Category: Євросоюз

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a summit next month in Geneva, the first face-to-face meeting of the two leaders at a time when the two countries are at odds on several contentious issues.The White House confirmed details of the June 16 meeting with Putin on Tuesday, saying Biden would add the meeting to his first international trip as president when he visits Britain for a meeting with the Group of Seven leaders and Brussels for a NATO summit.Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki said he and Putin “will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as …

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The Afghan Taliban have decided upon three conditions to attend an eagerly awaited U.S.-proposed conference in Turkey: The conference must be short, the agenda should not include decision-making on critical issues, and the Taliban delegation should be low level, a senior Taliban leader told VOA Tuesday.  “Our leadership has proposed that the Istanbul meeting should not be longer than three days,” said the leader who did not want to be identified as he is not allowed to speak on the record. Another senior Taliban leader confirmed the news when approached by VOA. The conference, to be hosted jointly by the …

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Britain’s storied BBC is preparing for its centennial next year, but the public broadcaster has been plunged into a major crisis of trust, linked to a notorious television interview with Princess Diana a quarter-century ago, and is now finding itself heading into a fight for its very survival.      Last week, an independent inquiry led by a former judge, John Dyson, found that an explosive 1995 BBC interview with Princess Diana had been secured through deception, fraud and forgery. As the publicly-funded BBC prides itself on its high ethical standards and transparency, the finding is calamitous, say opponents, including …

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International pressure is growing on Turkey over its military presence in Libya. Turkey deployed hundreds of soldiers and thousands of Syrian fighters in support of the Libyan Government of National Accord in its battle against forces of Libya’s General Khalifa Hafta, who is backed by Russian and Sudanese mercenaries. Now, with a cease-fire in force and elections scheduled for December, Aya Burweila, a visiting lecturer at the Hellenic National Defense College, says pressure is growing for all foreign troops to quit.”There has been two UN Security Council Resolutions already for the removal of all foreign presence from Libya, be it Turkish Russian …

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The European Union is urging member nations to close their airspace and airports to all Belarusian airlines after Belarus forced a commercial jetliner to make an emergency landing Sunday in Minsk and arrested an opposition blogger critical of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Conclusions on Belarus journalist Raman Pratasevich stands in an airport bus in the international airport outside Minsk, Belarus, May 23, 2021, in this photo released by telegram Chanel t.me/motolkohelp.Pratasevich, a former editor of the influential Telegram channels Nexta and Nexta Live, was detained by police when Belarusian authorities searched the plane. The Minsk government said Lukashenko ordered his military …

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An investigation into the cable car crash that left 14 people dead in Italy will focus on why a cable broke and the emergency brakes did not work, a prosecutor said Monday.“The brakes of the security system didn’t work. Otherwise, the cabin would have stopped,” Olimpia Bossi, the lead prosecutor in Verbania, told reporters Monday. “Why that happened is naturally under investigation.”Fourteen people, including two children under the age of 10, were killed when the Stresa-Mottarone cable car, which travels between the resort town of Stresa to the top of Mottarone mountain in Italy’s Piedmont region, crashed to the ground …

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Turkey and Poland have signed a deal for the sale of Turkish-made combat drones, making Poland the first NATO and European Union member country to purchase Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday. The agreement was signed during Polish President Andrzej Duda’s three-day visit to Turkey. Under the deal, Poland is set to receive 24 armed drones, ground control stations and data terminals, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The first drone is expected to be delivered next year. “We are one of the best countries regarding unmanned aerial vehicles,” Erdogan said during a joint news conference. “We …

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Pro-Palestinian demonstrations continued across Europe this past weekend despite a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. The protests are one result of the Middle East violence that has divided European Union member states and left some fearful of unrest at home.   Thousands joined rallies in Paris and other French cities Saturday — demonstrations echoed in other European capitals in solidarity for the Palestinian cause.     At the Place de le Republique in the French capital, protesters chanted “Palestine will conquer,” and “Israel, assassin” — voicing outrage at the recent clashes between Israel and Hamas, which mostly killed Palestinians. …

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Police in London say Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson is in critical condition after being shot in the head in south London in the early hours of Sunday. Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the scene in the Peckham area of south London around 3 a.m. Sunday after gunshots were reported. They found a woman, later identified at Johnson, with gunshot wounds to the head.    A close friend of Johnson’s, Imarn Ayton, told the BBC in an interview that Johnson was at a gathering in the neighborhood when shots were fired from a passing car. The friend …

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At least 14 people, including two children, were killed Sunday in northern Italy when a cable car popular among tourists fell 20 meters to the ground. A two-year-old child died instantly, and one nine-year-old died in the hospital after suffering two cardiac arrests. Another child, a five-year-old was seriously injured but conscious and speaking. He is being treated at the Regina Margherita children’s hospital in Turin.   Some passengers were stuck inside the cabin while others were thrown out during the crash. About half the passengers were foreign nationals, Italian authorities said. The Italian ANSA news agency has published the names of the victims.  The Stresa-Mottarone funicular travels between the resort town of Stresa on the shores …

