The top U.S. envoy to Belarus told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that the country’s dependence on Russia had significantly increased. The warning came as a U.S. Senate panel considered policy options in response to Belarus’ detention last month of opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.Producer: Katherine Gypson. Camera: Alexei Gorbachev. …
A spokesperson for French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that an incident in which a man slapped the president would not deter his national tour.Macron was slapped Tuesday while shaking hands across a barrier in a small southeastern French town. The man in question was taken into custody, and after security initially pulled the president away from the scene, he resumed shaking hands and visiting with people a short time later.At a Paris news conference Wednesday, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters that while the presidential security detail remained as vigilant as always, no special alert had been raised …
Leaders of the G-7 group of industrialized nations meet this weekend in Britain, with an agenda topped by the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, taxation, and the challenges posed by Russia and China. The three-day summit beginning Friday will be held at Carbis Bay, a popular tourist resort in Cornwall on Britain’s southwestern peninsula. British warships are patrolling the coastline and more than 6,500 police officers have been deployed as Britain prepares to host the leaders of the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. Australia, India, South Korea and South Africa also have been invited as guests. Police …
President Joe Biden headed to Europe Wednesday on his first overseas trip as the U.S. leader, set to hold high-level talks with other Western heads of state before meeting next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Geneva. As he boarded Air Force One, Biden said his goals for the trip were strengthening ties with allies, while “making it clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight.” President Joe Biden talks to reporters prior to boarding Air Force One, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, June 9, 2021.Biden also said he would be …
A Belarusian opposition leader has called for creation of an international tribunal to investigate war crimes allegedly committed by authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.The request was made Wednesday by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko’s most powerful challenger in the Belarusian president election last year.“We cannot allow dictators to write history,” Tsikhanouskaya said in remarks before the Czech Senate in Prague.Tsikhanouskaya, who now resides in Lithuania, called for the establishment of the tribunal “to investigate the crimes of the Lukashenko dictatorship in the past and in the period following the 2020 election.”Months of anti-government protests in Belarus were fueled by Lukashenko’s reelection to a …
A Russian court has begun considering a request from prosecutors to ban organizations founded by jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Along with a new law, a ruling to outlaw the organizations would prohibit people linked to the groups from seeking public office, including seats in parliament, before a vital parliamentary election in September.Prosecutors have asked the Moscow City Court to declare Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his group of offices across Russia as extremist organizations.Attorneys in the case said the court is expected to issue a ruling on the case on Wednesday.Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law …
When to unlock? Britain’s Boris Johnson is coming under mounting pressure from Conservative lawmakers and their allies in the media to keep to a previously outlined timetable that would see virtually all pandemic restrictions relaxed on June 21 in England. But a sudden surge in coronavirus infections has triggered fierce counter-lobbying from the government’s scientific advisers, who want a delay to the final easing of restrictions to assess the latest data and to ensure that variants, including the now-dominant Delta variant, first detected in India, aren’t resistant to vaccines. FILE – Pedestrians walk past a sign warning members of the public …
The Biden administration is forming expert working groups with Canada, Mexico, the European Union and the United Kingdom to determine how best to safely restart travel after 15 months of pandemic restrictions, a White House official said on Tuesday. Another U.S. official said the administration will not move quickly to lift orders that bar people from much of the world from entering the United States because of the time it will take for the groups to do their work. The White House informed airlines and others in the travel industry about the groups, the official said. “While we are not reopening travel …
President Joe Biden is heading to the United Kingdom and Europe on his first trip abroad, sending a signal that his administration values close trans-Atlantic relationships as it deals with challenges like emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and threats from China and Russia. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. …
French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped Tuesday while shaking hands across a barrier in a small southeastern French town. Video from the scene showed Macron striding toward a small crowd of people waiting behind a barrier. According to Reuters, as Macron reached out to shake hands, a man in the crowd shouted “A bas la Macronie” (Down with Macronia) and slapped Macron in the face.#Macron se fait gifler en direct de #Tainpic.twitter.com/tsXdByo22U— ⚜️ (@AlexpLille) June 8, 2021The president was swept away by security, and the man was seized immediately. French news agency Agence France-Presse quoted the local prosecutor’s office …
