Category: Євросоюз

The U.N. Security Council Thursday unanimously passed the first-ever resolution ordering members to enforce laws against terror financing.  Experts believe as many as two-thirds of U.N. members are not adequately prosecuting those who aid terrorists in acquiring money. Thursday’s resolution demands all states “ensure that their domestic laws and regulations establish serious criminal offenses” to collect funds or financial resources to terrorist groups or individual criminals. It also calls on members to create financial intelligence units.  Nations that fail to carry out the resolution would face U.N. sanctions. U.N. counterterrorism chief Vladimir Voronkov said the resolution comes at a “critical …

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The Kremlin on Thursday rejected U.S. calls for Moscow to withdraw its military specialists from Venezuela, saying they are there to honor obligations under previous arms contracts. Asked to comment on Washington’s demand for Moscow to pull out its personnel and halt other assistance to embattled President Nicolas Maduro, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov snapped that “our bilateral relations isn’t something that should concern third countries.” “The United States is present in many parts of the world and no one is telling it where it should or shouldn’t be,” he told reporters. “We anticipate respect for our right …

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A Russian gun-rights activist will be sentenced next month after admitting she was a secret agent for the Kremlin who tried to infiltrate conservative U.S. political groups as Donald Trump rose to power. Maria Butina appeared briefly Thursday in federal court in Washington and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan set Butina’s sentencing for April 26. Butina, who wore a green jail uniform with her hair pulled back in a long ponytail, did not speak during the court hearing. In December, she pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent and agreed to cooperate …

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Britons desperately wanting some clarity in the country’s interminable Brexit saga were disappointed Wednesday when lawmakers plunged the country’s proposed exit from the European Union, after half-a-century of membership, into further disarray, failing to find a majority for any way forward after a series of so-called indicative votes. The hope had been a majority might emerge from the eight different options they voted on, which included staying in the EU, leaving with no withdrawal agreement, remaining in the bloc’s customs union and/or single market or holding a second Brexit referendum. “Parliament Finally Has Its Say: No. No. No. No. No. …

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British Prime Minister Theresa May is making one final push to convince enough lawmakers to approve her deal for the country’s planned split with the European Union. The future of Brexit became more uncertain than ever Wednesday after Parliament turned down 16 different alternatives to Prime Minister May’s deal for Britain to split from the EU. Negotiators reduced that number down to eight, which were brought to votes. The options included keeping Britain in a customs union with the EU, and one that would have put the question of leaving the EU to another voter referendum. All final eight ideas …

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Excluding NATO-member Turkey from the trillion-dollar F-35 fighter jet program would be challenging because of Ankara’s integral role in the stealthy jet’s production process, but not impossible, U.S. sources familiar with the situation said. Last week Reuters reported that the United States could soon freeze preparations for delivering F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, a move that would widen the rift between Ankara and Washington, the latest disagreement in a yearslong standoff. Russian air defense At the heart of the matter lies Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s commitment to buy a Russian air defense system that the United States says would compromise …

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British car production slumped by an annual 15.3 percent last month as demand in important European and Asian markets fell, an industry body said Thursday as it warned again about the damage a no-deal Brexit would do to the sector. Output fell to 123,203 cars in February, the ninth month of declines as exports, which account for 80 percent of total production, slumped 16.4 percent, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). “The ninth month of decline for UK car production should be a wake-up call for anyone who thinks this industry, already challenged by international trade …

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Britain’s Parliament on Wednesday turned down multiple alternatives to the government’s twice-rejected deal for leaving the European Union, leaving the future of Brexit more uncertain than ever.    The House of Commons took over Brexit from Prime Minister Theresa May, who had failed to secure approval of a deal.   Lawmakers began debate Wednesday with 16 separate plans. Negotiators reduced that number to eight, which were brought to votes. All were rejected.    Among the alternatives turned down was one that would have kept Britain in a customs union with the EU, and one that would have put the question of …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that it was time to rename Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia as a mosque, saying that it had been a “very big mistake” to convert it into a museum. “Hagia Sophia will not be called a museum. It will be taken out of that status. We will call Hagia Sophia a mosque,” Erdogan told A Haber television during an interview.    “Those who come to Hagia Sophia will visit Hagia Sophia mosque,” he said.     The former church and mosque, now a museum, often sparks tensions between Christians and Muslims over Islamic activities held there, including …

