Category: Євросоюз

Russia’s space agency is complaining that the invitation for its head to visit the U.S. has been cancelled without informing the organization. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told The Washington Post in a story Saturday that he has rescinded the invitation to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin after several senators raised complaints. Rogozin is under U.S. sanctions for his role in the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, when he was a deputy prime minister. Roscosmos spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko told state news agency Tass on Sunday that “it seems strange to us that our NASA colleagues dealt with us through …

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British Prime Minister Theresa May said Sunday that a delayed vote in Parliament on her Brexit deal will “definitely” go ahead later this month, as she promised to set out measures to win over skeptical lawmakers. May told the BBC that in the coming days she will give more details about measures addressing Northern Ireland and concern over the Irish border. She also promised a greater role for Parliament in negotiations over future trade relations with the European Union as a sweetener, and added that “we are still working on” getting extra assurances from Brussels to secure domestic support for …

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The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Sunday presented a decree of independence to the head of the nascent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formally severing it from the Russian Orthodox Church. In Istanbul, Patriarch Bartholomew I presented the Tomos, a scroll containing the decree, in a symbolic ceremony sanctifying the Ukrainian church’s independence. He signed the decree a day earlier.   Until the decree, the Orthodox church in Ukraine that was a branch of the Russian church was considered legitimate and two others in Ukraine were regarded as schismatic. The new church unites the two formerly schismatic bodies.   Many Ukrainians …

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Germany has Alternative for Germany, France has the National Front, Italy has The League and Spain now has VOX, the latest far-right actor to emerge on Europe’s political scene after an unexpectedly strong showing in local elections last month in Andalusia, the Spanish southern region until now considered a Socialist bastion. Violent protests erupted following the Dec. 2 vote, as leftist leader Pablo Iglesias called for an “anti-fascist mobilization.” His followers camped out in front of the regional parliament in Seville, threatening to block access to VOX party representatives. Protesters set cars on fire and vandalized businesses. But the results …

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The leaders of the populist parties that formed Italy’s government sparred Saturday over more migrants who are stranded on private rescue vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, exposing the widening cracks in their coalition’s position on immigration.     German humanitarian groups Sea-Watch and Sea Eye are seeking a port where two ships can disembark passengers who were picked up from unseaworthy smugglers’ boats, 32 of them on Dec. 22 and 17 more in recent days.     Malta allowed the aid boats to shelter from bad weather near its coast and to take on fresh crew, food and water. But the tiny …

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Russia’s deputy foreign minister brushed back suggestions Saturday that an American being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying could be exchanged for a Russian citizen.    Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, who also holds Canadian, British and Irish citizenship, was detained in Moscow in late December. His arrest has led to speculation that Russia could be using him to bargain for a Russian who pleaded guilty of acting as a foreign agent in the United States.    But Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that discussing a possible swap involving Whelan and Maria Butina would be premature because Whelan hasn’t …

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French security forces fired tear gas and flash-balls after a march through picturesque central Paris went from peaceful to provocative Saturday as several thousand protesters staged the yellow vest movement’s first action of 2019 to keep up pressure on President Emmanuel Macron.      A riverboat restaurant moored below the clashes on the Left Bank of the Seine River caught fire. Smoke and tear gas wafted above the Orsay Museum and the gold dome of the French Academy as riot police, nearly invisible at the start of the demonstration, moved front and center when protesters deviated from an officially approved path.   …

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The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday the United States had detained a Russian citizen a day after Moscow arrested the former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan on suspicion of spying. Whelan was taken into custody by Russia’s Federal Security Service on Dec. 28. His family have said he is innocent and that he was in Moscow to attend a wedding. The ministry said the United States detained Russian citizen Dmitry Makarenko on Dec. 29 on the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean, and had transferred him to Florida. “Makarenko, born in 1979, has arrived on Saipan Island …

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A former North Korean diplomat who staged a high-profile defection to the South on Saturday urged an old colleague who has gone missing in Italy to defect to Seoul, following a report that he was seeking asylum in the United States. Jo Song Gil, the 44-year-old who was until recently North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, disappeared with his wife after leaving the embassy without notice in early November, South Korean lawmakers said Thursday. Jo has applied for asylum in the United States and is under the protection of Italian intelligence, Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper said Friday, citing an unidentified …

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For any world-class athlete, losing most of his or her vision would be a devastating setback. For former Portuguese boxer Jorge Pina however, it was an opportunity to give back to young people in his country. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff has more. …

