Category: Євросоюз

As British politicians wrestle with Brexit, Britain’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community — like others around the world — is grappling with a potential split of its own. Can the coalition of allies, which traces its roots back to the early days of gay liberation in the 1960s, survive in its current form? Caught in the crossfire between trans activists and feminists over the nature of what it is to be a woman, calls for a break-up of the longstanding LGBT+ alliance back to its constituent elements are starting to emerge. At the heart of the increasingly toxic debate …

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The United Nations held a memorial ceremony honoring the lives of 21 U.N. staff members who died Sunday when an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed shortly after leaving Addis Ababa. Michael Moller, the director-general of the U.N. office in Geneva, spoke with sadness and pride Friday about the passion, dedication and expertise of the young professionals and seasoned officials who were among the 157 victims of the crash. The U.N. staff members aboard the plane were headed to a major U.N. environment conference in Nairobi.  “They were people like Michael Ryan from the World Food Program, who fought the Ebola outbreak, …

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Slovakia could get its first woman president as voters elect a new head of state on Saturday. The leading contenders are Zuzana Caputova, an environmental activist who is in favor of gay rights and opposes a ban on abortion in this conservative Roman Catholic country, and Maros Sefcovic, an establishment figure who is the European Commission Vice-President. In all, 13 candidates are vying to become the country’s fifth head of state since Slovakia gained independence in 1993 after Czechoslovakia split in two. Andrej Kiska, a successful businessman-turned-philanthropist, is not standing for a second five-year term in the largely ceremonial post. …

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The United States, in coordination with the European Union and Canada, Friday slapped new sanctions on more than a dozen officials and businesses in response to Russia’s “continued aggression in Ukraine.” Six Russian officials, six defense firms and two energy and construction firms were targeted, either over the seizure of Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Straight, or for their activities in Russian-annexed Crimea or separatist eastern Ukraine, a U.S. Treasury statement said. “The United States and our transatlantic partners will not allow Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine to go unchecked,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was quoted as saying. The U.S. …

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On the day of a critical vote by British lawmakers to delay departure from the European Union, U.S. President Donald Trump again waded into the contentious debate on Brexit. He promised a “very large trade deal” with the UK- and threatened the European Union on trade. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …

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An international human rights organization has turned down a request by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that Ecuador, which has sheltered him for more than six years at its embassy in London, ease the conditions it has imposed on his residence there. A spokeswoman for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is linked to the Organization of American States, said the group rejected Assange’s complaint. Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson had no immediate comment. Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault …

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Poland’s Catholic Church authorities revealed Thursday they have recorded cases of 382 clergymen who have abused 625 victims under the age of 18 since 1990. The figure includes 198 priests and friars who abused minors under 15 years old and 184 clergy who abused victims between 15 and 18, according to Wojciech Sadlon, head of the church’s Institute of Statistics. In both confirmed and unconfirmed cases, there were 345 victims under age 15 and 280 victims between 15 to 18. The crimes occurred from 1990 through June of last year, Sadlon told a news conference. More than 58 percent of …

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A Spanish human rights activist quoted survivors Thursday saying that 45 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Spain. Helena Maleno, who runs a Tangiers-based non-governmental organization, said she based her figure on accounts from seven female survivors. They told her a pregnant woman was among the dead. A Moroccan official said he couldn’t confirm the report. He said he was aware of 21 migrants who were rescued by the Royal Marines after their rubber dinghy floundered. He said he knew of only one body being recovered Thursday, a day after the boat went adrift as it …

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Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service has announced there is enough evidence to charge one British soldier with murder for the so-called Bloody Sunday killings in Northern Ireland nearly 50 years ago. Bloody Sunday is the nickname given to an incident that took place during a civil rights march on Jan. 30, 1972. On that day, 13 people were shot and killed as they fled police or tried to help those who were wounded. A 14th shooting victim died months later. British authorities announced Thursday that a soldier known only as Soldier F will be prosecuted for the murders of protesters …

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British lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Thursday to seek a delay in Britain’s exit from the European Union, setting the stage for Prime Minister Theresa May to renew efforts to get her divorce deal approved by parliament next week. Lawmakers approved by 412 votes to 202 a statement setting out the option to request a short delay if a Brexit deal can be agreed by March 20 — or a longer delay if no deal can be agreed in time. Just 15 days before Britain is due to leave the European Union, May is using the threat of a long delay to …

