Category: Світ

Up to 90% of British fuel stations ran dry across major English cities on Monday after panic buying deepened a supply chain crisis triggered by a shortage of truckers that retailers are warning could batter the world’s fifth-largest economy.  A dire post-Brexit shortage of truck drivers emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic has sown chaos through …

Preliminary results Monday showed Germany’s center-left Social Democrats winning the largest share of the vote in national parliamentary elections as parties battle to see who will succeed outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel.  The Social Democrats received 25.7% of the vote Sunday, followed by 24.1% for Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union.  State Governor Armin Laschet of the …

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?” …

Germany is preparing to bid farewell to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is stepping down after elections scheduled for Sunday. She has led Europe’s biggest economy for the past 16 years and has played a major role in Europe and on the global stage.  Merkel was Germany’s first female chancellor and its first leader to have …

A potential deal to bring as many as 1,000 Russian mercenaries to Mali is likely to further destabilize the country, according to senior U.S. officials who are urging the interim government to instead focus on elections. