Category: Євросоюз

Rome — Pope Francis decided at the last minute to skip his homily during Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, avoiding a strenuous speech at the start of a busy Holy Week that will test his increasingly frail health. Hobbled by bad knees and persistent respiratory problems, Francis also didn’t participate in the procession of cardinals around the obelisk in the piazza at the start of the Mass. Instead, the 87-year-old pontiff blessed the palm fronds and olive branches carried by the faithful from the altar. Francis had been expected to deliver a homily halfway through the service and had …

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MOSCOW — The suburban Moscow music hall where gunmen opened fire on concertgoers was a blackened, smoldering ruin Saturday as the death toll in the attack surpassed 130 and Russian authorities arrested four suspects. President Vladimir Putin claimed they were captured while fleeing to Ukraine. Kyiv strongly denied any involvement in Friday’s assault on the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, and the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate claimed responsibility. Putin did not mention IS in his speech to the nation, and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault to stoke fervor for …

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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — A pro-Western career diplomat defeated a close ally of Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico in the first round of the presidential election Sunday to set up a runoff between the two to decide who will succeed Zuzana Caputova, the country’s first female president.  Former Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok had 42.13% of the votes late Saturday, with nearly all polling stations counted by Slovakia’s Statistics Office. Peter Pellegrini was in second with 37.28%. Because no candidate won an outright majority, a runoff will be held April 6 in this central European nation of 5.4 million people.  A former …

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ATHENS — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Cyprus should be a Turkish state. Erdogan defended his country’s 1974 invasion of Cyprus, saying there would be no “Cyprus problem” had Turkish forces gone farther and taken over the entire state. The remarks angered Greece, sparking fresh tension between the two age-old foes. The government in Athens slammed what it called the “provocative remarks.” Officials in Athens attribute the outbursts to upcoming local elections in Turkey and efforts by Erdogan to spoil what opinion polls show as growing gains being made by his party’s main opponent in the key …

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tel aviv, israel — China conducted joint military drills this week with Russia and Iran in the Gulf of Oman, a critical water conduit near the entry to the Persian Gulf. The five-day exercise, “Maritime Security Belt 2024,” involved both naval and aviation forces, with the primary objective of enhancing the security of maritime economic activities, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defense. The drills may have been planned long in advance of the current Israel-Hamas war, but their implication and message to regional players and the West are highly significant, analysts say. More than 20 ships, combat boats, support carriers and …

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united nations — Ukraine, joined Friday by more than 55 countries at the United Nations, condemned Russia’s attempts to organize elections on occupied Ukrainian land, saying they were not valid. “We condemn in the strongest terms the Russian Federation’s illegitimate attempts to organize Russian presidential elections in temporarily occupied areas within the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine,” the group said in a statement read by Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, flanked by his counterparts. “Holding elections in another U.N. member state’s territory without its consent is in manifest disregard for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said. “Such elections …

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BERLIN — Ukraine’s backers will use windfall profits on frozen Russian assets to finance arms purchases for Kyiv, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said following a meeting with his French and Polish counterparts aimed at showing unity after weeks of friction.  At a joint news conference in Berlin, Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reaffirmed their support for Ukraine, whose ammunition-starved troops face their toughest battles since the early days of Russia’s invasion two years ago.  European support has become increasingly key as U.S. President Joe Biden has been unable to get a big Ukraine aid package …

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BRUSSELS — The European Union’s executive arm Friday proposed sacrificing even more climate and environmental measures in the bloc’s latest set of concessions to farmers apparently bent on continuing disruptive tractor protests until the June EU elections. Angering environmentalists across the 27 nations, the Commission proposed to further loosen rules imposed on agriculture that they said, not so long ago, were inherent parts of the bloc’s strategy to become climate neutral by 2050. That iconic challenge put the EU in the global vanguard of fighting climate change. “The main goal of these legislative proposals is to further ease the administrative burden …

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GENEVA — U.N. investigators have accused Russian authorities of disregarding basic human rights principles and causing untold suffering to Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians by subjecting them to appalling treatment. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine submitted its latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council this week. The investigators presented a blistering account of “violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, and corresponding war crimes,” committed by Russia in Ukrainian areas under its control. At a news briefing Friday in Geneva, Commission Chair Erik Mose said the report focuses on torture against Ukrainian prisoners of …

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White House — U.S. President Joe Biden is hosting Taoiseach of Ireland Leo Varadkar on Friday for the annual St. Patrick’s Day reception at the White House, amid calls to boycott the event by many in Ireland who are outraged by staunch U.S. support of Israel in its war against Hamas. Speaking earlier this week in Boston, where almost a quarter of the city’s population claims Irish descent, Varadkar cited Ireland’s “own painful history,” and renewed calls for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza, a step that goes beyond the six-week halt in fighting that Biden is pushing for.  The Irish prime …

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London — NATO began its biggest military exercises since the Cold War this week, with tens of thousands of troops set to move across Europe in a show of force meant as a warning to Russia, following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Operation Steadfast Defender 24 will see some 90,000 NATO military personnel take part in a range of drills across Europe in coming months. Fifty naval vessels, 80 aircraft and over 1,000 combat vehicles are involved. The exercises “will show that NATO can conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months, across thousands of kilometers, from the high north …

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Washington — Sweden, which dropped its position of military nonalignment and sought NATO membership in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, is now one vote away from joining the alliance as its 32nd member. On Wednesday, Henrik Landerholm, Sweden’s national security adviser, met with VOA in Washington to discuss his country’s imminent membership and his perspectives on security challenges facing the alliance in 2024. In Landerholm’s view, if Russia prevails in its war against Ukraine, its appetite will only increase, resulting in greater security threats for a much wider region. Landerholm said he was grateful for America’s strong support …

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Beijing — China confirmed on Friday that it had sentenced a British national in 2022 to five years in jail for spying. It was its first official comment of a case that had gone unreported until this week. A Beijing court in 2022 “sentenced in the first instance the British defendant … to five years in prison for the crime of illegally obtaining intelligence for overseas actors,” foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said. After an appeal, he added, the case was upheld in September. The Wall Street Journal first broke news of the case of Ian Stones on Thursday. Citing his …

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