Category: Євросоюз

When calls to a Polish domestic violence helpline in Britain plunged last year, its founder Ewa Wilcock was puzzled. Since its launch in 2014, she had been receiving more calls from compatriots living in Britain than she could handle. Yet they halved — to just over a dozen a month — in mid-2017. “People would start the conversation saying they were not sure if they should be calling at all because they were afraid of the social services,” Wilcock told Reuters by phone from Cheshire in northwest England. Wilcock soon discovered that myths were spreading among Poles on social media …

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The European Union said Friday Facebook has told it that up to 2.7 million people in the 28-nation bloc may have been victim of improper data sharing involving political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica. EU spokesman Christian Wigand said EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova will have a telephone call with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg early next week to address the massive data leaks. The EU and Facebook will be looking at what changes the social media giant needs to make to better protect users and how the U.S. company must adapt to new EU data protection rules. Wigand said that EU …

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The Trump administration on Friday announced wide-ranging sanctions against 38 Russian individuals and companies, part of what senior administration officials billed as a response “to address Russia’s pattern of malign activities” around the world. The sanctions will be imposed on seven Russian oligarchs — including Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — and 12 companies they own or control. Seventeen senior Russian government officials, as well as a state-owned Russian weapons trading company, also will be targeted. U.S. officials say the sanctions are “not in response to any single event or issue,” but …

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Robots are constantly adding new skills to their repertoire. In Italy, the first dedicated interactive service robot, “Robby the hotel concierge” and his brother, “Cayuki the car salesman,” are taking the country by storm with their technological efficiencies. In Finland, another kind of robot – “Elias” is thrilling classrooms with his language and dancing skills. As VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports, the next generation of robots is ready to serve, educate and entertain the masses. …

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A German court ruled Thursday that Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont cannot be extradited to Spain on charges of revolution and can be freed from a German jail on bail. Puigdemont supporters say they expect Catalonia’s former president to be out of jail by Friday morning. The judges in Schleswig in northern Germany based their ruling on German law, saying while rebellion may be a crime in Spain, it is not a criminal offense in Germany. The judges also ruled Puigdemont could still be extradited to Spain on charges of embezzling public funds not rebellion, but could only be tried …

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A District of Columbia judge on Thursday sentenced two Turkish-Americans to one year and one day in prison after they pleaded guilty of assaulting pro-Kurdish demonstrators during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington last year. Sinan Narin, 46, of Virginia and Eyup Yildirim, 51, of New Jersey each pleaded guilty in December to one count of assault with significant bodily injury in connection with the May 2017 clashes with protesters near the Turkish ambassador’s residence. Judge Marisa Demeo of the Superior Court for the District of Columbia accepted their plea agreements and imposed the previously agreed upon sentence on each. …

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A U.N. rights watchdog called on Hungary on Thursday to crack down on hate speech by politicians against Roma, Muslims and other minorities, and to repeal a law allowing migrants to be deported without a chance to seek asylum. It urged the nationalist government to reject draft laws known as the “Stop-Soros Package” that would empower the interior minister to ban nongovernmental organizations that support migration and pose a “national security risk.” The government says the bill is meant to deter illegal immigration that Prime Minister Viktor Orban says is eroding European stability and has been stoked in part by Hungarian-born U.S. financier George Soros. It says its policies …

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A German court ruled Thursday that former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont can be released on bail pending a decision on his extradition to Spain, saying the most serious charge Puigdemont faces isn’t punishable under German law.   The state court in Schleswig said the 55-year-old ex-president of Spain’s Catalonia region could leave a prison in northern Germany with a 75,000-euro ($92,000) payment. It wasn’t immediately clear when Puigdemont would be released. Puigdemont was detained in Germany on a Spanish arrest warrant as he attempted to drive from Finland to Belgium on March 25. He fled to Belgium after Spain’s prime …

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The poisoned daughter of a former Russian spy attacked with a nerve agent in Britain says she is recovering quickly. “I woke up over a week ago now and am glad to say my strength is growing daily,” Yulia Skripal said in a statement released Thursday by British police. Her father, Sergei Skripal, 66, remains in critical condition in a British hospital following the March 4 poisoning Britain has blamed on Russia. The attack on the Skripals set off wide diplomatic recriminations, between the West and Moscow, that were reminiscent of the Cold War standoffs of the 1950s. Britain, the …

