promoting” homosexuality or sex reassignment to anyone under 18.   Hungary’s National Assembly passed the bill on a 157-1 vote. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz Party has a parliamentary majority, and lawmakers from the right-wing Jobbik Party also endorsed the measure. One independent lawmaker voted against it.   Under the law, any educational programs, advertisements, books, movies or television programs depicting homosexuality or other gender minorities in a positive light will no longer be allowed.   The ruling party defends the legislation, saying it is designed …

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Beijing says NATO’s description that China poses “systemic challenges” to the international community is an exaggeration.      China’s mission to the European Union issued a statement Tuesday in response to a communique issued by the leaders of the trans-Atlantic alliance the day before.  In that statement, NATO leaders pledged to join forces against China’s increasingly aggressive military posture, which it said threatened “the rules-based international order.”   The mission said NATO’s accusations were “a slander on China’s peaceful development, a misjudgment of the international situation and its own role, and a continuation of the Cold War mentality and organizational …

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The United States and the European Union have reached an extended truce in their long-running dispute over aircraft subsidies. Washington is conditionally suspending for five years the tariffs on Europe that were authorized by the World Trade Organization for unfair subsidies to Airbus, which is the largest aircraft manufacturer and prime competitor to Boeing of the United States. “This meeting has started with a breakthrough on aircraft,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the start of formal talks on Tuesday with U.S. President Joe Biden. “This really opens a new chapter in our relationship because we move from litigation to cooperation on aircraft after 17 years of dispute.”The agreement “resolves a longstanding trade irritant in the U.S.-Europe relationship,” US …

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U.S. President Joe Biden meets with European Union allies on Tuesday after wrapping up a summit with NATO leaders, ahead of his highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report from Brussels.   …

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Battling the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, as well as working together on trade and foreign affairs are on the agenda Tuesday as U.S. President Joe Biden and European Union leaders hold a summit in Brussels. In statements issued ahead of the talks, the two sides said they would reiterate support for the COVAX facility for ensuring equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, and to work together on ways to promote a global recovery from the economic impacts of the pandemic. They also planned to discuss efforts to reform the World Health Organization. After both were a major topic at G-7 and NATO meetings this week, …

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Delegations from Russia and the United States involved in nuclear negotiations with Iran held talks in Vienna on Monday, two days ahead of a summit meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The United States is not directly involved in the Vienna negotiations but has regular contacts with participating diplomats. Efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear containment deal for Iran are a rare topic of collaboration between the two global adversaries. Mikhail Ulyanov, a senior diplomat who headed the Russian delegation at the meeting in Vienna, called the talks with U.S. counterparts “fruitful.”  “Our dialogue in Vienna seems to be …

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