Category: Євросоюз

Turkey is building up military forces on the Syrian border, while Turkish President Recep Erdogan steps up his rhetoric suggesting an imminent military operation into Syria. Ankara is reportedly courting Moscow for its support for a possible operation into Syria’s Afrin enclave, which is now under the control of the Kurdish YPG militia. Ankara accuses the YPG, which controls large swathes of Syrian territory along its border, of being an offshoot of the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish state. “We will take important steps to implement the new campaigns in the near future,” Erdogan declared Saturday to cheering supporters …

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Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has called a meeting the three parties in his ruling coalition after a junior partner, the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party, unexpectedly announced it is withdrawing from the pact that brought the parties together. Fico, who called the move “absurd,” will meet leaders of the other two parties on Tuesday. He says he expects Slovak National Party chairman Andrej Danko to explain the reasons for the step. It is not immediately clear whether the move threatens the government’s existence. The coalition is made up of Fico’s leftist Smer-Social Democracy party, the Slovak National Party and a …

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Russia will speed up work on reducing dependency on U.S. payment systems and the dollar as a settling currency, RIA news agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Monday. It is a response to the new sanctions against Russia reluctantly signed into law last week by U.S. President Donald Trump. The sanctions targeted Russia’s energy sector, with new limits on U.S. investment in Russian companies. “We will of course intensify work related to import substitution, reduction of dependence on U.S. payment systems, on the dollar as a settling currency and so on. It is becoming a vital …

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The Spanish Red Cross says it has tended to 186 migrants who stormed a pedestrian border post to enter Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco.   Attempts to cross by force at pedestrian border posts are unusual as they are normally heavily policed. The thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants living illegally in Morocco normally try to scale the border fences surrounding Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s other North African enclave, in their bid to enter Europe.   Ceuta’s Red Cross tweeted that four migrants were taken to a city hospital for injuries after the crossing early Monday.   Spain’s …

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Anti-immigration activists in Europe are trying to disrupt the flow of migrant boats from north Africa to Europe. A group of Tunisian fishermen do not like that idea and on Sunday prevented a ship carrying the far-right activists from docking at Zarzis, according to a French News Agency, or AFP, report. “It’s the least we can do given what is happening out in the Mediterranean,” the head of the local fishermen’s organization told AFP.  “Muslims and Africans are dying.” A port official said, “What? Us let in racists here?  Never.” AFP said the C-Star, a boat chartered for the activists …

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A midday nap is very much part of the Spanish traditional life style. However, having a public place in which to do so is new. Siesta & Go is the first nap bar in Madrid according to reporter Faiza Elmasry. VOA’s Faith Lapidus narrates. …

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In a vast network of tunnels carved into the rocks under the Maltese capital Valletta, faded maps of the Mediterranean hint at the place’s role in directing key battles in World War II. Malta is now restoring the 28,000 square meters (300,000 square feet) of tunnels, planning to open a huge section to the public. The compound, hidden under the picturesque port city perched on cliffs above the sea, was built by the British and served as the staging ground for major naval operations. The British military withdrew in 1979 and the compound was abandoned for almost 40 years. German …

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Russia said Sunday that the U.S. is soon sending its envoy for negotiations over unrest in eastern Ukraine to Moscow for talks about the ongoing violence. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the announcement after an hour-plus meeting in Manila with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. It was the first high-level contact between the two countries since U.S. President Donald Trump last week reluctantly signed new sanctions into law to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 presidential election to help him win. Lavrov said U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker would meet with Russia’s envoy for the Ukraine crisis, Vladislav Surkov. …

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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday that Russian interference in last year’s presidential election created “serious mistrust,” and that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed “a lot of work” that has to be done regarding U.S.-Russia relations. The two top diplomats held talks on the sidelines of a regional forum in the Philippines where Tillerson said he told Lavrov the U.S. will respond by Sept. 1 to Russia’s order to remove hundreds of diplomats and other staff from U.S. diplomatic facilities in Russia. “I told the foreign minister that we had not made a decision regarding …

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Turkish police said they were working with Australian authorities to investigate a foiled plot to bomb an Etihad Airways flight using explosives which Canberra said were flown in from Turkey. In a statement issued late on Saturday police said they had contacted Australian authorities as soon as they received news of the foiled plot. The two sides have “started working to clarify unclear and unconfirmed matters regarding the possibility that explosive substances were sent from Turkey three months ago,” said the statement carried by Turkish media. Australian police said on Friday that an Australian man sent his unsuspecting brother to …

