Category: Євросоюз

Political pressure is growing on the European Union from some member states to rethink freedom of movement rules and to start introducing restrictions to stem what they see as disruptive migration. The latest challenge doesn’t lie with the refugee crisis and the irritation with non-EU migrants easily moving across the continent and cherry-picking which European state to try to settle in, but the concern that migration between EU countries is further depopulating economically depressed regions and towns, condemning them to a gloomy future of being “left behind” permanently. Last month, the pro-EU former British prime minister, Tony Blair, added his …

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Russia has charged former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan with espionage, according to an Interfax news agency report that has not been independently verified. On Monday, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officials said the 48-year-old Whelan had been detained on Dec. 28 “while carrying out an act of espionage,” and a criminal probe has been ordered. The FSB provided no further details, but Russia’s state-run TASS news agency said Whelan faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Whelan is employed as director of global security at BorgWarner, an American automotive parts supplier. Whelan’s family learned of his arrest only …

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It has no natural predator. There are no plans to control its plague. Hailing from China by way of France, the Asian hornet (vespa velutina) is now taking over Spain’s Iberian Peninsula and wreaking havoc on honeybees. With modern technology … the Spanish are fighting back. Arash Arabasadi reports. …

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Blue was a rare, expensive color in ancient times, whether it was derived from lapis lazuli mined in Afghanistan some 6,000 years ago, made by blending copper with other elements throughout the Middle East and in ancient China, or mixing an extract of the indigo plant with clay and resin by Mayans in Mesoamerica. Now, a centuries-old tradition of dyeing blue cloth with delicate patterns in parts of eastern Europe has been recognized for its cultural importance by UNESCO. Faith Lapidus reports. …

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Britain’s impending departure from the European Union poses a big risk, but domestic demand is still fueling growth in the German economy, Europe’s largest, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said in an interview published Thursday. Altmaier said Brexit, global trade conflicts and changes in automotive industry approvals had slowed economic growth in the second half of 2018, but Germany’s gross domestic product looked set to enter its 10th year of expansion in 2019. “The order books of industry and the trades are full,” Altmaier told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper. “The chances are good that economic growth will continue for a …

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U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman on Wednesday visited the retired U.S. Marine who has been detained on espionage charges in Russia. He also spoke on the phone with the family of Paul Whelan, 48, according to a State Department statement that did not release any details of the call “due to privacy considerations for Mr. Whelan and his family.”    It did say, “Ambassador Huntsman expressed his support for Mr. Whelan and offered the embassy’s assistance.”      Access was granted just hours after U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo said he expected an explanation of why the American was arrested and …

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One of the leaders of the “yellow vest” anti-government demonstrations, Eric Drouet, was detained by French police and placed in custody on Wednesday for organizing a central Paris protest without declaring it, according to a source at the prosecutors office. Drouet — who already faces a trial for carrying a weapon — was held while heading for the Champs-Elysees, according to a police source. A few dozen demonstrators had gathered outside a McDonalds near France’s famous Arc de Triomphe war monument and had been waiting for Drouet to arrive early Wednesday evening. “Yellow vest” demonstrations — so-called after the high-visibility …

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A group of British lawmakers and international advocates are seeking access to female activists jailed in Saudi Arabia to investigate allegations of torture and sexual assault in prison.  Saudi Arabia imprisoned more than a dozen women last year, most of whom had campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system. Some have since been freed. Though the ban on driving has been lifted, eight remain in custody. Human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accused Saudi Arabia of subjecting some of the activists to torture and sexual harassment. Saudi officials have …

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The suspect in the stabbing of three people on New Year’s Eve in Manchester was being held under mental health laws, British police said Tuesday. Manchester police, however, said in a statement they were continuing to investigate the attack because of suspected terrorism links. A suspect, whose identity has not been disclosed, has been detained on suspicion of attempted murder, police said. He has not been charged. Police released no other details, but said the suspect’s home was being searched late Tuesday. “There is nothing to suggest the involvement of other people in this attack, but confirming this remains a …

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Think of public spaces in big cities, and formal parks, bustling markets and grand squares come to mind. Think again. In the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, residents have redrawn the map and come up with innovative ways for locals to congregate in their ancient and fast-changing city. A boxing ring was built on a bridge. Next to it — architects installed art to amuse commuters as they hurried over the river. The grimy gaps between garages were turned into a ‘stadium’ where locals could face off over dominoes. Inside the disused garages, bakeries, barbers and beauty salons plied their trade. …