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Three buses believed to be carrying expelled diplomats have departed from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Before the Thursday morning departure, journalists outside the embassy compound saw people leaving the residences, placing luggage on trucks. Some toted pet-carriers. Russia last week ordered 60 American diplomats to leave the country by Thursday, in retaliation for the United States expelling the same number of Russians. The moves were part of a deepening dispute over the nerve-agent poisoning in Britain of a Russian former double-agent and his daughter. Britain alleges Russian involvement, which Moscow vehemently denies. More than 150 diplomats have been expelled …

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Hungary’s foreign minister is rejecting accusations his government is racist, but said it does not accept that a multicultural society is better than a homogeneous one.  “We don’t accept that multiculturalism is a value by itself,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told VOA on Wednesday in an interview at the United Nations. “We don’t accept that multiculturalism would be better than a homogeneous society, for example. We think it’s up to the given nation, it’s up to the given society, to decide what is considered to be a value.” Szijjártó was responding to a question about remarks made by the …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ankara Wednesday for a second trilateral summit, part of ongoing efforts to end the Syrian civil war. Iran, Russia and Turkey, the main backers of the opposing sides in the seven-year war, may make unlikely partners for peace. Increasingly, the leaders see one another as key to ending the conflict and achieving their regional goals. At the end of the summit, a commitment was made by the attending leaders to return Syrian refugees. Such a commitment is particularly important for Ankara, given its …

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The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday filed denaturalization papers against two Bosnian Muslims convicted of carrying out an execution-style massacre of Croatian villagers during the Balkan wars. Edin Dzeko, 46, and Sammy Rasema Yetisen, 45, both alleged former members of an elite Bosnian military unit responsible for carrying out the 1993 attack that killed 22 civilians, are accused of hiding their crimes on their refugee, permanent resident and U.S. citizenship applications. Yetisen, who also goes by Rasema Handanovic, came to the U.S. as a refugee three years after the massacre and became a citizen in 2002, according to court filings. …

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is visiting the U.S. later this week, set to inspect a fighter jet production plant and American military command posts. The NATO chief is touring a Lockheed Martin F-35 manufacturing factory in Texas on Thursday, as well as participating in a town hall event at Southern Methodist University and taking questions from students. On Friday, Stoltenberg is visiting the 80th Flying Training Wing at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, meeting participants in the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program and, later, officials at the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. …

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The family of a British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran on espionage charges has demanded that the British government take a bigger role in securing her release, two years after the young mother was detained while visiting relatives.  Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. The 39-year-old was arrested at Tehran’s airport as she tried to leave Iran in April 2016 and later sentenced to jail for five years on charges of seeking to overthrow the government. Nazanin and her family have maintained she was in Iran on vacation. In an interview with VOA, her husband, Richard, said …

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French railway transport has been disrupted following a launch of a three-month strike to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s labor reforms. The start of the action led by the employees of the state railway SNFC was dubbed “Black Tuesday” and was followed by a street demonstration. The strike will affect railway transport for two days in every five over a three-month period. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Tuesday protest turned unruly in some places. …

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Supporters of a British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran on espionage charges have demanded the UK government take a bigger role in securing her release, two years after the young mother was detained during a visit to Tehran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, while her infant daughter is being cared for by grandparents. Speaking to VOA, Nazanin’s husband says his wife is caught in the middle of a diplomatic tussle. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

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The French government is overhauling the country’s prisons, which are among the most overcrowded in Europe. The plans – announced after a prison guard strike earlier this year – include scrapping jail sentences for short-term offenders and broadening alternatives to 24/7 incarceration. Lisa Bryant recently visited the Eysses prison, in southwestern France, and has this report for VOA. …

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Queen Elizabeth II’s 96-year-old husband, Prince Philip, has been admitted to a London hospital for a previously scheduled hip surgery, Buckingham Palace said Tuesday. The palace said the prince entered the King Edward VII Hospital in the afternoon and would have the surgery Wednesday. It said the hospital admission and surgery were planned. Officials declined to provide additional details about the surgery and said “further updates will be issued when appropriate.” The prince announced in May that he was retiring from most public duties after decades of royal service. The palace said at the time he had carried out roughly …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosts his counterparts from Russia and Iran Wednesday for a second trilateral summit on Syria. The three, whose countries have a significant military presence in Syria, are increasingly cooperating to resolve the civil war under the auspices of the so-called “Astana Process.” The deepening cooperation comes in the face of intense rivalries.   “Since 2011, Ankara’s sole purpose was to dethrone Assad,” said Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat, who served widely in the region. “Whereas, Russia and Iran came to Syria upon Assad’s invitation to keep him in place and this is a …

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