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Emmanuel Macron’s honeymoon didn’t last long.   Less than three months after his election, France’s energetic and image-conscious president has seen his popularity drop after announcing budget cuts, launching a divisive labor reform and engaging in a damaging dispute with the military.   A series of opinion polls last week showed the percentage of French citizens who said they were satisfied with Macron’s policies and trusted their young leader to deal with the country’s problems plunging. The reversal might not affect the visible international profile he has cut since taking office, but it could hurt Macron’s ability to secure his …

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Britain is prepared to pay up to 40 billion euros ($47 billion) as part of a deal to leave the European Union, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported, citing three unnamed sources familiar with Britain’s negotiating strategy. The European Union has floated a figure of 60 billion euros and wants significant progress on settling Britain’s liabilities before talks can start on complex issues such as future trading arrangements. The government department responsible for Brexit talks declined to comment on the Sunday Telegraph article. So far, Britain has given no official indication of how much it would be willing to pay. The …

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The shift this Saturday morning starts early — to catch male weekend vacationers heading to the beach. The first women on the main road running through the decaying Italian seaside resort of Castel Volturno, 30 kilometers north of Naples and home now to an estimated 20,000 African migrants, are older Central Europeans, but younger Nigerians aren’t far behind. By 9 a.m. there are about 30 sex workers touting for business along the strip — a small fraction of the nighttime contingents. Castel Volturno is one of Italy’s ground zeros when it comes to a migration crisis roiling Italian politics and …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin stripped to his waist to brave the cold waters of a mountain lake as part of a three-day fishing and hunting trip in the Siberian wilderness, the Kremlin said. Putin, 64, is renowned for his strong-man publicity stunts, which have contributed to his sky-high popularity ratings. The trip comes eight months before Russia’s presidential election next March and, though he has yet to announce his candidacy, Putin is widely expected to run and to win comfortably. The hunting and fishing expedition took place on Aug. 1-3 in the republic of Tyva in southern Siberia, on the …

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Russia’s former ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak, said on Saturday his conversations with former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn had been transparent and focussed on matters of U.S.-Russia cooperation. Kislyak ended his tenure in Washington in July but remains a key figure in ongoing U.S. investigations into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Flynn was forced to resign in February after it became known that he had failed to disclose the content of conversations he had with Kislyak and misled U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence about their meetings. “We only spoke about the most simple things… but …

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A new study shows that deaths that result from extreme weather in Europe could increase 50 times by the end of the century if the effects of global warming are not curbed. In the study published Saturday by The Lancet Planetary Health journal, scientists say weather-related disasters could kill more than 152,000 people a year by 2100, up from 3,000 per year recently. The researchers say the toll could be especially high in southern Europe. “Unless global warming is curbed as a matter of urgency and appropriate adaptation measures are taken, about 350 million Europeans could be exposed to harmful …

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Alaska is the biggest – yet one of the least populated American states. There are just over 741,000 people living there – oil industry workers, adventurers from all over the U.S., Native Alaskans, immigrants. Within this complex cultural mosaic there is a group known as Russian Old believers. Nearly 50 years ago, they established a village called Nikolaevsk on Alaska’s Kenai peninsula. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya reports from there. …

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Top U.S. intelligence officials are refusing to back down over concerns about Russia, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian officials lament what they describe as deteriorating relations between the two countries. “Our values and our interests are not aligned naturally,” Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a small group of reporters this week. “Russia desires to be the center of influence in the European theater,” Stewart said. “There will be a perpetual contest between us and the Russian state for either regional or global dominance.” Stewart, who spoke before the latest public sparring …

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Mikheil Saakashvili, since last week the world’s only stateless former president, says he could have remained safely in the United States, or perhaps settled with his family in his wife’s home nation, the Netherlands. But instead, the former Georgian leader, who last week was stripped of his adoptive Ukrainian citizenship, turned up without notice Thursday in Poland, where he stands at risk of being deported to Georgia to face criminal charges that he says are politically motivated. “No, I could have [received residency in the United States], I was even offered to do it, but I didn’t want to take …

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The head of German automaker Volkswagen’s engineering and environment office pleaded guilty Friday in a U.S. court to charges connected to an emissions scandal involving the company. Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges that could land him in prison for up to seven years. He will be forced to pay a fine of between $40,000 and $400,000 for his role in a scheme, dubbed Dieselgate, to mislead U.S. environmental regulators. In March, the company admitted to using software to fool regulators into believing Volkswagen cars complied with U.S. emissions standards. It was ordered to pay …

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