Category: Євросоюз

The room in Istanbul’s main court house was packed as the trial of 17 journalists working for Cumhuriyet newspaper got underway. The trial is widely seen as pivotal for the future of press freedom in Turkey with Cumhuriyet one of the last remaining mainstream newspapers critical of the government and president. The first day of the hearing Monday was devoted to reading the terrorist charges against the journalists. Most have been charged with “membership of a terrorist organization” or “actions that support a terrorist organization while not being a member.” The charges have been widely used since the introduction of emergency …

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French President Emmanuel Macron faced the first grassroots revolt from within his own camp on Monday when hundreds of activists asked a court to halt voting on new rules for the political party that helped him win power in May. The challenge came on the heels of a poll showing a slump in the 39-year-old president’s approval rating after a series of politically testing events, including a budget row that prompted the head of the army to quit. Members of Macron’s Republic on the Move party (LREM), which espouses a break with old ways of doing politics, are taking part …

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Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, is being interviewed Monday by the Senate Intelligence Committee in connection with allegations that Trump’s election campaign had contacts with Russia. The closed-door meeting on Monday (July 24) is part of the probe into Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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Turkey’s president has condemned Israeli security precautions at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site saying the Islamic world would not remain silent. Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed reporters Sunday in Istanbul before departing on a visit to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. He says: “No one can expect the Islamic world to remain unresponsive after the humiliation Muslims suffered with the restrictions at the Noble Sanctuary.” Earlier this week, Israel installed metal detectors at the shrine in response to a deadly attack by Arab gunmen there which killed two Israeli policemen. The metal detectors are perceived by the Palestinians as an encroachment …

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Russia is responsible for the “Hot War” in Eastern Ukraine, the newly appointed U.S. special envoy to Ukraine said Sunday. Kurt Volker, who was appointed by the State Department earlier this month to negotiate an end to more than three years of fighting that has killed 10,000 people, visited Ukraine on the eve of telephone talks between its leader and Russian, German, and French counterparts. “This is not a frozen conflict, this is a hot war and it is an immediate crisis that we all need to address as quickly as possible,” Volker said in the city of Karamatorsk in …

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Lucy Harris thinks Britain’s decision to leave the European Union is a dream come true. Nick Hopkinson thinks it’s a nightmare. The two Britons — a “leave” supporter and a “remainer” — represent the great divide in a country that stepped into the unknown just over a year ago, when British voters decided by 52 percent to 48 percent to end more than four decades of EU membership. They are also as uncertain as the rest of the country about what Brexit will look like, and even when it will happen. Since the shock referendum result, work on negotiating the divorce from …

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The U.S. Congress is moving toward adoption of new sanctions against Russia for its interference in the 2016 election, but it was unclear Sunday whether President Donald Trump would sign the legislation. Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, told CNN, “You’ve got to ask President Trump. My guess is he’s going to make that decision soon.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC News “the White House supports where the legislation is now.” Key Republican and Democratic lawmakers reached accord Saturday on the measure, which does not include changes Trump wanted to make it easier for …

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Authorities in Madrid asked Spain’s anti-trust watchdog on Saturday to investigate whether Uber’s new low-cost airport transfer service constitutes unfair competition. The city council’s request follows the ride-hailing app’s return to the Spanish capital last year after the CNMC competition regulator called for the government to lift a ban on the U.S. company. The firm’s recently launched Uber Airport service offers a tariff of 15-29 euros for a ride between Madrid’s Barajas international airport and the city center. Standard taxi fares for the trip are fixed at 30 euros. “(Uber Airport) could violate several articles of the Law of Unfair …

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Germany has warned Russia that breaches of sanctions including the relocation to Crimea of four gas turbines delivered to Russia by Siemens are straining political relations between the two countries, Bild am Sonntag reported Sunday. The newspaper quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying the German government had on several occasions brought to Moscow’s attention looming breaches of existing sanctions and unlawful behaviors by Russian companies. Russian President Vladimir Putin had assured Sigmar Gabriel, then German economy minister, at the time of delivery that the turbines were not for Crimea, the spokesman told the mass circulation paper. Gabriel is now …

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Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s controversial ambassador to Washington, on Saturday departed from the United States as he ended his nine-year term as Moscow’s chief diplomat to its main global rival. The Russian Embassy said his departure was part of a scheduled reassignment for the 66-year-old ambassador. Russian state-run Interfax news agency quoted a source as saying Kislyak’s next move could be to become a member of Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council. A replacement has not been announced. The embassy said that Denis Goncha, listed as the minister-counselor and deputy chief of mission, would serve as charge d’affaires until a successor …

