Category: Євросоюз

Belgian doctors have euthanized three minors in the past two years, according to a report from the nation’s chief euthanasia regulatory body released earlier this month. The report, produced by Belgium’s Federal Commission for Euthanasia Control and Evaluation, said these three minors were the first to be euthanized since the country’s parliament voted to lift age restrictions on euthanasia in the country, the first such law in the world. Euthanasia for adults has been legal in Belgium since 2002. “There is no age for suffering,” said Professor Wim Distelmans, chairman of the euthanasia committee. “Fortunately, euthanasia among young people remains …

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Turkey is expanding its economic and cultural influence over the Balkans, and analysts say the strategy, which targets the region’s large Muslim minorities, is worrying some of its Western allies. The Balkan region was the center of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. That historical legacy has made the area a priority for Turkey’s ruling AKP under recently re-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey’s growing influence was visible at this month’s inauguration ceremony of Erdogan. While Western European leaders stayed away, five heads of state from the Balkans attended. “Since AKP has this mental construction of re-establishing the Ottoman past, it’s [the …

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Hundreds of people on Wednesday attended an emotional funeral service for Hatidza Mehmedovic, who headed a group of women fighting for justice for the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. The somber crowd stood in silence and many cried during a commemoration ceremony and a Muslim religious service held in the eastern Bosnian town that was the site of Europe’s worst carnage since World War II. Mehmedovic, who headed the Mothers of Srebrenica group comprising women who lost their loved ones in the massacre, was buried later in a village near the town. The Mothers of Srebrenica have won praise …

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The United States and France have imposed sanctions upon groups and individuals with links to Syria’s chemical weapons program, the U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday. “Syria’s horrific use of chemical weapons, including attacks against innocent women and children, remains deeply embedded in our minds,” said Sigal Mandelker, treasury undersecretary for terrorism, said in a statement. “Today, we are continuing our campaign to stop the Assad regime’s ruthless attacks by targeting the procurement networks that have supported its chemical weapons program.” According to the statement, the United States will block five entities and eight individuals who have been part of a …

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French police searched the presidential palace office Wednesday of the former security aide to President Emmanuel Macron who was seen beating a protester in a video that triggered a political firestorm. An official at the presidential Elysee Palace confirmed that Alexandre Benalla, who was fired last week, was present during the search. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be named. Authorities opened a judicial investigation of Benalla’s actions at a May Day protest after Le Monde newspaper identified him as the person acting violently in the video it released last week. Investigators searched Benalla’s apartment …

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Tariffs are set to top the agenda in a meeting Wednesday between U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Juncker is coming to Washington with the hopes the European Union can avoid an all-out trade war by convincing Trump to hold off punitive tariffs on European cars. The potential car tariffs would hurt Germany’s thriving automobile industry and come on top of hefty tariffs that Trump has already imposed on aluminum and steel imports. But on the eve of the meeting, Trump appeared pessimistic the two sides would come to any agreement after the U.S. leader threatened …

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The top U.S. official for Ukraine negotiations doubled down on recent assurances from the State Department and White House that President Donald Trump did not reach any agreements on Ukraine during last week’s two-hour private meeting with his Russian counterpart in Helsinki, Finland. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week told a gathering of diplomats in Moscow that he and Trump discussed the possibility of an internationally supervised referendum in pro-Russian separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, a claim later reiterated by the Kremlin’s ambassador to the U.S. In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Ukrainian service, Kurt Volker, U.S. special representative for …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of interfering in U.S. elections, will not be invited to address Congress or visit the Capitol if he accepts President Donald Trump’s invitation to come to Washington, Republican congressional leaders said on Tuesday. The comments by House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reflect the unease among U.S. lawmakers, including Trump’s fellow Republicans, about the president’s outreach to Putin after their July 16 summit in Helsinki. Ryan and McConnell rejected the idea of Putin being asked to address a joint session of Congress, typically considered an honor for visiting foreign …

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Britain and the European Union formally filed for divorce at the World Trade Organization on Tuesday, following many months of diplomatic preparations to smooth the way for the historic move. The WTO circulated two confidential draft membership agreements among the Geneva trade club’s 164 members, separating Britain’s rights and obligations in merchandise trade from the EU’s for the first time in the WTO’s 23-year history. A separate split of services trade is expected to follow. “It seeks to replicate the concessions and commitments applicable to the U.K. as part of the EU today. An important milestone as we prepare for …

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Several hundred people protested outside the Polish parliament on Tuesday against planned legal amendments aimed at making it easier for the ruling party to name the next Supreme Court head. The European Union, human rights groups and opposition have all accused the government of infringing judicial independence, but the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party says an overhaul is needed to improve the courts’ efficiency and rid them of residual influence from Poland’s communist past. The upper chamber of parliament is expected to approve the amendments on Tuesday evening with President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, then signing them …

