Category: Євросоюз

France is electing about half of its senators Sunday, in an important vote for President Emmanuel Macron’s reform plans, threatened by his declining popularity just four months after his election in May. Macron’s centrist Republic on the Move! party, which emerged just last year, won a large majority in the lower house of parliament in June elections, but is unlikely to enjoy a similar margin in the Senate. Surveys suggest the conservative Republicans party will consolidate its majority in the chamber of 348 seats. Under such a scenario, Republic on the Move! is likely to seek alliances in the Senate …

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Several dozen tradition-minded Roman Catholic theologians, priests and academics have formally accused Pope Francis of spreading heresy with his 2016 opening to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. In a 25-page letter delivered to Francis last month and provided Saturday to The Associated Press, the 62 signatories issued a “filial correction” to the pope — a measure they said hadn’t been employed since the 14th century. The letter accused Francis of propagating seven heretical positions concerning marriage, moral life and the sacraments with his 2016 document “The Joy of Love” and subsequent “acts, words and omissions.” Two initiatives The initiative follows …

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Hundreds of opposition activists attended an anticorruption protest in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku. The protest, which has been sanctioned by the municipal government, was organized by the National Council of Democratic Forces — an umbrella organization bringing together some of Azerbaijan’s opposition forces. Baku police said in a statement that about 1,500 people attended the Saturday rally, although the organizers disputed the official figure, saying the actual attendance was higher. Azerbaijan’s Turan news agency said thousands participated in the rally held in the Yasamal district of Baku.  According to the statement, supporters of the Popular Front Party, People’s Democratic Party, National …

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged her supporters to keep up the momentum in the final hours before Sunday’s national election, urging a last push to try to sway undecided voters. Merkel is seeking a fourth term in office and her conservative bloc of the Christian Democratic Party and Bavarian-only Christian Social union has a healthy lead in the polls. Surveys in the last week show it leading with between 34 to 37 percent support, followed by the Social Democrats with 21 to 22 percent. Still, the support has been gradually eroding over the past week. Merkel told supporters in Berlin …

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Spanish media report that several hundred students have spent the night inside a Barcelona university to protest the government’s efforts to stop a referendum over Catalonia’s secession from the country. The protesters have said on social media that pro-independence politicians are expected to give talks at Barcelona University on Saturday. Jordi Vives, a spokesman for the students, told Catalan public television: “We are showing that as students we have a part to play and that for now we are staying put.” The remaining students were hold-outs from a group of about 2,000 that gathered in and around the university Friday. …

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While Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programs dominated headlines, countering terrorism and extremism took center stage at the U.N. General Assembly this week. Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and top officials from 24 countries highlighted progress made in the fight to defeat the Islamic State militant group in Iraq. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from Washington. …

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The United States sees value in the New START arms control treaty with Russia, despite Washington’s concerns about Moscow’s track record on arms control and other issues, senior U.S. officials said Friday. The remarks by the Trump administration officials, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, suggest the treaty will remain in force and the door remains open to pursuing an extension of the accord, which is set to expire in 2021. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty gives both countries until February 2018 to reduce their deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 1,550, the lowest level in …

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Germans go to the polls Sunday in national elections that will decide whether Angela Merkel remains chancellor for a fourth consecutive term. As Henry Ridgwell reports, many wrote off Merkel’s chances as Germany struggled to cope with the 2015 migrant crisis, but she has weathered the storm, and polls point to a comfortable victory. …

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Inside a converted port terminal, thousands of tech entrepreneurs gathered this week to pitch their ideas at TechCrunch Disrupt, an annual event that focuses on emerging technologies. But this is no ordinary time for the tech industry, which finds itself under increasing scrutiny from Washington over how Russia used social media to influence the U.S. elections. This week, Facebook announced that it would give U.S. lawmakers access to ads linked to Russia that were placed on the site leading up to the 2016 presidential election. “We are in a new world,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook live …

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Kayra Martinez took calligraphy paper and pens into refugee tents in Greece last year. “That was the first time I had actually seen the children really calm,” Martinez said. “And I realized that this is something that they really love to do.” As a flight attendant for United Airlines, Martinez is often in Greece, where she was drawn to the refugee camps and began volunteering there in 2015. Focusing her efforts on Nea Kavala in northern Greece, she is now the first point of contact for many families in need. “It’s very, very actually challenging to be able to leave …