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Three members of the French government have quit their jobs ahead of campaigns for European Parliament elections next month and municipal elections in France next year, the presidency said on Wednesday. ​ European affairs minister Nathalie Loiseau, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux and digital junior minister Mounir Mahjoubi, have left the government, the Elysee palace said in a brief statement. Loiseau had earlier announced her resignation in order to lead the LREM party into the May 26 European Parliament vote and Mahjoubi has said he would run for Paris mayor in 2020. Griveaux has repeatedly said he will announce by the …

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Authorities in Portugal have placed the country on high alert for wildfires amid a prolonged dry spell and unseasonably high temperatures. The government announced a civil protection alert from Wednesday through Sunday because of “a significant worsening of the wildfire risk.”   The alert means exceptional measures are being enacted, including more firefighters on standby and a ban on burning cut vegetation.   The move comes after many weeks of almost no rain. A typically dry easterly wind from Spain is also forecast to blow strongly in coming days.   Authorities say the southern Algarve region, where forested hills look …

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The founder and all-female editorial board of the Vatican’s women’s magazine have resigned to protest what they call a campaign to discredit them and put them under the direct control of men. The editorial committee of Women Church World, a monthly supplement to the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano, claims the daily’s new editor has sabotaged the magazine after it denounced sexual abuse of nuns by the clergy. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more. …

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Spain is seeking the extradition of as many as 10 people from the United States who burst into the North Korean embassy in Madrid last month and tried to pass stolen information to the FBI. A Spanish judge said he believes all 10 fled to the United States after the February 22 raid. He called them members of a criminal organization and accuses them of trespassing, burglary, assault, and threats. If extradited and convicted, those found guilty could face nearly 30 years in prison. The suspects call themselves Cheollima Civil Defense and describe the group as a human rights movement …

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Turkey’s ruling AKP Party with its message of services, jobs, and construction is seeking to defeat the country’s main pro-Kurdish HDP party in Sunday’s local elections. One of the main battlegrounds is Diyarbakir, the central city in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, a center of a decades-long insurgency by separatists. Dorian Jones reports. …

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Spain is seeking extradition from the United States as many as 10 people who burst into the North Korean embassy in Madrid last month and tried to pass stolen information to the FBI. A Spanish judge believes all 10 fled to the U.S. after the Feb.  22 raid. He calls them members of a criminal organization and accuses them of trespassing, burglary, assault, and threats. The leader of the group has been identified as Adrian Hong Chang — a Mexican citizen who is a U.S. resident. Others in the group include American and South Korean citizens.  The suspects call themselves …

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The U.S. on Tuesday imposed new sanctions on a network of 25 individuals and entities in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates it accused of laundering more than a billion dollars and euros that were used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and defense ministry to fund terrorism in the Middle East. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement the U.S. was “targeting a vast network of front companies and individuals” in the three countries “to disrupt a scheme the Iranian regime has used … to exploit the international financial system to evade (U.S.) sanctions, while the regime …

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Top European Union leaders joined Chinese President Xi Jinping in Paris in stressing multilateralism to address issues from peace and security to climate change and trade. The Paris meeting with Xi, which came ahead of a key EU-China summit planned for April 9, brought together some of the bloc’s biggest heavyweights: President Emmanuel Macron of France, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker. At a joint press conference following the talks, Macron stressed what he described as areas of convergence between the European Union and China, two of the world’s biggest economic powers. Among them: intensifying the …

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday expanded the Trump administration’s ban on U.S. aid to groups that promote or provide abortions to include organizations that comply with the rules but give money to others that don’t. Pompeo also said the U.S. would cut some assistance to the Organization of America States because at least two of its agencies are allegedly lobbying for abortion availability in the Western Hemisphere. Pompeo said the administration was committed to protecting “the sanctity of life” in the United States and abroad and would enforce the policy “to the broadest extent possible” by not allowing …

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Britain’s beleaguered Theresa May gathered her ministers Tuesday for yet another emergency Cabinet meeting as the House of Commons upended centuries of constitutional practice and seized control of parliamentary business from the government in a bid to end the long-running Brexit impasse. A series of “indicative votes” planned for Wednesday in the House of Commons, however, may fail to find a solution and plunge Britain deeper into political chaos, according to analysts. Some lawmakers worry the votes to try to find consensus among MPs on what type of deal they want with the European Union may end up revealing there …

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Facebook said Tuesday it shut down more than 2,600 fake accounts linked to Iran, Russia, Macedonia and Kosovo and aiming to influence political sentiment in various parts of the world. It was the latest effort by the leading social network to shut down “inauthentic” accounts on Facebook and Instagram seeking to influence politics in the U.S. and elsewhere. Facebook said the accounts blocked in the four countries were not necessarily centrally coordinated but “used similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy …

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