Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation Friday, plunging the country deeper into chaos as it tries to negotiate its exit from the European Union. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the race to become her successor will begin June 7, and the scene is set for more political drama and uncertainty. …
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo next week will make up a trip to Germany he canceled earlier this month amid heightened tensions with Iran. The State Department says Pompeo will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin before heading to additional stops in Europe. Pompeo abruptly canceled a planned May 7 stop in Germany to make an unexpected visit to Iraq, shortly after the Trump administration announced it was sending an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf in response to threats from Iran. After meeting Merkel and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, the department said Pompeo would travel on to …
An explosion on a busy street in the French city of Lyon wounded seven people Friday, local officials said. The cause of the blast wasn’t immediately known, said Kamel Amerouche, the regional authority’s communications chief. Authorities couldn’t confirm reports that it was a small package that exploded. Amerouche told The Associated Press the wounded suffered leg injuries that weren’t life-threatening. He said the explosion occurred in or outside a store of the bakery chain Brioche Doree. Earlier, French officials said eight people were wounded, but later lowered the figure to seven. The street was blocked off by police in …
The Italian parliament’s anti-mafia committee on Thursday declared five candidates for the European elections “unpresentable,” including billionaire and three-time prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The five include three candidates from Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia party and one from the far-right Casa Pound, and all are currently under investigation or being tried for alleged crimes, according to the committee’s president Nicola Morra. The committee’s declaration will not stop the candidates from running in the European Parliament elections, which in Italy are to be held on Sunday. Media magnate Berlusconi has faced a string of charges over the so-called Rubygate scandal linked to …
U.S. prosecutors Thursday announced new criminal charges under the Espionage Act against jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over his alleged role in what they termed “one of the largest compromises of classified information” in U.S. history. The charges are not related to WikiLeaks’ alleged role in disseminating stolen Democratic emails during the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. An 18-count superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia accuses Assange of working with former Army specialist Chelsea Manning to obtain and publish on WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of highly sensitive U.S. government reports about the wars …
Iran told a German envoy seeking to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal that its patience was over and urged the treaty’s remaining signatories to fulfill their commitments after the United States pulled out, the Fars news agency reported on Thursday. Jens Ploetner, a political director in the German Foreign Ministry, met Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. A German diplomatic source told Reuters that talks with other Iranian officials were also planned. The semi-official Fars news agency said Araghchi had relayed Iran’s impatience during the talks. Britain, France and Germany, which signed the 2015 deal along with the United States, …
Turkey stopped purchasing Iranian oil as of May as U.S. waivers granted last November to eight buyers expired, and will continue to abide by Washington’s demand that it halt all imports of crude oil from the Islamic Republic, a senior Turkish official said on Wednesday. “We are not getting any oil from Iran now,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We were one of the eight countries getting an exception from those sanctions, and now we are ready to abide by them,” he said. Reuters on Monday reported that no tankers loaded in Iran have arrived at …
The U.N. refugee agency says the majority of Venezuelans fleeing worsening conditions in their country are in need of international protection and must not be forcibly returned home. Citizens are leaving Venezuela as political, economic, human rights and humanitarian conditions deteriorate. The U.N. refugee agency reports some 3.7 million people have fled the country. Most have gone to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Caribbean countries. The agency says by the end of last year, some 460,000 Venezuelans had formally sought asylum. But given the dire conditions back home, UNHCR spokeswoman Liz Throssell said it is clear the majority of the …
Every year, 8 million tons of waste suffocate beaches and sea beds, says Italy’s environment league, Legambiente. Its Beach Litter report issued this week revealed that more than 80 percent of the waste found on 93 beaches was plastic. A mass cleanup is planned next weekend, involving thousands of volunteers on 250 beaches and coastal sites. Legambiente, which organized the effort, also urged the government to approve the Salvamare (Save Our Seas) bill that would allow fishermen to bring to shore any plastic that ends up in their nets, without having to pay for disposal costs. Greenpeace Italy sounded …
Even by the highly colorful standards of Britain’s great big Brexit mess, what looks like Prime Minister Theresa May’s final days in office are turning into a psychodrama without much precedence in modern British political history. With lawmakers in her ruling party in open revolt, ministers resigning, and more threatening to do so, joining a long list of dozens who’ve quit in the past two years, a teary-eyed May seemed determined Thursday to try to eke out some more time in Downing Street. She was accused by a former Conservative party leader of having shut herself in with the “sofa …
