Category: Євросоюз

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for renewal of Middle East peace talks so that Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in two states with secure borders with Jerusalem as the capital. Macron’s comments came Sunday during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Paris to mark the 75th anniversary of the deportation of Jews from France to Nazi concentration camps during World War Two. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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Swiss tennis star Roger Federer has won a record 8th Wimbledon title, defeating Croatia’s Marin Cilic in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, 6-4. …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has inaugurated a monument to commemorate the 250 people who died opposing a military coup a year ago . The monument opposite Erdogan’s huge presidential palace depicts Turkey’s national symbol, the moon and crescent. With tens of thousands of people attending, the inauguration ceremony after dawn prayers Sunday was called from presidential palace’s mosque. “Be sure, that none of the traitors who point a gun at our country, nation, freedom and future will ever see the light of day again,” Erdogan promised the cheering crowd. “[Those who carried out the coup] will die over and …

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Gibraltar will not be a victim of Brexit and has had guarantees from the British government it will not do a trade deal with the European Union which doesn’t include the territory, its chief minister said on Sunday. The future of Gibraltar, a rocky enclave on the southern tip of Spain captured by Britain in 1704, and its 30,000 inhabitants is set to be a major point of contention in Brexit negotiations. The EU annoyed Britain and Gibraltar in April by offering Spain a right of veto over the territory’s post-Brexit relationship with the bloc. Gibraltar, which Spain wants back, …

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Turkey’s main opposition party says the government is blocking a full investigation into last summer’s failed coup attempt and using the state of emergency imposed in its wake to hide the truth. Bulent Tezcan, the spokesman of the Republican People’s Party or CHP, said the government was using the commemorations for the anniversary of the failed July 15, 2016, coup to “write a fabricated history.”   Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed tens of thousands of people at memorial events in Istanbul and Ankara this weekend. Turkey blames U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating a violent attempt to overthrow of …

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French president Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday that France bears responsibility for mass arrests of Jews in Paris during World War II. “It was indeed France that organized this,” Macron said, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the event. Macron condemned France’s participation as well as those who denied it or blamed the Germans for the roundup of 13,000 Jews sent to Nazi death camps from the Velodrome d’Hiver, an indoor cycle track, in 1942. Netanyahu’s presence was protested by groups including the Union of French Jews for Peace (UJFP) who accuse the Israeli government of “usurping …

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Spain’s Garbine Muguruza has won her first Wimbledon title, defeating American Venus Williams in straight sets Saturday, 7-5, 6-0. The 10th seeded Williams, 37, had been seeking to become the oldest women’s Grand Slam champion but couldn’t overcome the 14th seeded Muguruza. Muguruza, who lost in the Wimbledon finals in 2015 to Venus’ sister, Serena, saved two set points in the 10th game of the first set and then won nine straight games to clinch the championship. It is her second Grand Slam title. Venus Williams was seeking her first Wimbledon title since 2008.  She has won a total of …

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France’s foreign minister has expressed concern about the deterioration of relations between Qatar and its Arab neighbors and called for sanctions that target Qatari nationals to be lifted. Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke to reporters after talks with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, in Doha on Saturday. A group of nations that includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt accuses Qatar of supporting terrorism and has given Doha a 13-point list of demands after severing diplomatic ties in early June. Qatar has said it is willing to negotiate but will not give up its sovereignty. …

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Germany has confirmed that two of its nationals were stabbed to death in an attack at an Egyptian resort hotel. A German Foreign Ministry statement said “We can now sadly confirm that two German tourists died in the attack at Hurghada.” Officials say the female tourists were killed Friday when the assailant swam ashore from another Red Sea beach. Egyptian authorities say the man has been arrested. A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said, “According to what we know, the act was a deliberate attack on foreign tourists – a particularly devious and criminal act that leaves us sad, dismayed and …

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As recently as last year, Rinat Akhmetshin could be seen regularly pedaling through downtown Washington, D.C., nattily dressed, with a pocket square and heavy-framed thick glasses, riding a retro hipster orange bicycle.  He also showed an affinity for vintage motorcycles, which he parked for two years in the Washington driveway of renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.  Hersh later gave a public endorsement to a controversial film linked to Akhmetshin that sought to undermine a 2012 U.S. law that infuriated the Kremlin.  At the center of scandal Now Akhmetshin, a dual Russian-American citizen who has both denied and bragged about being …

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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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