Category: Євросоюз

Poland’s prime minister claims Jews took part in their own destruction in the Holocaust. His Hungarian counterpart declares that the “color” of Europeans should not mix with that of Africans and Arabs. And the Croatian president has thanked Argentina for welcoming notorious pro-Nazi war criminals after World War II. Ever since WWII, such views were taboo in Europe, confined to the far-right fringes. Today they are openly expressed by mainstream political leaders in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, part of a global populist surge in the face of globalization and mass migration. “There is something broader going on in …

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A Dutch attorney who lied to federal agents investigating former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in prison in the first punishment handed down in special counsel’s Russia investigation. He was also ordered to pay a $20,000 fine. Alex van der Zwaan’s sentence could set a guidepost for what other defendants charged with lying in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation may receive when their cases are resolved. Among them are a former White House national security adviser and a Trump campaign foreign policy aide.   Van der Zwaan had faced zero to six months in …

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Dozens of rare footprints belonging to dinosaurs made some 170 million years ago have been discovered on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, offering an important insight into the Middle Jurassic era, scientists said on Tuesday. “The more we look on the Isle of Skye, the more dinosaur footprints we find,” said Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences. “This new site records two different types of dinosaurs — long-necked cousins of Brontosaurus and sharp-toothed cousins of T. rex — hanging around a shallow lagoon, back when Scotland was much warmer and dinosaurs were beginning their march to global …

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Last week’s tit-for-tat closure of U.S. and Russian consulates over the death of a former spy in Britain was intended to punish officials and diplomats, but ordinary citizens of both countries are already feeling the impact. The fallout is most severe for Russian citizens and travel-minded Americans in the U.S. Northwest, who would normally seek visas, passport renewals and other documents at the Russian consulate in Seattle, which shut down Friday. With Russia’s San Francisco consulate having already been closed in September, that leaves residents of the Seattle area with a minimum four-and-a-half-hour flight to the nearest functioning Russian consulate …

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Jailed former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont insisted those who want independence for the northern Spanish region are not criminals. “We want to decide our own future — is that a crime? We used ballot boxes — is that a crime?”  Puigdemont asked during a jail cell interview by a German news website. “We were elected by the people, so what is the problem with the Spanish authorities? Why don’t they start politics in order to solve a political problem?” German police arrested Puigdemont on a Spanish warrant last week. He is wanted in Spain on charges of inciting rebellion …

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The U.S. relationship with fellow NATO members comes under scrutiny again this week as U.S. President Donald Trump hosts a Baltic Summit at the White House on Tuesday. According to a White House statement, Trump and President Kersti Kaljulaid of Estonia, President Raimonds Vejonis of Latvia, and President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania are set to discuss how to strengthen security, business, trade, energy, and cultural partnerships between the United States and these three NATO allies. The White House says the gathering will also highlight the countries’ recent success in meeting NATO’s defense spending pledge. Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO member …

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An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin says U.S. President Donald Trump has invited the Russian leader to the White House, but the two countries haven’t started any preparations for such a visit.   Trump and Putin had a telephone conversation on March 20 in which Trump congratulated Putin on winning the Russian presidential election two days earlier. The White House and the Kremlin said at the time the two presidents discussed meeting in person.   Putin aide Yuri Ushakov told Russian news agencies on Monday that Trump specifically invited Putin to the White House during the call.   Ushakov …

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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wants to resume dialogue with Russia and gradually improve ties after diplomatic expulsions over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England that Britain blames on Russia, he said on Sunday. Conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Maas have joined the United States and other European countries in standing with Britain in a major standoff over the attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Maas, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) who are split on how tough to be on Moscow, told Bild am Sonntag much trust had …

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To track down people in Britain who may have broken immigration rules, the government is turning to a new and controversial source of information: doctors. In letters made public last month, politicians sparred with immigration officials over a data-sharing agreement quietly signed in 2016 that gives the government access to personal information collected by the country’s family doctors. Medical details are excluded.   A parliamentary health committee condemned the situation as “unacceptable,” calling for the agreement to be suspended. But Britain’s immigration department has dismissed those concerns, arguing that such data sharing allows the U.K. to remove people “who might …

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Christians around the world Sunday are celebrating Easter — the day they believe Jesus arose from the dead. It is the holiest day of the Christian calendar. Easter is Christianity’s “moveable feast,” falling on a different date each year. Western Christian churches celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox. Thousands of the faithful gathered in the Vatican’s Saint Peter’s Square to hear Pope Francis deliver the annual “Urbi et Orbi” — “to the city and to the world” — Easter address. Easter marks the end of Holy Week, which is the week before Easter …