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Populist forces returned with a vengeance to Europe in 2018, seizing power in Italy and extending their grip in countries like Hungary and Poland. In France, street protests erupted demanding the resignation of the president. The populist wave could have major implications for European parliamentary elections scheduled this coming year where the political center now faces an assault from both right and left. Henry Ridgwell has more from Brussels. …

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Pope Francis, in his first message of the new year Tuesday, bemoaned a lack of unity across the world, and warned against a soulless hunt for profit that benefits only a few. “How much dispersion and solitude there is all around us. The world is completely connected, yet seems increasingly disjointed,” the pope said in his traditional New Year’s Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. In his homily he paid homage to motherhood, saying a world that looked to the future while forgetting “a mother’s gaze” was shortsighted. “It may well increase its profits, but it will no longer see others …

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Ukrainian officials are warning that Russia may be about to escalate its conflict with Ukraine, including possibly launching a breakout offensive from Crimea. And they accuse Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region of violating the latest cease-fire — dubbed a “New Year’s Truce”— by attacking Ukrainian positions with a heavy-caliber weapon banned under the Minsk peace agreements. An increasing number of Russian military convoys have been spotted moving toward the border between Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, and Ukrainian-held territory, and there have been ominous fighter-jet redeployments to Crimean airfields, according to the Institute for the Study …

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U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart urged the World Anti-Doping Agency to reinstate the ban on Russia, calling the country’s return to the sports fold “a total joke.” “The situation is a total joke and an embarrassment for WADA and the global anti-doping system,” Tygart said in a statement on Tuesday, after Russia missed a December 31 deadline to hand over data from its anti-doping laboratory in Moscow. The deadline was set in September, when WADA lifted a ban on the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, paving the way for Russian athletes to return to competition across all sports after a report …

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Paul Whelan, the American citizen detained in Moscow on Friday on espionage charges, has been identified as a retired U.S. Marine. Whelan’s family posted messages on social media Tuesday, saying they first grew concerned when he did not contact them on Friday. “‘We have read reports of the arrest in Moscow of Paul Whelan, our son & brother,” the statement reads. “Paul is a retired Marine and was visiting Moscow to attend a wedding.” The family learned of his arrest only after it was reported by Russian state news outlets, prompting the family to contact congressional representatives and U.S. diplomats. …

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German police say at least four people have been injured after a man intentionally drove into a crowd of people in western Germany in what appears to have been an attack directed at foreigners. Muenster police said the 50-year-old driver of a Mercedes drove into a crowd in the center of Bottrop shortly after midnight Tuesday. Two other attempts by the driver to drive into other people failed. Police said those hit by the car included Syrian and Afghan citizens, and some were seriously injured. The driver fled toward the nearby city of Essen before being stopped and arrested by …

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A baby boy has been found alive after 35 hours spent in freezing cold in the rubble of a Russian apartment block that partially collapsed in an explosion, emergency officials reported, calling it a miracle. The blast, thought to have been caused by a gas leak, damaged 48 apartments in a 10-storey building in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk on Monday, killing at least seven people with 36 people still missing. Video footage from the local emergency ministry showed a rescuer worker removing the baby dressed in pink socks and putting a blanket around it before he starts running towards …

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Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany will keep pushing for global solutions to challenges in 2019 and also has to take greater responsibility in the world.  Closing a politically turbulent 2018 in Germany, Merkel devotes a significant part of her annual New Year’s address to the merits of bringing a multilateral approach to international problems — a style she has consistently defended in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” tactics.  Climate change, migration, terrorism The fourth-term chancellor pointed to curbing climate change, managing migration and combating terrorism as the kinds of challenges that benefit from a wide view. …

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British Prime Minister Theresa May urged lawmakers on Monday to back her Brexit deal, promising that it would allow the country to “turn a corner” and let the government focus on solving domestic problems such as housing and a skill shortage. May made the appeal in a New Year’s message little more than two weeks before a make-or-break vote in parliament on her plan for Britain’s exit from the European Union which is due to happen on March 29. The vote, which May postponed in December to avoid defeat, will be a pivotal moment for the world’s fifth-largest economy: it …

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France’s embattled president, Emmanuel Macron, vowed on Monday to press on with his reform agenda in 2019 despite a spate of “yellow vest” protests that have challenged his government and extended a plunge in his approval ratings. Promised overhauls of France’s unemployment benefits, civil service and public pensions will be undertaken in the coming year, Macron said in his televised New Year message. Unapologetic tone Confounding some expectations of a more contrite message, Macron struck an unapologetic note as he urged voters to face up to economic realities underpinning recently enacted reforms of French labor rules, and others yet to …

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