Category: Євросоюз

From Britain’s Queen Elizabeth to Formula One racing champion Lewis Hamilton — the leak of more than 14 million documents from firms involved in offshore finance, known as the Paradise Papers, has engulfed some of the world’s most famous names. The latest revelations show U2 frontman Bono used a company based in low-tax Malta to invest in a shopping mall in Lithuania. The Irish band, well known for its campaigning against poverty, has faced past criticism for its tax arrangements. There’s no suggestion that Bono acted illegally.   But campaigners against poverty say sheltering profits in secretive tax havens is …

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Three Chinese students were injured Friday when a man deliberately ran over them with his car near the city of Toulouse, France, police said. The French news channel BFM reports the driver, who was immediately arrested, was known to authorities for previous crimes but was not on a list of known extremists. One police source told the French news agency the driver “deliberately” tried to ram the students with his car, one of whom is in serious condition. All three of the victims, one woman and two men, are said to be in their early 20s. France has experienced a …

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A Swedish radio station says a pirate broadcaster briefly broke into its Friday morning show and broadcast an English-language pop song urging Westerners to join the Islamic State group. Jakob Gravestam, a spokesman for the Bauer Media group that operates the Mix Megapol station in Malmo, Sweden’s third-largest city, said in a statement that the incident would be reported to police and the Swedish government agency that monitors electronic communications, among others. The 24Malmo news site said the song entitled “For the Sake of Allah” was played for about 30 minutes on the FM and internet-based radio station that is …

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European Union diplomats say the EU is set to ban arms sales to Venezuela and could impose asset freezes and travel restrictions on some Venezuelan officials to ramp up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro. Two diplomats confirmed that EU foreign ministers will announce the measures at talks in Brussels on Monday. One said the actions are meant “to encourage a return to dialogue as soon as possible.” The diplomats asked to have their names withheld because the measures haven’t been officially announced. The weapons ban would stop sales of military equipment that could be used for repression or surveillance of …

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Pope John Paul I, the shortest-lived pope in modern history, has moved a step closer to sainthood. The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis has recognized the “heroic virtues” of John Paul I, who reigned for only 33 days before his sudden death in 1978. His death fueled conspiracy theories that the former Cardinal Albino Luciani was murdered as part of a plot involving the Vatican bank, or perhaps committed suicide. The move comes just days after the publication of a book that debunks the conspiracy theories. Pope Luciani: Chronicle of a Death, written by journalist Stefania Falasca, concludes that …

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Lithuania said a growing rift between some eastern and western European Union states over issues such as migration posed a threat to the bloc at a time of increased Russian military assertiveness. Frictions between ex-communist states in Europe’s East and the wealthier West have increased since the 2015 migration crisis and Britain’s decision to leave the bloc, as leaders try to quell popular disenchantment with the EU. Nationalist politicians in Poland and Hungary have called for sweeping reform to bring more power back to member states at the expense of Brussels bureaucracy and refused to take part in efforts to …

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Disguised Russian agents on Twitter rushed to deflect scandalous news about Donald Trump just before last year’s presidential election while straining to refocus criticism on the mainstream media and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, according to an Associated Press analysis of since-deleted accounts. Tweets by Russia-backed accounts such as “America_1st_” and “BatonRougeVoice” on October 7, 2016, actively pivoted away from news of an audio recording in which Trump made crude comments about groping women, and instead touted damaging emails hacked from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. Since early this year, the extent of Russian intrusion to help Trump and hurt Clinton in …

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The speaker from Catalonia’s now-deposed parliament faced a judge Thursday in Spain’s Supreme Court as it decides whether to charge five former leaders with sedition charges. Speaker Carme Forcadell and the others are suspected of engaging in a “concerted strategy to declare independence,” prior to the October parliament vote that unilaterally declared independence from Spain. Forcadell reportedly told the court the independence vote was “declarative and symbolic”an apparent step to minimize liability if she is charged with disobeying the Constitutional Court. Forcadell’s spokesman said as Catalan parliamentary speaker, she did not “have the freedom to stop a vote” in the …

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European Union negotiators are readying themselves for the collapse of Prime Minister Theresa May’s government as it lurches from one crisis to another, say officials in Brussels. And Britain’s Opposition Labor Party is eagerly standing by, with its deputy leader warning Thursday that the ruling Conservative government is so fragile “random events could bring it down.” “Another Day, Another Crisis,” was the Daily Telegraph’s headline Thursday in the wake of May having to fire two key Cabinet ministers in a week — Michael Fallon as her defense secretary over sexual harassment claims, and the ambitious International Development Minister Priti Patel …

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The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court warned Wednesday that the situation in Libya “remains dire” and promised to seek new arrest warrants if serious crimes don’t stop. Fatou Bensouda also demanded the arrest and transfer of suspects already subject to arrest warrants, including the son of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the former head of Libya’s Internal Security Agency and a Libyan military officer alleged to have been involved in the killing of 33 captives “in cold blood.” Bensouda told the U.N. Security Council that the security situation in Libya “remains unstable with violent clashes occurring between various factions …