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A Moscow court has placed billionaire businessman Ziyavudin Magomedov under arrest for two months after prosecutors accused him and two of his partners of embezzling billions of rubles in state funds. The Interior Ministry said in a statement Saturday that Magomedov, co-owner of the Russian investment group Summa, was detained along with two partners, including his brother, Magomed Magomedov, and Artur Maksidov, the head of a company in the Summa group that was involved in construction of a soccer World Cup venue in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The three suspects were taken Saturday to Moscow’s Tverskoi district court, where …

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The governor of Russia’s Kemerovo region resigned Sunday over a mall fire that killed more than 60 people after a litany of violations in safety procedures left shoppers and children trapped inside the building. Aman Tuleyev, 73, said in a video posted on the regional administration’s website that resigning was the only course of action possible. President Vladimir Putin accepted his resignation, the Kremlin said. “With such a heavy burden, it’s impossible to work as the governor,” he said. “It’s morally impossible.” Last Sunday’s fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union, swept through a cinema complex …

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Crowds lined the streets of Cambridge, England, on Saturday for the funeral of one of the world’s most famous scientists: physicist Stephen Hawking, who died March 14 at age 76. The scientist, confined for decades to a wheelchair and voice synthesizer because of the disease ALS, was known for his charisma, curiosity, and a crackling sense of humor. His science books and television cameos made him a pop-culture icon. Hawking described his research as seeking “a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.” Hawking’s funeral was held Saturday at the …

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Many students would be delighted to have the World Cup in town, but not Maria Cheremnova.   The 20-year-old physics student in Moscow is one of thousands campaigning against the June 14-July 15 soccer tournament, which is set to disrupt academic life across the country.   There will be a 25,000-capacity fan zone outside the main building at Russia’s prestigious Moscow State University during exam season. In other cities, exams have been brought forward and thousands of police are set to move into dorm rooms.   The Moscow fan zone – a public viewing area with a big screen, beer …

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Pope Francis presided over solemn Good Friday services amid tight security at Rome’s Colosseum for the Via Crucis procession. Italian police and army soldiers were on high alert, with Holy Week coinciding with a spate of arrests of suspected Islamic extremists around Italy. Francis presided at a traditional candle-lit Way of the Cross procession around Rome’s ancient Colosseum. Some 20,000 people turned out to take part in the event with the pope on the most somber day in the Christian liturgical calendar, which commemorates the death of Jesus on the cross. Rome authorities increased security this year with checks carried …

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The father-in-law of Pippa Middleton, whose sister Kate is married to Britain’s Prince William, has been placed under formal investigation over suspected rape of a minor, a court source told Reuters on Friday. David Matthews, who is the father of Pippa Middleton’s husband, James Matthews, was arrested Tuesday by the Juvenile Protection Brigade (BPM) and formally put under investigation for suspected rape of a minor under his authority, said the source, confirming a report on Europe 1 radio. Paris prosecutors arrested Matthews during a visit to France, and later released him and placed him under judicial control, the source said. The source did not say when he was released. French police …

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Russian ships are skulking around underwater communications cables, causing the U.S. and its allies to worry the Kremlin might be taking information warfare to new depths. Is Moscow interested in cutting or tapping the cables? Does it want the West to worry it might? Is there a more innocent explanation? Unsurprisingly, Russia isn’t saying. But whatever Moscow’s intentions, U.S. and Western officials are increasingly troubled by their rival’s interest in the 400 fiber-optic cables that carry most of world’s calls, emails and texts, as well as $10 trillion worth of daily financial transactions. “We’ve seen activity in the Russian navy, …

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French lawyers staged a walkout Friday while Air France staff went on strike over pay, adding to a growing wave of industrial unrest that threatens to slow President Emmanuel Macron’s reform drive. Air France canceled a quarter of the day’s flights as its pilots, stewards and ground crew press for a 6 percent pay rise. And courts postponed hearings as hundreds of lawyers, clerks and magistrates stopped work across the country to protest judicial reforms, among a slew of changes by the ambitious 40-year-old president riling various sections of French society. “The government’s plan at least has the benefit of …

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The Czech Republic has extradited to the United States a Russian citizen accused of hacking the LinkedIn website and stealing 117 million passwords. Yevgeniy Nikulin arrived in the United States early Friday, according to U.S. officials, and is expected soon to appear before a judge in San Francisco. The agreement to send him to the United States came even as Russia also requested his extradition, highlighting the chilly diplomatic situation between Washington and Moscow. Russia accuses Nikulin of an alleged theft from an online money transfer company in 2009. It requested Nikulin’s extradition shortly after his arrest and the U.S. …

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Paris’s offer to mediate between Ankara and the YPG Syrian Kurdish militia has provoked outrage from the Turkish government. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said the move amounted to supporting terrorism, and could make France “a target of Turkey.”  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Paris’s move, as a “show of hostility against Turkey.” French President Emmanuel Macron made the mediation offer after meeting a delegation of the Syrian Defense Force (SDF), which included prominent members of the YPG militia and its political wing, PYD. Ankara accuses the YPG of being affiliated to the PKK which is waging an insurgency …

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