Category: Євросоюз

Poland’s new bill banning any suggestion that the country was complicit in the Holocaust has drawn outrage from Israel and many other countries, as well as many people in Poland. Polish senators approved the draft law Feb. 1, just days after the world marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on the anniversary of the liberation of the notorious Auschwitz Nazi camp. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports opponents are calling on the Polish government to withdraw the bill. …

READ MORE

The term “lone wolf” has become part of our common vocabulary, as the terror threat has evolved from large-scale attacks to individuals seemingly radicalized in relative isolation. But, a new report claims that the lone wolf typology is highly misleading and can even be counterproductive in the fight against terror. There have been dozens of attacks across the globe in recent years, carried out by individuals. They include: the March 2017 Islamist-inspired vehicle and knife attack on Westminster Bridge in London; three months later, a far-right supporter drove his van into worshippers outside a mosque in the same city; in …

READ MORE

As fighting in Syria’s Afrin region nears the end of its second week, soldiers say the battle is moving slowly, with both sides heavily armed and civilian casualties occurring in and around the war zone. VOA’s Heather Murdock is with Turkish and Syrian opposition forces in Soran, in northern Syria. …

READ MORE

Turkey’s judiciary is facing growing international condemnation for the ongoing imprisonment of the local head of Amnesty International. Thursday, an Istanbul court reversed an earlier decision to release Taner Kilic from pre-trial detention, ruling he should remain in jail for the duration of his case.  In a rare move, the prosecutor had turned to a second court to overturn Wednesday’s release order. The dramatic succession of events has provoked international condemnation.  “A disgrace and an outrageous travesty of justice,” Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty declared in a statement.  In a similar vein, Rebecca Harms, a member of the European …

READ MORE

A support group for victims of sexual harassment in France said it was forced to shut its helpline after receiving a deluge of calls in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal. Paris-based AVFT, a national association helping women who have experienced violence at work, said it was “overwhelmed” with a backlog of cases that had piled up over the past two years so could take no more calls. “For several months we have been submerged by requests, which has forced us to take a break in order to respond,” a voicemail message told people phoning the line on …

READ MORE

The European Union’s border agency Frontex launched a new Mediterranean operation called Themis on Thursday, removing the obligation of the previous mission to bring rescued migrants only to Italy. Italy has repeatedly lamented a lack of EU solidarity in managing immigration. The previous Frontex operation, called Triton, required all those rescued at sea to be brought to Italy even if another EU country, such as Malta, was closer. “Triton said that whomever rescued would be taken to Italy,” said Izabella Cooper, a spokeswoman for Frontex. “Themis leaves the decision on disembarkation to the [country] coordinating a particular rescue.” Triton was …

READ MORE

A man who drove a van into a crowd of worshippers near a north London mosque after expressing far-right and anti-Muslim opinions was convicted Thursday of murder and attempted murder. A jury at London’s Woolwich Crown Court deliberated for about an hour before finding 48-year-old Darren Osborne guilty of the June 2017 attack in the city’s Finsbury Park neighborhood. A 51-year-old man, Makram Ali, was killed and nine people were injured when a rented van ploughed into worshippers gathering to break their fast during Ramadan. Prosecutors said Osborne was motivated by a hatred of Muslims, whom he saw as extremists …

READ MORE

The Trump administration says it is concerned Poland’s proposed Holocaust law could impact free speech and Polish relations with the United States and Israel. The law would make it a crime to call the Nazi genocide of Jews a Polish crime, or the Nazi death camps Polish death camps, even though some of the most brutal Nazi atrocities took place on Polish soil. “We understand that phrases such as ‘Polish death camps’ are inaccurate, misleading, and hurtful,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Wednesday. “We all must be careful not to inhibit discussion and commentary on the …

READ MORE

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday carrying into orbit a Luxembourg-made communications satellite designed in part to expand NATO’s surveillance reach and its capability to deter cyber attacks on alliance members. The liftoff at 4:25 p.m. EST (2125 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station followed a technical glitch that prompted a 24-hour flight delay. It marked the second rocket launch this year for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and his privately owned Space Exploration Technologies. It comes a week before the California-based company is slated to conduct its highly anticipated first test flight of the …

READ MORE

France is facing a “new form of anti-Semitism” marked by violence, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Wednesday, deploring an assault this week in a Paris suburb on an 8-year-old boy wearing a Jewish skullcap. President Emmanuel Macron has denounced the attack Monday in Sarcelles, a northern suburb with a large Jewish population, as “heinous.” French media have described the attackers as teenagers who ran away after tripping and kicking the boy to the ground. Police were investigating, but there have been no arrests. Speaking before lawmakers, Philippe noted the emergence of a new kind of anti-Semitism in France, which …