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In the pre-Internet era, spies faced more challenges than now when trying to infiltrate Western political circles in order to gather information, identify potential recruits, enlist the assistance of sympathizers and mount active operations, like meddling in a foreign country’s election. Now they have the benefit of Facebook and LinkedIn and other social-media networking sites to expand their contacts, say former and current U.S. and British intelligence officials. Western governments accuse Russian intelligence services of exploiting widely for propaganda purposes social media platforms, where they can plant “fake news,” deepen political discord in adversary states and mount influence campaigns in …

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Fire officials in Greece said Tuesday at least 49 people have been killed and more than 140 injured in wildfires raging through resort towns near the country’s capital. Regional authorities have declared a state of emergency in areas east and west of Athens and deployed the army to help fight the blazes. Athens has asked the European Union for aerial and ground support to help battle the flames. Greece said Cyprus offered to send firefighters, while Spain offered water-dropping aircraft. BBC News reported countries, including Italy, Germany, Poland and France, have sent planes, vehicles and firefighters. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras …

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A former senior security aide for French President Emmanuel Macron is insisting he was trying to help police when he was caught on video assaulting a protester at a May Day demonstration. The outcry sparked by the video is the most damaging scandal to hit Macron since he took office last year. The former security aide, Alexandre Benalla, who was fired by Macron on Friday, said Monday his action was “vigorous but without violence and caused no injury,” according to a statement released by his lawyers. “This personal initiative … is obviously being used to tarnish the president in circumstances …

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President Donald Trump continues to defend his recent summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump said Monday that he gave up nothing to Putin in their meeting last week. But the president’s performance got a negative review in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, which found that 50 percent of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the summit, compared to 33 percent who approved. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more on the domestic fallout. …

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International investors are looking to Tuesday’s meeting of the Turkish central bank as a critical test of whether the bank can remain independent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his increasing powers, and what some criticize as his Islamist agenda. The Turkish currency has fallen sharply as concerns mount on whether he will impose unorthodox economic policies on the bank. Erdogan, who has called for Islamic banks to make up a quarter of the country’s banking sector, strongly opposes interest rates and has described them as “the mother and father of all evil.” The president rejects economic orthodoxy that increasing rates …

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Russian investigators said Monday they had detained six prison guards over a video showing officers brutally beating an inmate which was leaked to an independent newspaper. The group of prison service employees, “acting deliberately, clearly exceeding their official powers, used violence against a prisoner,” investigators said. Human rights activists regularly report torture, humiliation and beatings in Russian prisons, but the leak of such an explicit video is rare. The branch of the Investigative Committee for the Volga city of Yaroslavl, where the video was shot at a penal colony, said “today six people have already been detained.” “The criminals delivered …

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he “gave up nothing” to Russian President Vladimir Putin at last week’s summit in Helsinki, but details of their one-on-one meeting remained elusive. “We merely talked about future benefits for both countries,” Trump said on Twitter. “Also, we got along very well, which is a good thing except for the Corrupt Media!” He blamed the mainstream news media, “Fake News” as he called it again, for “talking negatively” about his meeting with Putin. Trump and Putin met behind closed doors for more than two hours with only their translators in the room with …

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The President of Bosnia’s autonomous Serb Republic Milorad Dodik pushed on Monday to reopen debate over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, less than three months before the country votes in elections. Dodik launched a procedure demanding that parliament revoke a 2004 report issued by a previous government which established that Bosnian Serb forces killed about 8,000 Muslims in and around the town during the country’s 1992-95 war. Critics accused Dodik of trying to use the issue of Europe’s worst atrocity since World War Two to win the votes of hardline Bosnian Serbs in the October 7 general election. Dodik has always …

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Braving Europe’s heatwave, more than 150 Santas from around the world donned their heavy suits and full beards at their annual conference in Denmark. As the 61st World Santa Claus Congress kicked off in Copenhagen, many of the delegates — from countries as far away as Japan and the United States — took a paddle in the sea, to the amusement of local bathers. The three-day event will see the Santas visit the Little Mermaid statue during a parade and go head to head in the Santa Obstacle Course World Championships. “Normally us Santas work alone,” said Santa Ian Tom, …

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A Tunisian boat carrying around 40 African migrants has been stranded off the country’s coast without aid for more than a week after authorities refused to let them disembark there, the Red Crescent said on Monday. Monji Slim, an official of the Tunisian Red Crescent, said the authorities had argued that Malta or Italy should accept the migrants. The Tunisian interior ministry declined to comment. Slim told Reuters the boat was stuck 12 miles off the coast. “The African migrants at sea are in a bad condition after the vessel’s captain refused to receive aid to pressure the Tunisian authorities …

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