Dutch and U.K. polls opened Thursday in elections for the European Parliament, starting four days of voting across the 28-nation bloc that pits supporters of deeper integration against populist Euroskeptics who want more power for their national governments. A half hour after voting started in the Netherlands, polls opened across the United Kingdom, the only other country voting Thursday, and a nation still wrestling with its plans to leave the European Union altogether and the leadership of embattled Prime Minister Theresa May. The elections, which end Sunday night, come as support is surging for populists and nationalists who want to …
Prominent Brexit supporter Andrea Leadsom resigned from Prime Minister Theresa May’s government on Wednesday, piling pressure on the British leader after a new Brexit gambit backfired and fueled calls for her to quit. So far May has resisted, vowing to press on despite opposition from lawmakers and other ministers to her bid to get her Brexit deal through parliament by softening her stance on a second referendum and customs arrangements. But Leadsom’s resignation further deepens the Brexit crisis, sapping an already weak leader of her authority. Almost three years since Britain voted to leave the European Union, it is not …
The next NATO summit will be held in London in December, marking the alliance’s 70th anniversary, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday. “The next summit of Allied leaders will take place on 3-4 December 2019 in London. … I look forward to a successful summit,” he said. Stoltenberg said the had discussed preparations for the summit of heads of state and government with British Prime Minister Theresa May during a visit to London last week. The December summit will be a chance to “address current and emerging security challenges and how NATO continues to invest and adapt to ensure it …
Libyan eastern commander Khalifa Haftar told French President Emmanuel Macron that conditions for a cease-fire were not in place, although he would be ready to talk if those conditions were met, a French presidency official said. Macron and French officials have for several weeks called for an unconditional cease-fire in the battle for Tripoli after Haftar last month launched an offensive on the Libyan capital. “The distrust we see between the Libyan actors is stronger than ever today,” said a French presidential official after the meeting between Macron and Haftar in Paris. “When the question of the cease-fire was put …
The editor of a Turkish Cypriot newspaper said Wednesday his acquittal on charges he insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a triumph of Turkish Cypriot justice. Sener Levent, editor of Afrika newspapers in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus, said he’s confident the supreme court will side with him should his acquittal be challenged. Levent and colleague Ali Osman Tabak were acquitted last week over a 2017 front-page cartoon Afrika ran depicting a Greek statue urinating on Erdogan accompanied by the caption “as seen through Greek eyes.” He called the ruling the “biggest legal achievement” by Turkish Cypriots …
British lawmakers are denouncing Prime Minister Theresa May’s latest proposal to withdraw from the European Union (EU) amid growing demands from her own Conservative Party for her resignation. May said on Tuesday a bill she plans to present to Parliament next month would include a provision to vote on whether to hold a second referendum to leave the EU, a key demand of many opposition lawmakers. May also offered closer trading arrangements with the EU as another incentive in what she called a “last chance” opportunity to finalize a Brexit deal. Speaking before the House of Commons on Wednesday, May …
Pope Francis has appointed two auxiliary bishops to Santiago, Chile. They are the first bishops who have been appointed to the South American nation since the entire bishops conference offered its resignation due to what the pontiff described as a “culture of cover up” when it comes to clerical abuse. The newly appointed auxiliary bishops are Carlos Irarrazaval Errazuriz and Alberto Lorenzelli Rossi, both of whom served as priests in the Chilean capital. The latter is an Italian-Argentine who arrived in Chile five years ago and is not part of the long-standing divisions existing among the clergy in Santiago. The …
Austria’s president on Wednesday swore in new, technocratic ministers to replace politicians from the far-right Freedom Party who left the government following a scandal surrounding its leader. With his government rocking, it remains unclear whether Chancellor Sebastian Kurz will survive a no-confidence vote next week. Austria faces early elections in September after the conservative Kurz’s coalition with the Freedom Party collapsed. Heinz-Christian Strache quit as vice chancellor and party leader after a video leaked to two German publications showed him appearing to offer favors to a purported Russian investor during a boozy meeting on the Spanish island of Ibiza two …
Spain’s Repsol, the last western oil giant with major operations in Venezuela, is leaving the embattled country, as pressure mounts from U.S. sanctions and continuing unrest. Repsol’s investments in Venezuela, valued at nearly $1.7 billion (1,480 billion euros) in 2017, have fallen 70% over the past year. The company’s annual report also says the firm will continue winding down its Venezuelan business in the next few months. Repsol has been the subject of intense negotiations between Spain and Washington as the Trump administration tries to get Madrid’s socialist government to join efforts to isolate President Nicolas Maduro. Spanish oil companies …
Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in the Czech capital Tuesday as demands intensified for the resignation of the new justice minister. The protesters say the minister might compromise the legal system at a time when prosecutors have to decide whether to indict Prime Minister Andrej Babis over alleged fraud involving European Union funds. Babis denies any wrongdoing. Concerns of bias The justice minister has significant control over prosecutors. The protesters are angry that Marie Benesova was appointed shortly after police recommended Babis’ indictment in April. As a lawmaker, Benesova voted against a police request to strip Babis of parliamentary …