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European leaders are vowing to punish Belarus for illegally diverting to Minsk Sunday a Lithuanian-bound Ryanair flight carrying a fugitive critic of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. Their fury was fueled as more details emerged Monday of the dramatic events leading up to the diversion of the plane. The Ryanair Boeing 737 was carrying 171 passengers and crew had taken off from Athens and was flying over Belarus. It was just moments from leaving Belarusian air space when the captain was signaled by the pilot of a Belarus MiG-29 jet to land in the Belarus capital and not to proceed to the …

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The singer for Italy’s Eurovision Song Contest winning rockers Maneskin will take a voluntary drug test after denying speculation that he was snorting cocaine during the broadcast, organizers said Sunday. Red lederhosen-clad vocalist Damiano David will be tested after going back to Italy, following viral footage of him leaning over a table in the hospitality area of the competition in Rotterdam.  “We are aware of the speculation surrounding the video clip of the Italian winners of the Eurovision Song Contest in the Green Room last night,” the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said in a statement.  “The band have strongly refuted the …

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European Union governments are demanding an immediate explanation from Belarus about the diversion of a Lithuanian-bound flight to Minsk, where authorities arrested one of its passengers, opposition activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said the commercial flight was directed to land “by force,” while Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the event a “reprehensible act of state terrorism.” Nauseda slammed the arrest of Pratasevich and said the international community “must take immediate steps that this does not repeat.” His reaction came in an e-mailed statement quoted by Reuters that followed his initial reaction to the incident on Twitter. Mateusz said …

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At least eight people have died and two are seriously injured after a cable car connecting Italy’s Maggiore lake with a mountain close by plunged on Sunday, the national alpine rescue service said. The Stresa-Mottarone cable car takes tourists and locals from the famous town of Stresa, on lake Maggiore, up almost 1400 meters above sea level to the top of the Mottarone mountain in 20 minutes.”It is a very serious accident,” Walter Milan, a spokesman for the national alpine rescue service told RaiNews24 television.He said two children had been transported by helicopter to a pediatric hospital in the northern city …

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Martin Bashir, the BBC journalist who tricked princess Diana into giving an explosive interview, on Sunday apologized to Princes William and Harry, but said claims linking his actions to her death were “unreasonable.” A report by retired senior judge John Dyson published on Thursday found that Bashir commissioned faked bank statements that falsely suggested some of Diana’s closest aides were being paid by the security services to keep tabs on her. FILE – Princess Diana arrives at the Royal Geographical Society in London for a speech on the dangers of landmines throughout the world, June 12, 1997.Bashir, 58, then showed them to …

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Move over sequins, disco beats and power ballads. A four-piece band of Italian rockers won the Eurovision Song Contest in the early hours of Sunday.Maneskin’s win was only the third victory for Italy in the immensely popular contest and the first since Toto Cutugno took the honor in 1990.Italy, the bookmakers’ favorite, trailed Switzerland, France and Malta after the national juries delivered their votes but were propelled to victory by votes from the viewing public.Ahead of the show, crowds gathered outside the Ahoy arena in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Drag queens mingled with families as a man in a …

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Tony Hall, who was director of BBC news and current affairs at the time of the public broadcaster’s explosive 1995 interview with Princess Diana, resigned Saturday as board chairman of Britain’s National Gallery.Hall, who subsequently rose to the top job at the BBC, was heavily criticized in a report this week for a botched inquiry into how journalist Martin Bashir obtained the blockbuster interview.In a statement, the 70-year-old said his continued presence at the gallery would be a “distraction to an institution I care deeply about.”“As I said two days ago, I am very sorry for the events of 25 …

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The United States formally blacklisted more than a dozen Russian ships involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, days after exempting the pipeline’s Russian operator and CEO.The widely expected move, announced late on May 21 by the U.S. Treasury Department, came amid vehement criticism from congressional Republicans about the White House’s earlier announcement that it would not include the pipeline’s Russian-owned operator in the new sanctions.Nearly complete, the Baltic Sea pipeline will bring Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing land routes through Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries.Critics said it will increase German dependence on Russian energy …

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The sanctioning of Albania’s former leader for “significant corruption” is being cast as part of a drive by the new U.S. administration to fight corruption and promote democracy worldwide. But some analysts are questioning the wisdom of punishing a foreign politician for actions not directly affecting the United States. In announcing the sanctions on Sali Berisha and members of his family this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Berisha “was involved in corrupt acts” during his term as prime minister of Albania, including “misappropriation of public funds and interfering with public processes.” FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken …

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Desperate teenagers and jobless men from Morocco’s coastal towns, its mountainous east or even farther away converged on the border town of Fnideq this week, part of an extraordinary mass effort to swim or scale barbed-wire fences to get into Spain for a chance at a new life.More than 8,000 migrants made it into the city of Ceuta, an enclave in North Africa that is separated from the rest of Spain by the Mediterranean — but for most of them, it was a short-lived success.The extraordinary surge of migrants crossing from Morocco into Spain came amid the chaos of a …

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