READ MORE

Exiled separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has stunned Spain with private remarks picked up by TV news cameras in which he said Catalonia’s independence bid is “finished.” The shock admission came after Spain’s constitutional court ruled that Puigdemont could not be named president because he faced arrest and was not physically present to assume the presidency. “The [independence] process is finished. I’ve been sacrificed,” Puigdemont wrote in a text message to a close confidant after the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Roger Torrent, suspended a Tuesday session in which secessionists holding a majority of seats planned to nominate him. Spain’s vice …

READ MORE

The Communist Party’s candidate for president would seem to be an odd choice: He’s a millionaire and proud of it. He also openly rejects the basic tenets of Communism.    Pavel Grudinin is the Russian party’s first new nominee in 14 years as it hopes to rejuvenate itself and broaden its appeal from its traditional base of aging voters who are nostalgic for the old Soviet Union.      Not that Grudinin – or any other candidate – has much of a chance of unseating President Vladimir Putin when Russia votes on March 18. The presence of Grudinin and other …

READ MORE

British Prime Minister Theresa May arrived in China Wednesday on a visit aimed at boosting economic ties with the Asian giant ahead of her country’s exit from the European Union next year. May began her three-day trip in the central industrial city of Wuhan, before heading to Beijing for talks with Premier Li Keqiang. She is accompanied by a large delegation of 50 British business leaders eager to expand their business in the world’s second largest economy. The prime minister will meet with President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday, before wrapping up her visit Friday in the financial hub …

READ MORE

Protests broke out in the Spanish city of Barcelona Tuesday after Catalonia’s parliament postponed a vote on who should be president of the region. Pro-independence parties, which form a majority in the parliament, had nominated only one candidate – the exiled former leader Carles Puigdemont. The stand-off between Barcelona and Madrid looks set to deepen as parties on all sides of the debate harden their positions, as Henry Ridgwell reports. …

READ MORE

The social divide revealed by Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union is not only here to stay but deepening, according to academic research published Wednesday. UK in a Changing Europe, a research initiative, said Britons were unlikely to change their minds about leaving the EU, despite the political and economic uncertainty it has brought, because attitudes are becoming more entrenched. “The [Brexit] referendum highlighted fundamental divisions in British society and superimposed a leave-remain distinction over them. This has the potential to profoundly disrupt our politics in the years to come,” said Anand Menon, the think tank’s director. Britain is …

READ MORE

Russia’s foreign spy chief, who is under U.S. sanctions, met last week outside Washington with U.S. intelligence officials, two U.S. sources said, confirming a disclosure that intensified political infighting over probes into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Sergey Naryshkin, head of the Russian service known by its acronym SVR, held talks with U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and other U.S. intelligence officials, the sources said. The sources did not reveal the topics discussed. A Russian Embassy tweet disclosed Naryshkin’s visit. It cited a state-run ITAR-Tass news report that quoted Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, …

READ MORE

Nine members of Turkey’s medical association have been detained for voicing opposition to the ongoing Turkish-led military incursion into Syria against a Kurdish militia group. The arrests are part of a widening crackdown on dissent over the operation. Ankara’s prosecutor’s office issued arrest warrants for 11 leading members of the Turkish Medical Association, including its head, Rasit Tukel. Police raided the homes of the doctors early Tuesday morning. The organization’s offices across the country have also been targeted. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday labeled the association’s members as traitors and “servants of imperialism.” The remarks were in response to …

READ MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the United States has taken a ‘hostile step” by releasing a list detailing the wealth and political connections of 210 people with close Kremlin connections. But he said there would be no immediate move to retaliate. The U.S. Treasury Department published the list Monday, as required by a law passed by Congress last August aimed at punishing Russia for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, a charge Russia denies.      U.S. President Donald Trump reluctantly signed the law, and administration officials said Monday there are no immediate plans to impose new sanctions on the …

READ MORE

Last week British Prime Minister Theresa May basked in praise in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he thought she was doing a good job and pledged to help advance a trade deal to help offset economic losses Britain will likely suffer from leaving the European Union. But this week, the growing rift in her Cabinet over Brexit, as well as her leadership, has critics within her ruling Conservative party saying she isn’t doing a good job and accusing her of governing more like a tortoise than a lion. Traditionally, the Conservatives …

READ MORE

French consumer fraud authorities are investigating a promotional campaign for Nutella that prompted scuffles in several supermarkets – and even a police intervention. The Finance Ministry’s fraud agency said Tuesday it will examine whether the campaign by the Intermarche supermarket chain violated pricing regulations. An official with the agency would not give further details. Intermarche drew big crowds at several stores last week after announcing sales of the chocolate and hazelnut spread for just 1.41 euros ($1.74), some 70 percent below the regular price. Video circulated online of ensuing scuffles in some stores, drawing worldwide attention – and questions from …

READ MORE