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After telling reporters he would stay in his lane and avoid commenting on the contentious British exit from the European Union, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday immediately did just the opposite. Alongside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office, Trump declared that Brexit is “actually tearing a lot of countries apart.” Trump also lamented he was “surprised at how badly it has all gone from the standpoint of negotiating.” The president said he had advised British Prime Minister Theresa May how to negotiate her country’s divorce from the EU, but “she didn’t listen to that.” Asked by …

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Veteran Conservative lawmaker Nigel Evans has been in Britain’s House of Commons for more than a quarter-of-a-century and, like most of his parliamentary colleagues, is stunned at the turn of Brexit events. “I got elected in 1992 and I don’t know if I have known any time more uncertain than now,” he told VOA. He’s flummoxed at what the next move should be for a Conservative government that has lost control of the Brexit process. As a committed Brexiter, he fears Britain will end up staying in the European Union because of an impasse in the Commons that has seen …

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French aviation investigators began analyzing the flight data recorders Thursday from the American-made jetliner that crashed in Ethiopia Sunday, killing 157 people from about 30 countries. The crash of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 was the model’s second deadly accident since October, when 189 people were killed after a Lion Air jetliner crashed in Indonesia. The accidents prompted more than 40 countries to either ground the planes or ban them from their airspace. Since the first crash, investigators have focused on the aircraft’s anti-stall system that dips the plane’s nose down to prevent it from stalling. As Canada …

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French firms signed contracts in Kenya worth about 2 billion euros ($2.26 billion) during a visit Thursday by President Emmanuel Macron, who wants to deepen France’s economic ties with Anglophobe East Africa. Macron’s visit to Nairobi is the first by a French president since Kenya won independence from Britain in 1963 and follows stopovers in Ethiopia and Djibouti, all countries where China has moved in aggressively and presents stiff competition. At a ceremony with Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta, a consortium led by Vinci secured a 30-year concession worth 1.6 billion euros to operate a highway linking the Kenyan capital and …

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Estonia’s president called for continued unity among democratic allies in the face of Russian aggression on Wednesday and expressed a wish for even greater U.S. involvement in the Baltics. Kersti Kaljulaid, on her second visit to the United States in less than a year, told an audience at the Brookings Institution that membership in the European Union and NATO have served to defend and enhance her country’s sovereignty. With only 1.2 million people and located on the Baltic Sea near Russia, the former Soviet republic has been especially concerned about growing Russian assertiveness, particularly since its annexation of the Ukrainian region of …

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A proposed permanent U.S. military base in Poland, nicknamed “Fort Trump,” is one step closer to becoming a reality.    Negotiations on establishing the base are “ongoing this very week,” Kathryn Wheelbarger, the acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.  Wheelbarger’s comments came as John Rood, the undersecretary of defense for policy, met with his Polish counterpart to work out details of what Rood called a “generous offer” from Poland, according to defense officials.     Warsaw has offered to contribute at least $2 billion to place permanent U.S. forces and assets in Poland, a NATO …

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British lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected leaving the European Union without a deal, paving the way for a vote to delay Brexit to seek a way out of Britain’s worst political crisis in generations. Lawmakers voted by 312 to 308 in favor of a cross-party motion that ruled out a potentially disorderly ‘no-deal’ Brexit under any circumstances. It went further than the government’s own planned motion, which noted that parliament did not want to leave without a deal on March 29 and that the default legal position was to leave without a deal unless one was ratified by parliament. While …

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Spotify has filed a complaint with European Union antitrust regulators against Apple, saying the iPhone maker unfairly limits rivals to its own Apple Music streaming service.  Spotify, which launched a year after the 2007 launch of the iPhone, said on Wednesday that Apple’s control of its App Store deprived consumers of choice and rival providers of audio streaming services to the benefit of Apple Music, which began in 2015.  Central to Spotify’s complaint, filed with the European Commission on Monday, is what it says is a 30 percent fee Apple charges content-based service providers to use Apple’s in-app purchase system (IAP).  Forced to raise price Horacio Gutierrez, Spotify’s general counsel, said the company …

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Britain’s politics are once again in chaos after parliament Tuesday rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan for a second time. The British leader might try to bring her deal back next week for another vote, but observers say that attempt will fail, raising a real possibility of a change of leadership. More from Jamie Dettmer in London. …

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Now that British lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit divorce deal for a second time, the country’s planned March 29 departure from the bloc is an open question.  Lawmakers now have two starkly different choices: no deal or delay.  A look at what might happen in the days ahead: Destination no-deal  The House of Commons voted 391-242 against May’s EU withdrawal agreement Tuesday, snubbing changes she secured from the bloc the night before to allay concerns about the deal’s Irish border provisions. Lawmakers voted down the deal in January by an even bigger margin. After the tally, May …

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