Category: Євросоюз

AMSTERDAM — Semiconductor industry group SEMI Europe called on the European Union on Monday to place as few restrictions as possible on outbound investment in foreign computer chip technology by companies based in the bloc.  Proposals to screen outbound investment — European capital being invested in foreign semiconductor, AI and biotechnology companies — are being considered, though no EU decision is expected before 2025.  The U.S. has issued draft rules for banning some such investments in China that could threaten U.S. national security, part of a broader push to prevent U.S. know-how from helping the Chinese to develop sophisticated technology and dominate global …

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Geneva — Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival opens on Wednesday with Shah Rukh Khan, Jane Campion, Alfonso Cuaron and Irene Jacob set to be honored with special awards. Founded in 1946, Locarno is one of the world’s longest-running annual film festivals and focuses on auteur cinema. Held on the shores of Lake Maggiore, in the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland, films are screened in Locarno’s central square, a feature of Swiss national life depicted on the country’s 20-franc banknotes. The open-air Piazza Grande holds up to 8,000 moviegoers, and films are shown on one of the largest screens in the world. …

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Paris — Rarely on the podium and barred from the opening ceremony, the 15 Russians competing at the Paris Olympics have an uneasy status as “Individual Neutral Athletes” following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Some in the Olympic Village opposed them taking part in the Summer Games, and Russian opinion is divided. In Russia, the Olympics aren’t being shown on TV and some politicians and media figures have even described those willing to compete in Paris as traitors. It’s a complex environment for the athletes, some of them teenagers, to navigate and they’re wary of talking about politics or the war.  …

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Somewhere in Ukraine — Ukraine’s newly arrived F-16 fighter jets were put on display Sunday by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the planes will boost the country’s war effort against Russia. “These jets are in our sky and today you see them,” said Zelenskyy, standing in front of two of the fighter jets as two others flew overhead in close formation. “It’s good that they are here and that we can put them to use.” Ukraine is also trying to get neighboring countries to help defend it against Russian missiles, Zelenskyy said. “This decision is probably a difficult one for our …

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London — Police in the north of England town of Rotherham were struggling to hold back a mob of far-right rioters Sunday who were seeking to break into a hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers, as the latest bout of rioting following a stabbing rampage at a dance class last week that left three girls dead and several wounded showed few signs of abating.  Footage from Sky News showed a line of police officers with shields facing a barrage of missiles, including bits of wood, chairs and fire extinguishers, as they sought to prevent the rioters from entering the Holiday …

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Kyiv — Ukraine has sunk a Russian submarine and hit a Russian airfield in the past 24 hours, in line with a surge of long-range attacks against Russian targets, officials said. Russia said Ukrainian drones also hit an apartment building, killing one person.  The uptick in attacks since July comes as Ukraine mounts pressure on allies to allow it to use long-range missiles to strike targets in Russia. Western allies, in particular the U.S., have so far resisted, fearing escalation from Moscow. Ukraine struck a Russian Kilo-class submarine and an S-400 anti aircraft missile complex in the Moscow-occupied Crimean peninsula, according …

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rome — Italy’s coast guard said Sunday two migrants died after they were rescued along with more than 30 others in the Mediterranean off the eastern coast of Sicily. The coast guard said it received a distress call late Saturday from a boat located about 17 miles southeast of Syracuse carrying Syrian, Egyptian and Bangladeshi migrants. Search and rescue operations began after the coast guard dispatched a patrol boat and plane to the area, but “the occupants of the vessel ended up in the water as the patrol boat approached,” it said in a statement. Although 34 people were recovered from …

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MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and Germany on Sunday committed to signing a defense cooperation arrangement this year, vowing to stand for the international rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro committed to establishing long-term relations between their armed forces to expand training and bilateral exchanges, explore opportunities to expand bilateral armaments cooperation and engage in joint projects. The two met in Manila during the first such visit by a German defense minister, as their countries mark 70 years of diplomatic relations. Teodoro said the Philippines, seeking to modernize its military …

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KYIV, Ukraine — The American-made F-16 is an iconic fighter jet that’s been the front-line combat plane of choice for the NATO alliance and numerous air forces around the world for 50 years. Western countries have pledged F-16s to Kyiv, and some have arrived in Ukraine, officials in Washington and Ukraine confirmed to The Associated Press. The fighter jets are expected to start flying sorties in Ukrainian skies soon and will be a much-needed boost to the country’s current fleet of Soviet-era jets that are laboring to counter Russia’s invasion. United States President Joe Biden gave the go-ahead in August 2023 …

