Category: Світ

The European Union’s executive arm entered sensitive legal territory on Wednesday with a proposal to confiscate the frozen assets of oligarchs who try to violate the bloc’s sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine. The European Commission proposed two EU laws that would require the 27 member states to cede a degree of jealously guarded national …

Azerbaijan’s journalists are used to working in tense conditions, but a media bill passed into law earlier this year has many of them on edge. Lawmakers have not yet established penalties to accompany the law, but critics say provisions, including a media registry, will make working more difficult, especially for freelance or independent reporters. Journalists …

Senior officials from Sweden and Finland held some five hours of talks with Turkish counterparts in Ankara on Wednesday in an effort to overcome Turkey’s strong objections to the Nordic nations’ bids to join NATO.  Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. The move represents one of the biggest geopolitical …

Pope Francis on Wednesday said he was “heartbroken” by the shooting at a school in Texas that killed at least 19 children and two teachers, calling for greater controls on weapons. The crowed in St. Peter’s Square for his weekly general audience applauded his appeal, made a day after worst school shooting in the United …

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other senior officials bear responsibility for a culture of rule-breaking that resulted in several parties that breached the U.K.’s COVID-19 lockdown rules, a report into the events said Wednesday. Revelations that Johnson and his staff repeatedly flouted the rules they imposed on others have elicited outrage in Britain and …

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT: 4:50 a.m.: Workers digging through the rubble of an apartment building in Mariupol found 200 decomposing bodies in the basement, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The Ukrainian city was taken by …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday he would be open to negotiations with Russia, but only direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Speaking by video link to the World Economic Forum, Zelenskyy said there is a potential for finding a diplomatic way out of the conflict if Putin “understands reality.” Zelenskyy added that a …

The U.S. will close the last avenue for Russia to pay its billions in debt back to international investors on Wednesday, making a Russian default on its debts for the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution all but inevitable. The Treasury Department said in a notification that it does not plan to renew the license …

Prominent Ukrainian anti-corruption campaigners say they have seen no signs that their armed forces are misusing Western military supplies in the three months since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a country long perceived as among the world’s most corrupt. The head of the Ukrainian government’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), Oleksandr Novikov, …

Hungary’s government will assume emergency powers in order to be able to respond more quickly to challenges created by the war in neighboring Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a Facebook video on Tuesday. Orban, who won a fourth consecutive term in an election on April 3, has used the special legal order in …

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Tuesday urged other governments to send more weapons more quickly to aid Ukraine’s fight against Russian forces. “Too early to conclude that Ukraine already has all the arms it needs,” Kuleba tweeted Tuesday. “Russian offensive in the Donbas is a ruthless battle, the largest one on European soil since WWII. …

A Moscow court has upheld a nine-year prison term for opposition politician Alexey Navalny, who is already behind bars for a previous conviction he and his supporters have called politically motivated. Navalny took part in the Tuesday hearing via a video link from a prison in the Vladimir region. The Kremlin critic used his final …

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT: 4:30 a.m.: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged other governments to send more weapons more quickly to aid Ukraine’s fight against Russian forces.   4:00 a.m.: U.S. President Joe Biden met …

At his swearing-in ceremony, new Education Minister Pap Ndiaye paid tribute to the nation’s teachers, singling out Samuel Paty, killed by an Islamist extremist in 2020. Ndiaye described himself as a symbol of meritocracy and diversity. Rather than feeling proud, he said, he assumed his new job with a sense of duty and responsibility. The …

Turkey is vowing to crush the presence of the Kurdish militant group PKK in Iraq. The PKK has used neighboring Iraq as the main base in its war for greater minority rights in Turkey. But as the Turkish military closes in on the PKK, analysts warn that the Kurdish group could turn to Iran, with …

Scandal-tainted former Spanish King Juan Carlos I visited his son and current monarch Felipe VI in Madrid on Monday, during a brief but controversial trip home after almost two years in self-imposed exile. The meeting came at the end of the former king’s first visit to Spain since he moved to the United Arab Emirates …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he would cease talking to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and cancel a key meeting between their two governments, accusing the Greek leader of antagonizing Turkey. In a televised address following a Cabinet meeting, Erdogan accused neighboring Greece of harboring followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who …

A veteran Russian diplomat to the United Nations office in Geneva resigned Monday because he said he was “so ashamed” of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine three months ago. In a rare, but not unprecedented protest within the Russian diplomatic corps, Boris Bondarev, 41, handed in his resignation in a letter addressed to …

So far, Russia’s oil exports have not slowed down a bit from the war in Ukraine and international sanctions. In fact, Russia exported more oil in April than it did before the war. And high oil prices mean Moscow is raking in money. That’s one reason Europe is considering a Russian oil ban: Current sanctions …

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT: 4:30 a.m.: The energy security crisis wrought after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine must not lead a deeper dependence on fossil fuels, International Energy (IEA) chief Fatih Birol told the World Economic …

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country is interested in a major gas exploitation project in Senegal as he began a three-nation visit to Africa on Sunday that also is focused on the geopolitical consequences of the war in Ukraine. Senegal is believed to have significant deposits of natural gas along its border with Mauritania …

Cristian Mungiu’s Cannes Film Festival entry “R.M.N.” is set in an unnamed mountainous Transylvanian village in Romania, but the conflicts of ethnocentricity, racism and nationalism that permeate the multi-ethnic town could take place almost anywhere. Of all the films competing for the top Palme d’Or prize at Cannes, none may be quite as of the …

The usual trophies and prize money will be on the line for Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek and other top players at Wimbledon, but there is a significant change there this year: No one will earn ranking points, a valuable currency in tennis, when play begins June 27. The women’s and men’s professional tours announced Friday …

Pope Francis on Sunday expressed his spiritual closeness to Catholics in China, voicing hope that the church there operates in “freedom and tranquility,” but making no mention of a 90-year-old cardinal who was recently arrested in Hong Kong. Addressing the public gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the pontiff’s traditional Sunday remarks, Francis noted that …

Senegalese President Macky Sall said Sunday he would travel to Russia and Ukraine soon on behalf of the African Union, whose presidency he currently holds. The trip had been due to take place on May 18 but didn’t go ahead due to scheduling issues and new dates have been put forward, Sall said at a …

Britain has insisted it is up to the European Union to unblock political paralysis in Northern Ireland, after assuring a delegation from the U.S. Congress of its “cast-iron” commitment to peace in the province. The UK government has provoked anger on both sides of the Atlantic with a plan to overhaul the so-called Northern Ireland …