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A Swiss couple whose bodies were found on an Alpine glacier after they went missing for nearly 75 years have been buried in Switzerland. Swiss broadcaster SRF said the funeral of Marcelin Dumoulin and his wife, Francine, took place Saturday in a church in Saviese in southwestern Switzerland. They were 40 and 37 when they disappeared on August 15, 1942. The couple’s daughter, Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, now 79, said her parents set off on foot to feed their animals but never returned. SRF said two daughters took part in the funeral; the other five children have already died. The bodies were …

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Two aftershocks hit the Greek island of Kos on Saturday night, just a day after a 6.7 magnitude earthquake killed two people and injured nearly 500 others. The first aftershock, of 4.4 magnitude, hit the island about 8 p.m. local time and was followed 16 minutes later by a 4.6-magnitude tremor, the Athens Geodynamics Institute reported. The fresh tremors meant more worrying for residents and tourists on the island, as hundreds chose to spend the night sleeping outside, too scared to return to their homes or hotel rooms. Officials on the island were assessing damage to cultural monuments and infrastructure, …

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Two former top U.S. intelligence officials harshly criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for not standing up to Russia for meddling in the presidential election, one of them wondering aloud whether the president’s real aim is to make “Russia great again.”   Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan didn’t hold back their anger about Trump’s past disparaging comments about the intelligence agencies and their assessment that Moscow deliberately interfered in the election and tried to sow discord in the United States.   Asked if he thinks Trump takes the threat from Russia seriously enough, …

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Lyudmila Alekeyeva, a renowned human rights activist who has challenged the Soviet regime and Russian authorities since the 1950s, tells VOA that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent surprise visit to her flat left her with an improved perception of the man. Putin visited Alekeyeva on Thursday, her 90th birthday, reaching out to the prominent and respected critic months before a March 2018 election in which he is expected to run for a fourth Kremlin term. According to the Kremlin website, Alekeyeva offered him a glass of champagne and a bite to eat shortly after a presidential security official quickly inspected …

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Hundreds of people on the eastern Greek island of Kos have spent the night sleeping outdoors after a powerful earthquake killed two tourists and injured nearly 500 others across the Aegean Sea region in Greece and Turkey.    Residents and tourists were too afraid to return to their homes and hotels, camping out instead in parks and olive groves, or slumbering in their cars or on lounge chairs.   The most seriously injured in Greece were airlifted to hospitals on the mainland and the southern island of Crete, and at least two were listed in critical condition Saturday.  The U.S. …

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Poland’s Senate approved a contentious law Saturday that gives politicians substantial influence over the Supreme Court, in defiance of European Union criticism. The bill proposed by the populist ruling party only needs the signature of President Andrzej Duda to become binding. Duda has so far followed the ruling party line. The vote was 55-23 with two abstentions. And it was met with boos from protesters gathered in front of the Senate building. End of judicial independence EU leaders say the bill would kill judicial independence and threaten the rule of law in the EU’s largest member in Central and Eastern …

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The Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 campaign has represented a military unit operated by Russia’s intelligence agency, according to court filings obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.   The filings from 2011 and 2012 show that Natalia Veselnitskaya represented Military Unit 55002 — run by the FSB, Russia’s main intelligence agency — in a dispute over property rights. The court ruled in favor of the Federal Property Agency, which sought to regain ownership of a building occupied by the military unit.   Veselnitskaya was not immediately available for comment.   President Donald Trump’s eldest …

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Whether Kenya’s elections next month turn deadly violent, like the 2007 vote, or remain mostly peaceful, like the 2013 poll, international monitors will be on the ground to see whether the final outcome is trustworthy and fair. With political tensions running high, it’s too early to tell how the August 8 elections might go. But Marietje Schaake, the head of the 2017 European Union Election Observation Mission to Kenya, says the voters she’s met with ardently hope there will be no election drama this time around. “I myself have visited Mombasa, Eldoret and two other regions of Kenya, other than …

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As Vice President Mike Pence prepares to visit Montenegro for talks with Western Balkan leaders, a senior State Department official says U.S. engagement in the region remains strong. The comments by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Hoyt Brian Yee, come amid concerns that deep cuts in the proposed State Department budget could diminish Washington’s role in fragile democracies exposed to Russian interference. On issues where U.S. and Russian interests align in the region, such as counterterrorism, Yee said the United States will try to work closely with Russia. “But where Russia and the United States do …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan starts a two-day tour of Gulf states Sunday in an effort to resolve a crisis involving Qatar, and four Arab states accusing the small peninsular nation of supporting terrorism. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have severed relations with Qatar. They are enforcing a land and sea embargo, accusing the oil-rich nation of supporting extremist groups and destabilizing the region, allegations Qatar has denied. “Turkey is trying to contribute to efforts to facilitate toward peace and stability,” said Mithat Rende, a retired Turkish ambassador to Qatar. “Erdogan will try to bring people …

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