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CAMMARATA, Italy — On a scorching July afternoon, a municipal water truck rolls up in a cloud of dust on Liborio Mangiapane’s farm in southern Sicily. Some of the precious liquid gets transferred to a smaller cistern on a tractor that Mangiapane’s son will use to fill troughs for 250 cattle and sheep, but by tomorrow, all 10,000 liters from the truck will be gone. Crippling drought from a nearly rainless year, coupled with record-high temperatures, has burned out much of the region’s hay and is pushing farmers to the limit. For Mangiapane, every day is a struggle to find water, …

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Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered condolences to North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un over devastating floods that caused untold casualties and damaged thousands of homes, the Kremlin said on Saturday. The North, in turn, said Sunday that Putin had also offered “immediate humanitarian support” to aid its recovery efforts, to which Kim responded that he “could deeply feel the special emotion towards a genuine friend.” Pyongyang said this week it had seen a record downpour on July 27 which killed an unspecified number of people, flooded dwellings and submerged swaths of farmland in the north near China. “I …

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DAKAR, Senegal — Two men claiming to be Russian nationals and saying they were taken captive in Niger by militants linked to al-Qaida appeared in a video published on a media platform affiliated to the extremist group. The video, which appeared on the az-Zallaqa platform Friday night, showed two men who said they were seized by the militants while working in Baga in northeastern Niger. The men, seated side by side and dressed in traditional local clothing, spoke into the camera. One identified himself as Yury, saying he is a geologist and was working for a Russian company when he was …

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Ukrainian tennis player Alex Dolgopolov was once ranked 13th in the world. But shortly after Russia invaded his homeland in 2022, he volunteered to fight on the front lines. Anna Kosstutschenko met with the tennis star turned drone operator. Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy. …

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KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine’s military said on Saturday it had attacked Russia’s Morozovsk airfield and several oil depots and fuel storage facilities in three Russian regions overnight. The attack on the airfield hit an ammunition depot where Russian forces stored guided aerial bombs among other equipment, the military said. “Russian combat aviation must be destroyed wherever it is, by all effective means. It is also quite fair to strike at Russian airfields. And we need this joint solution with our partners — a security solution,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Russian …

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RABAT, Morocco — France has thrown its support behind Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara, shifting a decades-old position and adding itself to a growing list of countries to align with Morocco as a United Nations-mediated peace process remains stalled. In a letter to King Mohammed VI, France’s President Emmanuel Macron called the plan that Morocco proposed in 2007 to offer the region limited autonomy under its sovereignty the “only basis” to solve the conflict. The shift deals a blow to the pro-independence Polisario Front, which has for decades claimed to be the legitimate representative of the indigenous Sahrawi …

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london — Protesters attacked police and started fires in the northeast English city of Sunderland on Friday as violence spread to another northern city following Monday’s killing of three children in Southport.  Anti-immigrant demonstrators threw stones at police in riot gear near a mosque in the city before overturning vehicles, setting a car on fire and starting a fire next to a police office, the BBC said.  “The safety of the public is our utmost priority and when we became aware that a protest had been planned, we ensured there was an increased policing presence in the city,” Northumbria Police Chief …

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washington — American permanent resident Vladimir Kara-Murza told reporters on Friday he had expected to die in a Russian prison. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, who had been serving a 25-year prison sentence following a 2022 arrest, was freed Thursday in a historic prisoner swap negotiated by the U.S. and its allies with Russia. Kara-Murza spoke to the media in Bonn, Germany, with two of the seven Russians — Ilya Yashin and Andrei Pivovarov — also freed in the deal. At the briefing, he detailed the harsh conditions he was subjected to, including 10 months in solitary confinement, and restricted contact with …

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LONDON — Several suspects arrested in violent protests that erupted after the fatal stabbing of three children in northwest England were due in court Friday as officials braced for more clashes that Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned and blamed on “far-right hatred.” Starmer vowed to end the mayhem and said police across the United Kingdom would be given more resources to stop “a breakdown in law and order on our streets.” Demonstrations are being promoted online over the coming days in towns and cities that include Sunderland, Belfast, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester, using phrases such as “enough is enough,” “save our …

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