The World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations climate agency, reported Tuesday that Europe saw its coldest March through May since 2013, with temperatures 0.45 C below the 1991-2020 average.During a briefing from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis cautioned that Europe’s cool start did not reflect any pause in the world’s climate change problems.In fact, data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service show that the global average temperature for May was 0.26 C higher than the 1991-2020 mean, according to the U.N. News website. Greenhouse Gases Threaten Ocean Ecosystems: WMOThe ocean absorbs around 23 …
French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face on Tuesday by a man in a crowd of onlookers while on a walkabout in southern France, video of the incident showed.Macron’s security entourage quickly intervened to pull the man to the ground and move Macron away from him. Two people were arrested in connection with the incident, broadcasters BFM TV and RMC radio reported.#Macron se fait gifler en direct de #Tainpic.twitter.com/tsXdByo22U— ⚜️ (@AlexpLille) June 8, 2021French Prime Minister Jean Castex said the incident was an affront to democracy.The incident took place while Macron was on a visit to the Drome …
Momentum is clearly growing within the United States and the world’s other major economies behind plans to make it more difficult for large international businesses to avoid paying taxes in countries where they are located. But experts warn there is still plenty to be done to achieve that elusive goal. Over the weekend, the finance ministers of the G-7, which includes the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Japan, agreed in principle to the creation of a global minimum tax on corporations that would force companies that shift profits to subsidiaries in low- or no-tax jurisdictions to pay …
A number of major websites could not be reached early Tuesday following an outage at the cloud services company Fastly.The affected sites included news agencies CNN, the Guardian and the New York Times, streaming platform Twitch, and the U.K. government’s website.All were back online within a period of hours.Fastly said it identified an issue and that “and a fix is being implemented.”The company earlier said it was “investigating potential impact to performance with our CDN services.” …
U.N. judges are set to rule Tuesday on former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic’s appeal of his 2017 conviction for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mladic, 78, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of leading the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, and of terror and unlawful attacks against civilians in Sarajevo during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war. Mladic maintains his innocence. His lawyers argued that his conviction was based on what they say were legal and factual mistakes, and that he should be acquitted or re-tried because others were responsible for atrocities. Prosecutors have also appealed Mladic’s acquittal on another genocide charge related to …
The German Defense Ministry said Monday it had been forced to deal with an unexpected problem regarding their troops in Afghanistan — a surplus of beer. At a news briefing in Berlin on Monday, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Christina Routsi explained that Germany’s troops in Afghanistan had been permitted to consume alcohol at times and in limited quantities. Soldiers were allowed two cans of beer — or the equivalent in other beverages — per day. But Germany’s commander of its armed forces in Afghanistan, citing a high enemy threat level, banned all consumption of alcohol. Routsi said this created a problem for the …
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, pleading to meet U.S. President Joe Biden prior to Biden’s talks in Geneva next week, was rebuffed by the White House on that request but was awarded a consolation phone call on Monday that included an invitation to Washington.”They had the opportunity to talk at some length about all of the issues in the U.S.-Ukraine relationship, and President Biden was able to tell President Zelenskiy that he will stand up firmly for Ukraine sovereignty, territorial integrity and its aspirations as we go forward,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told White House reporters.Sullivan also said Biden told …
Authorities on Greece’s most popular tourist island, Mykonos, will deploy more than a dozen drones to spot those who defy safety protocols aimed at preventing the spread and resurgence of COVID-19. The decision, known as “Operation Mykonos,” comes after a string of local so-called “Corona-parties” organized by entrepreneurs at private villas and estates in recent weeks to bypass safety rules banning the operation of nightclubs. It also comes as the beleaguered government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis scrambles to revive its battered tourism sector, luring foreign travelers — mainly from the United States, Europe, Israel, and Russia — with …
Spain jumpstarted its summer tourism season on Monday by welcoming vaccinated visitors from most countries as well as European visitors who can prove they are not infected with coronavirus. It also reopened its ports to cruise ship stops. The move opened borders for the first vacationers from the United States and other countries outside of the European Union that had been banned since March last year, when the pandemic hit global travel. Matthew Eisenberg, a 22-year-old student, stepped out of Madrid airport’s arrivals lounge in excitment, ready to enjoy the Spanish capital along with two more American friends. “We …
Serena Williams turns 40 in September. Roger Federer hits that milestone the month before. No one knows how many more French Open appearances each will make, and this year’s tournament ended for both on Sunday.Williams fell way behind and could not put together a comeback against a much younger and less-experienced opponent in the fourth round at Roland Garros, losing 6-3, 7-5 to Elena Rybakina, who wasn’t even born when the American made her tournament debut in 1998.Asked whether that might have been her last match at the clay-court major, Williams replied: “Yeah, I’m definitely not thinking about it at …