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The European Commission said Wednesday it wants to cut emissions of carbon dioxide from cars by 30 percent by 2030 and boost the use of electric vehicles by making them cheaper and easier to charge.   The proposal stops short of imposing fixed quotas for emission-free vehicles and is more modest than goals already set out by some EU members. Still, European automakers said the commission’s targets were too drastic, and Germany’s foreign minister warned against the proposal.   Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic insisted that the plan is the most “realistic” compromise between Europe’s ambitions to blaze trails on …

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Visiting Berlin in the midst of sensitive coalition talks, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire urged Germany to seize a historic window of opportunity to reform Europe, warning that the bloc could succumb to nationalism if they failed. The visit comes six weeks after a German election forced Chancellor Angela Merkel into negotiations with parties, including the Free Democrats (FDP), that are sceptical of French President Emmanuel Macron’s ambitious vision for Europe. By holding talks with leading members of those parties, including FDP leader Christian Lindner, Le Maire said he hoped to convince members of the next German government to …

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Serbian and U.S. paratroopers will jump side-by-side during a joint exercise aimed at strengthening military ties with Serbia, the U.S. general in charge of NATO’s Allied Air Command said, a move that could trigger protests from Moscow. In the exercise, which is taking place at the invitation of the Serbian government, paratroopers from both countries will jump side-by-side from 2 C-130J transport planes built by Lockheed Martin in a so-called insertion exercise. About 100 U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army personnel will participate in the event, General Tod Wolters, who also oversees U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa, told …

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Wary of a belligerent and unpredictable Russia, NATO is expanding its operations for the first time since the end of the Cold War and drawing up plans to improve the way the military alliance commands and deploys its forces. NATO defense ministers Wednesday endorsed a proposal to create two new commands: one to protect sea lanes ferrying troops and equipment across the Atlantic from the United States, the other a logistics command to supervise troop movements in Europe. “We need a command structure which can make sure that we have the right forces, in the right place, with the right …

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Russia clashed with Western nations Tuesday over a report blaming Syria for a deadly chemical weapons attack, with Moscow dismissing its findings as “mythical or invented” and the U.S. backing its finger-pointing at President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The debate in the Security Council during a meeting on the report reflected the sharp differences between Russia, Syria’s most important ally, and Western countries that have backed Assad’s opponents. It also raised serious questions about whether the mandate of the experts who issued the report will be renewed — and whether anyone in Syria will ever be held accountable for using chemical …

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Lithuania expects NATO to reach an agreement next year to shield Baltic countries with air defenses, plugging a gap in its security against Russia, its defense minister said Tuesday. Since Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and began providing weapons and troops to separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, NATO has sent more forces to the Baltics, eastern Poland and around the Black Sea. Lithuania, which borders the Russian region of Kaliningrad, wants NATO to permanently deploy anti-aircraft weapons in the Baltics or Poland — a move seen by Moscow as an unjustified military buildup on its borders. …

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EU diplomats will start sketching out a Brexit transition offer on Wednesday that would probably let Britain stay in the single market for about two years after it leaves the bloc in March 2019, EU officials said. But some officials and diplomats involved in preparing for the first “orientation debate” among envoys from the other 27 EU states warned London should not assume it can clinch an initial deal next month to open talks on post-Brexit relations. Some governments see benefits in making Britain wait for it. An EU official familiar with Wednesday’s agenda said states would be asked their …

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A Turkish court rejected on Tuesday an appeals court order to retry a lawmaker from the main opposition party, upholding his 25-year jail term, CNN Turk reported. Enis Berberoglu became a symbol for more than 50,000 people detained in the wake of a failed coup in July 2016. The chairman of his secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) held a 425 km (265 mile) protest march from the capital Ankara to Istanbul when Berberoglu was convicted and sentenced in June for military espionage. The court had said Berberoglu gave an opposition newspaper a video purporting to show Turkey’s intelligence agency trucking …

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A host of pro-Western candidates met Tuesday’s deadline to run for Czech president, seeking to unseat incumbent Milos Zeman, who has leaned toward Russia and China. Czech presidents wield limited day-to-day power but have large informal influence and play a key role in forming governments — now underway following elections last month. The winner of the January presidential election will fuel or tame euroskepticism that has taken hold despite the country’s economic success and stability since joining NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. Zeman, 73, former Social Democrat leader and prime minister, is one of the major …

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British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is facing calls to resign after saying recently that a British-Iranian woman currently jailed in Iran had been training journalists when she was arrested. Boris Johnson has since said he “could have chosen his words more carefully.” Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 as she tried to return home to Britain after a vacation to visit her parents. Iranian authorities have never revealed the exact charges against Zaghari-Ratcliffe, but earlier this year sentenced her to jail for five years, purportedly on grounds of national security.’ The website of the Iranian judiciary …

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