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Norwegian Air Shuttle said Friday one of its Boeing 737s has been stuck in Iran for three weeks after an unscheduled landing because of engine problems, as U.S. restrictions reportedly create headaches for the airline and possibly passengers. The aircraft was en route from Dubai to Oslo with 192 passengers and crew members when it carried out a “safety landing” in Shiraz in southwestern Iran because of engine trouble Dec. 14, a Norwegian Air Shuttle spokesman, Andreas Hjornholm, told AFP. While passengers were able to fly on to Oslo the following day on another aircraft, the Boeing 737 Max has …

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“You break it, you own it,” Colin Powell once warned in referring to U.S. military interventions overseas and the possible fallout that comes with those decisions.  The retired general and former secretary of state invoked his old rule in 2015 to explain his reluctance about the United States becoming too involved in the civil war in Syria. Powell, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush, highlighted the painful consequences of previous interventions elsewhere, including in Iraq and Libya.  It is a rule that some analysts say could apply to Russia as Moscow …

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The Vatican has confirmed that an Argentine bishop, who resigned suddenly in 2017 for stated health reasons and then landed a top administrative job at the Holy See, is under preliminary investigation after priests accused him of sexual abuse and other misconduct. In a statement to The Associated Press, Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti stressed that the allegations against Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta only emerged in recent months, nearly a year after Pope Francis created the new position for him as “assessor” of the Holy See’s office of financial administration. At the time of his July 2017 resignation, Zanchetta had only asked …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will host the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan for a meeting geared toward bringing peace to Afghanistan. Erdogan spoke Friday at a joint news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is making his first visit to Turkey since he came to power in August. Erdogan said the trilateral meeting would take place in Istanbul after Turkey’s March local election.   Khan told reporters he hoped the meeting would bring “badly needed peace” to Afghanistan. Erdogan, meanwhile, welcomed Pakistan’s decision to hand over schools affiliated with exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen to …

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A suspected case of the deadly Ebola virus has been reported by a Swedish hospital, officials said Friday, adding that the patient has been isolated. Region Uppsala, which oversees several hospitals and medical clinics north of Stockholm, says a test had been carried out on the patient, who was not identified, adding a result would be available late Friday. In its statement, Region Uppsala said it was so far “only a matter of suspicion,” adding “other diseases are quite possible.” It did not say where the patient had traveled, but Sweden’s TT news agency said the patient had returned from …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have held telephone consultations centering on Syria. In the Friday call, Putin and Netanyahu “focused on developments in Syria, including in light of the United States’ stated intention to withdraw its troops from that country. They pointed to the need for the final defeat of terrorism and speedy achievement of a political settlement in Syria,” a Kremlin statement said. Netanyahu also offered condolences following an apartment building collapse in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk this week that killed 39 people, the statement said. …

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U.S. employers dramatically stepped up their hiring in December, adding 312,000 jobs in an encouraging display of strength for an economy in the midst of a trade war, slowing global growth and a partial shutdown of the federal government.   The Labor Department says the unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.9 percent, but that reflected a surge in jobseekers- a positive for growth.   Average hourly pay improved 3.2 percent from a year ago.   The health care, food services, construction, and manufacturing sectors were the primary contributors to last month’s hiring.   The strong job gains suggest that the …

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The private data of hundreds of German politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been hacked and posted on Twitter, the government said. Speaking to reporters Friday during the regular briefing in Berlin, spokeswoman Martina Fietz said: “Personal data and documents belonging to hundreds of politicians and public figures were published on the internet,” adding that “the government is taking this incident very seriously.” With regard to Merkel’s office, the initial review has indicated that “no sensitive information or data” had been leaked, Fietz said. The stolen data, including personal addresses, mobile phone numbers, letters, copies of identity documents, and in …

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Two of Britain’s largest international airports are planning to install military-grade anti-drone defense systems to avoid attacks like the one that grounded nearly 1,000 flights at London’s Gatwick Airport over the Christmas holidays. Last month, British authorities sought help from the military after a number of drone sightings over Gatwick, Britain’s second-busiest airport, forced it to shut down, disrupting travel plans of tens of thousands of people just before Christmas. British media said the military deployed technology similar to the Israeli-designed Drone Dome system, which can detect and disable a drone by jamming its communication frequencies. Airport security officials worldwide …

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Tensions between the U.S. and Turkey are threatening to resurface following President Donald Trump’s apparent walking back of his commitment to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and end support for a Syrian Kurdish militia.    Washington’s backing of the YPG Kurdish militia in its war against the Islamic State group pushed U.S.-Turkish relations to a breaking point. Ankara links the militia to the Kurdish rebel group PKK, which has been fighting a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey.    Trump’s declaration of victory over IS and vow to quickly withdraw about 2,000 American forces based mainly with the YPG ushered in hopes …

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