Category: Євросоюз

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says those behind last year’s failed coup in Turkey are “traitors” who should be beheaded. Erdogan spoke as Turkey celebrated the anniversary with a national holiday, unveiling a “Martyrs Memorial” on the iconic Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul to commemorate the estimated 250 people who died in clashes opposing the coup. The bridge, renamed Saturday as Martyrs Bridge, was the scene of clashes between civilians and military tanks. In a speech later in the day, Erdogan said the perpetrators of the coup should be killed or imprisoned in a facility like the United States’ Guantanamo Bay …

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Sanctions policies targeting rogue states risk being ineffective because of a lack of coordination between the European Union and the United States, according to a new report from British analyst group the Royal United Services Institute. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

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Two more participants have been reported in a notorious Trump Tower meeting that took place in June 2016 between members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign team and a Russian lawyer, as discussion rages over whether the Trump campaign cooperated with any Russian efforts to influence last year’s U.S. presidential election. Two Russian Americans — Anatoly Samochornov and Rinat Akhmetshin — were identified by news outlets Friday as having accompanied Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to the meeting, which Donald Trump Jr. originally said was just to talk about a Russian ban on Americans adopting Russian children. This week Trump Jr. revealed …

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“Don’t go to the pub tonight,” Irish pop musician Bob Geldof pleaded in the months leading up to Live Aid, the world’s biggest concert that took place on two continents, included 72 rock bands, and raised an estimated $125 million to feed starving Ethiopians caught in a historically severe famine. “Please, stay in and give us the money,” Geldof said 32 years ago. “There are people dying now, so give me the money.” The pictures of skeletal and dazed, malnourished children gathering in Ethiopian camps set up by aid agencies were alarming. In a 1984 report, BBC broadcaster Michael Buerk …

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Half a century after Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was convicted and hanged in Israel for engineering the deaths of millions of Jews, the bulletproof-glass booth where he sat facing justice has come to New York for a multimedia, you-are-there recreation of the courtroom. It’s part of an exhibit at Manhattan’s Museum of Jewish Heritage that opens Sunday, created by a former agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service that captured Eichmann a decade after he fled to Argentina.    Surrounding Eichmann’s actual booth are screens with original video footage — seven minutes culled from 350 courtroom hours — that makes visitors …

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Turkey fired more than 7,000 police officers, government officials and academics on Friday, the eve of the one-year anniversary of a failed military coup. A government order, published by the official state-run Gazette, shows those dismissed include 2,303 police — including some high-ranking officers — along with more than 300 academics from universities. The decree also strips 342 retired officers and soldiers of their ranks. The order was published under a state of emergency imposed after last year’s attempted coup to seize power from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. More than 240 people were killed in the violence. Turkey claims the …

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Five linked acid attacks in quick succession by men on mopeds in London left several people injured, British police said Friday, the latest in a spate of such crimes that have alarmed residents and politicians.   The Metropolitan Police said the 90-minute spree began late Thursday. Two men on a moped tossed a noxious substance into the face of a 32-year-old moped driver, then jumped on his vehicle and drove away.   The pattern was repeated across a swath of east London. At least one victim, a man in his 20s, was left with life-changing injuries, police said.   A …

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U.S. President Donald Trump was the guest of honor Friday at France’s Bastille Day celebrations, an elaborate display that included military bands, flyovers by American jet fighters, and a parade that lasted more than two hours to mark the centennial of the U.S. entry into the First World War.   The American flag flew along with the French flag on Paris’ famed Champs Elysees, where U.S. troops marched in a parade with thousands of French soldiers, tanks, missile launchers, and armored personnel carriers.   More than 3,500 police took positions along the parade route to guard against potential terrorist attacks.  …

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For tech entrepreneurs in Turkey, the unstable situation after last year’s coup attempt has made it harder to get the word out about the country’s tech scene and to solicit outside investment. Some entrepreneurs recently traveled to the United States for Etohum San Francisco, an event bridging the Turkish startup community with Silicon Valley. VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports. …

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Turkey marks the first anniversary of a failed military coup (July 15) against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In a subsequent purge, about 100,000 government employees were dismissed and 40,000 were arrested. Last April, the country’s authoritarian leader further consolidated his power through a constitutional referendum. The United States has condemned the coup, but has disagreed with Ankara on several issues. Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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President Trump is making no promises to change his decision on pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, something that made for awkward moments on the first day of his trip to France. But, as VOA Europe Correspondent Luis Ramirez reports from Paris, Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron focused on finding common ground on areas like Syria and counterterrorism. …

