Author: Fworld

President Joe Biden is heading to the United Kingdom and Europe on his first trip abroad, sending a signal that his administration values close trans-Atlantic relationships as it deals with challenges like emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and threats from China and Russia. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.    …

French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped Tuesday while shaking hands across a barrier in a small southeastern French town.   Video from the scene showed Macron striding toward a small crowd of people waiting behind a barrier. According to Reuters, as Macron reached out to shake hands, a man in the crowd shouted “A bas …

The World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations climate agency, reported Tuesday that Europe saw its coldest March through May since 2013, with temperatures 0.45 C below the 1991-2020 average.During a briefing from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis cautioned that Europe’s cool start did not reflect any pause in the world’s …

French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face on Tuesday by a man in a crowd of onlookers while on a walkabout in southern France, video of the incident showed.Macron’s security entourage quickly intervened to pull the man to the ground and move Macron away from him. Two people were arrested in connection with …

A number of major websites could not be reached early Tuesday because of an outage at the cloud services company Fastly.The affected sites included news agencies CNN, The Guardian and The New York Times, streaming platform Twitch, and the British government website.  All were back online within a period of hours.The outage also forced CNN’s website …

U.N. judges are set to rule Tuesday on former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic’s appeal of his 2017 conviction for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mladic, 78, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of leading the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, and of terror and unlawful …

The German Defense Ministry said Monday it had been forced to deal with an unexpected problem regarding their troops in Afghanistan — a surplus of beer. At a news briefing in Berlin on Monday, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Christina Routsi explained that Germany’s troops in Afghanistan had been permitted to consume alcohol at times and in limited …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, pleading to meet U.S. President Joe Biden prior to Biden’s talks in Geneva next week, was rebuffed by the White House on that request but was awarded a consolation phone call on Monday that included an invitation to Washington.”They had the opportunity to talk at some length about all of the …

Authorities on Greece’s most popular tourist island, Mykonos, will deploy more than a dozen drones to spot those who defy safety protocols aimed at preventing the spread and resurgence of COVID-19.    The decision, known as “Operation Mykonos,” comes after a string of local so-called  “Corona-parties” organized by entrepreneurs at private villas and estates in …

Spain jumpstarted its summer tourism season on Monday by welcoming vaccinated visitors from most countries as well as European visitors who can prove they are not infected with coronavirus. It also reopened its ports to cruise ship stops. The move opened borders for the first vacationers from the United States and other countries outside of …

Turkey’s environment minister pledged on Sunday to defeat a plague of “sea snot” threatening the Sea of Marmara, using a disaster management plan he said would secure its future.A thick, slimy layer of the organic matter, known as marine mucilage, has spread through the sea south of Istanbul, posing a threat to marine life and …

Serena Williams turns 40 in September. Roger Federer hits that milestone the month before. No one knows how many more French Open appearances each will make, and this year’s tournament ended for both on Sunday.Williams fell way behind and could not put together a comeback against a much younger and less-experienced opponent in the fourth …

Sunday marked the 77th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces landed on the beaches of France’s Normandy region. Historians say the months-long battles that followed liberated Europe from Nazi Germany and gave the Allies the upper hand in World War II. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports how survivors marked the day. …

Pope Francis on Sunday expressed his pain over the discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 Indigenous students of church-run boarding schools and pressed religious and political authorities to shed light on “this sad affair.” But he didn’t offer the apology sought by the Canadian prime minister.Francis, in remarks to faithful gathered in St. …

Turkey’s environment minister pledged on Sunday to defeat a plague of “sea snot” threatening the Sea of Marmara with a disaster management plan he said would secure its future.A thick slimy layer of the organic matter, known as marine mucilage, has spread through the sea south of Istanbul, posing a threat to marine life and …

The United States will stand with its European allies against Russia, President Joe Biden has promised ahead of the first face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin of his administration.   Biden will head to Europe Wednesday and is set to attend both the G-7 and NATO summits as well as holding a high-stakes meeting with the Russian leader …

When the sun rises over Omaha Beach, revealing vast stretches of wet sand extending toward distant cliffs, one starts to grasp the immensity of the task faced by Allied soldiers on June 6, 1944, landing on the Nazi-occupied Normandy shore.Several ceremonies are scheduled Sunday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the decisive assault that led …

Voters in Saxony-Anhalt went to the polls Sunday to elect a new state assembly in what is seen as the last big test for Germany’s political parties before a national election in September.Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union won the last election in the sparsely populated state of 2.2 million five years ago. Recent …

Thousands of Hungarians, some holding banners declaring “Treason,” protested Saturday against a Chinese university’s plans to open a campus in Budapest.Liberal opponents of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban accuse him of cozying up to China and fear the campus could undercut the quality of higher education and help Beijing increase its influence in Hungary and …

When the leaders of the world’s industrialized nations meet next week in Cornwall, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will ask them to commit to “vaccinate the entire world against coronavirus by the end of 2022,” according to a statement Saturday.”Vaccinating the world by the end of next year would be the single greatest feat in …

Sunday marks the 77th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces landed in Normandy, France, to help liberate Europe from German forces and turn the course of World War II.The June 6, 1944, operation was the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving land, sea and air forces.Nearly 160,000 troops took part in the landing, including those …

Greece has lashed out at Turkey, warning it will push for sanctions against its neighbor if it continues with what it calls “hostile” and “provocative threats.” The warning from Athens comes as the leaders of the two NATO allies, age-old foes, prepare to meet in an effort to accelerate talks aimed at easing growing tension …

A Turkish airstrike killed at least three people and injured others on Saturday at a camp for displaced people in northern Iraq, said Rashad Kelani, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party official.   The strike on the camp housing thousands of Kurdish refugees from Turkey took place three days after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warned …

Committing to the pilgrim’s path has for centuries been a source of renewal for those willing to put their lives on hold and spend days, weeks or even months crossing Spain along the Camino de Santiago, a journey that takes hikers to the reported burial place of the apostle St. James.But after a year of …

A group of the world’s richest nations reached a landmark deal Saturday to close cross-border tax loopholes used by some of the world’s biggest companies.  The Group of Seven said it would back a minimum global corporation tax rate of at least 15% and put in place measures to ensure taxes were paid in the …

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday set a tough tone for his upcoming summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, accusing Washington of trying to contain Russia and citing its response to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as a manifestation of the West’s double standards.Speaking at an economic forum in St. Petersburg, Putin …