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday dismissed the notion of renegotiating the agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear weapons development, maintaining U.S. concerns about Iran are beyond the scope of the deal. “This program is already finalized and endorsed by the U.N. Security Council resolution. Opening up this plan for negotiations basically would be disregarding this agreement,” Lavrov told reporters at the U.N. General Assembly. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to declare Iran in violation of the 2015 agreement unless it is broadened to punish Iran for pursuing a ballistic missile program and for supporting militant groups. On Thursday, Trump’s …

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The Catalan regional leader on Thursday said he would press on with an Oct. 1 referendum on a split from Spain, flouting a court ban, as tens of thousands gathered for a second day on the streets of Barcelona demanding the right to vote. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said he had contingency plans in place to ensure the vote would go ahead, directly defying Madrid and pushing the country closer to political crisis. Spain’s Constitutional Court banned the vote earlier this month after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said it violated Spain’s 1978 constitution, which states the country is indivisible. Most …

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Two people arrested in connection with the bombing on a London Underground train last week have been released without charges, the Scotland Yard announced Thursday. A 21-year-old man arrested in Hounslow, west London, on Saturday and a 48-year-old man arrested in Newport, south Wales, on Wednesday were both released. Four other men, aged 17 to 30, remain in police custody. None of the suspects has been charged, and their names haven’t been released. Thirty people were injured when a homemade bomb, placed inside a bucket wrapped in a shopping bag, partly detonated on a train stopped at London’s Parsons Green …

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U.S. President Donald Trump praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a friend who gets “high marks” for “running a very difficult part of the world.” Trump’s effusive praise for the Turkish leader came on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday despite tensions between the two countries over the conduct of Turkish security officials toward American protesters. Hours before Trump met Erdogan for talks, Erdogan supporters punched and kicked three protesters who interrupted his speech at a New York hotel. Erdogan was addressing several hundred people at an event organized by a business group, the Turkish-American …

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Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko met U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday and said afterwards that they had a shared vision on a “new level” of defense cooperation, but not whether this included the U.S. provision of defensive weapons to Ukraine. The United States is reviewing whether to send weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself, an option that previous U.S. president Barack Obama vetoed and which is opposed by Russia. After meeting Trump in New York, President Poroshenko told a televised briefing: “It’s very important that there is a shared vision on a new level of cooperation in the defense …

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American and Russia military leaders held an unprecedented, face-to-face meeting in recent days to discuss the increasing tensions around the Islamic State stronghold of Deir el-Zour, Syria, a coalition spokesman said Thursday. U.S. Army Col. Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for the U.S.-led counter-Islamic State coalition, told reporters via video conference from Baghdad that the discussion between generals from both countries lasted more than an hour. Dillon added that the coalition and Russian officers shared maps and other data on where their forces were battling in the area. The coalition has maintained that it is “deconflicting” with Russian forces to prevent …

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A senior European Union official is doubtful that Britain’s talks on leaving the EU can advance to a new phase next month, fueling concern that a Brexit deal might not be found by the 2019 deadline.   EU leaders meet Oct. 19-20 and were expected to assess whether negotiations have made “sufficient progress” on Britain’s departure for talks on future relations and trade to begin.   But a senior EU official said Thursday that “it’s too early to tell” whether the leaders can decide. The official briefed reporters only on condition that she not be named.   She affirmed that …

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Russian special forces are helping Syrian government troops fight Islamic State militants in the battle for the strategic city of Deir el-Zour in eastern Syria, the defense ministry in Moscow said Thursday. Russia began its operation to support President Bashar Assad’s offensive against the IS in Syria in 2015 but has mostly focused on providing air cover to government troops on the ground. The campaign for Deir el-Zour, Syria’s largest eastern city, is caught up in a race between government troops and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Russian-backed troops advance In the past two weeks, the pro-government forces, backed by …

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The lack of a unified approach by world governments to paying kidnap ransoms is putting the lives of citizens of all nationalities at greater risk and is providing terror groups with a big source of finance, warns a new report by a prominent British defense policy institute. Henry Ridgwell has more from London. …

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The lack of a unified approach by world governments to paying kidnap ransoms is putting the lives of citizens of all nationalities at greater risk and providing terror groups with a big source of finance, warns a new report from British analyst group the Royal United Services Institute. The authors call for a global, rigorously applied and scrupulously monitored commitment to prevent any concessions to terrorist organizations. A series of high profile kidnappings by Islamic State in Syria highlighted the lack of a unified global response. Among them was American filmmaker James Foley, held for nearly two years alongside other …

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