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Saturday marks the first anniversary of Turkey’s failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but with a post-coup crackdown firmly in place, there are concerns about a deepening political divide as the government marks the turmoil. Turkish media broadcasts of the tumultuous events of July 15, 2016 include file coverage of soldiers opening fire on unarmed people on Istanbul’s Bosphorus Bridge and jets bombing parliament. More than 240 people were killed and nearly 3,000 others were injured when a faction of the military attempted to seize power. “The soldiers took out their rifles and started shooting. At that moment, I …

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U.S. first lady Melania Trump took her own path through Paris on Thursday as she and President Donald Trump began a two-day visit to the French capital, starting at a children’s hospital. At Necker Hospital, Melania Trump visited a ward decorated with images from “The Little Prince,” an iconic French novel written and illustrated by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. She spoke briefly in French to six children, asking how they were and introducing herself before switching to a translator to ask how long they expected to stay. One of the children, a 14-year-old girl named Ysatis, was in a wheelchair and …

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President Trump attends the Bastille day celebrations in Paris, which also commemorates 100 years since America joined World War I. …

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The man convicted of killing Kremlin critic and former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov in 2015 was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Russian court Thursday. Shooter Saur Dadayev was given 20 years and four accomplices were given between 11 and 19 years, judge Yury Zhitnikov told the packed courtroom. Prosecutors had initially asked for longer sentences for all of the defendants, including a life sentence for Dadayev. In June the jury ruled by majority against brothers Shagid and Anzor Gubashev, Ramzan Bakhayev, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov and Zaur Dadayev, who was found guilty of shooting Nemtsov six times in …

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Russia has significantly increased its military activity in the skies around Western European NATO members, according to a new report that warns the tactic could present a danger to civilian aircraft. NATO forces in Europe scrambled fighter jets to intercept approaching Russian aircraft — so-called Quick Reaction Alerts or QRA — close to 800 times last year. That’s almost double the figure from 2014, according to London-based analyst group The Henry Jackson Society. Its report calls for improved communication and clearer rules of engagement between Western European powers and Moscow to avert potentially dangerous incidents. The tactic was routine in …

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Spanish companies will commit millions of pounds of investment to Britain on Thursday, the British government said, as it seeks to limit the economic impact of leaving the European Union. The investment plans, which include building trains and trams in Britain, coincide with a three-day state visit to Britain by Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia. King Felipe and British trade minister Liam Fox are due to address a U.K.-Spain business forum in London on Thursday, before the Spanish monarch holds bilateral talks with Prime Minister Theresa May at her Downing Street residence. Britain said the investments would include Spanish …

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Maltese lawmakers voted on Wednesday to legalize same-sex marriage on the Roman Catholic Mediterranean island, fulfilling Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s campaign promise to make this the first law brought before parliament in his new term. The law, which drew cross-party support, removes words including “husband,” “wife,” “mother” and “father” from the Marriage Act and replaces them with the gender-neutral “spouse,” “parent who gave birth” and “parent who did not give birth.” Muscat said such wording was needed to avoid categorizing any member of society. He rejected accusations that this could spell the end to “Mother’s Day” or “Father’s Day,” saying …

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Poland’s conservative ruling party has pushed a bill through the lower house of parliament that would give lawmakers a dominant role in appointing judges, a move that opposition parties and rights groups said would make jurists subject to political influence. The proposed law would change the makeup of the National Judiciary Council. At present, the council’s members are appointed by sitting judges, and it is considered nonpartisan. The pending bill would give the legislature the power to select 15 of the 25 members, and thus control the process of selecting, reviewing and nominating all new jurists. The lower house, or …

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Russian state-funded Sputnik Radio has started its first broadcasts in the Washington, D.C., area, in an effort to reach more Americans with what it calls “alternative news.”   Sputnik, which says it gives voice to minority views outside mainstream media and supports an anti-establishment agenda, broadcasts on the 105.5 W288BS frequency. Critics say Sputnik functions as part of a Kremlin propaganda machine aimed at undermining Western institutions. Sputnik Radio staffers say its broadcasts into the Washington area will allow Americans in the nation’s capital to listen to them and not just to what is being said about them. “People heard …

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