Month: September 2021

Iceland briefly celebrated electing a female-majority parliament Sunday, before a recount produced a result just short of that landmark for gender parity in the North Atlantic island nation. The initial vote count had female candidates winning 33 seats in Iceland’s 63-seat parliament, the Althing, in an election that saw centrist parties make the biggest gains. …

Switzerland voted by a wide margin to allow same-sex couples to marry in a referendum on Sunday, bringing the Alpine nation into line with many others in western Europe. Official results showed the measure passed with 64.1% of voters in favor and won a majority in all of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, or states.   Switzerland’s …

The EU and U.S. will this week embark on a tricky effort to deepen ties on tech regulation, but with France resisting the project in the wake of a falling out with Washington over a submarine deal. High-level talks will begin in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday despite efforts by Paris to …

The Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Spanish Canary Islands continues to spew lava and debris, one week after it erupted and forced thousands of people to flee their homes. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more …

In a first in Europe, women hold more than half of the seats in Iceland’s new parliament, final election results showed Sunday. Of the 63 seats in the Althing, 33 were won by women, or 52 percent, according to projections based on the final results. No other European country has had more than 50 percent …

A contentious campaign comes to a head Sunday as Swiss voters go to the polls to decide on whether same-sex marriage should be allowed. Earlier this month, thousands of people attended a high-spirited Pride parade in Zurich to support the legalization of same-sex marriage. They held up posters touting “Marriage for All” campaign slogans. They …

Germany’s 60 million eligible voters will set their country on a new course in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. The winning lawmakers will decide who will replace the country’s outgoing and popular chancellor, Angela Merkle. The newly elected politicians will likely have to form a coalition government, meaning it may take some weeks before Merkle’s replacement is …

Iceland’s government was poised to win a majority in Saturday’s election, early results showed, though it remained to be seen if Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir’s left-right coalition would agree to continue in power together. The three-party coalition has brought Iceland four years of stability after a decade of crises. Jakobsdottir’s Left-Green Movement, the conservative Independence …

International recognition of the Taliban “at the present juncture is not on the table,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday at the United Nations. Among the Taliban’s promises are ensuring an inclusive government; respecting human rights, especially for women; and preventing Afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorists. But the interim Taliban government, Lavrov said, …

Icelanders were voting Saturday in a general election dominated by climate change, with an unprecedented number of political parties likely to win parliamentary seats.   Polls suggested there wouldn’t be an outright winner, triggering complex negotiations to build a coalition government.   A record nine parties could cross the 5% threshold needed to qualify for …

Lengthy queues of vehicles snaked their way to gas stations in Britain on Saturday where an acute shortage of truck drivers has led to fuel rationing, some empty pumps, and government consideration of issuing temporary work visas.  Across the country, motorists waited in long lines to fill up their vehicles. One big distributor said it …

Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans Saturday to give her would-be successor Armin Laschet their vote to shape Germany’s future, in a last-ditch push to shore up his beleaguered campaign 24 hours before Germans vote.   Laschet, 60, has been trailing his Social Democrat challenger Olaf Scholz in the race for the chancellery, although final polls …

Women in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority province Diyarbakir cycled their well-decorated bikes to raise awareness about female cyclists in traffic. VOA’s Mahmut Bozarslan has filed this report, narrated by Ezel Sahinkaya. …

Young climate activists from Greta Thunberg’s Friday for Future movement resumed mass street protests on Friday for the first time since the pandemic began, demanding drastic action from global leaders ahead of U.N. climate talks in November. From Nairobi to Washington, marchers — including Thunberg, who joined protests in Berlin — carried placards and homemade …

Fatima Alzahra Shon thinks neighbors attacked her and her son in their Istanbul apartment building because she is Syrian.     The 32-year-old refugee from Aleppo was confronted on Sept. 1 by a Turkish woman who asked her what she was doing in “our” country. Shon replied, “Who are you to say that to me?” …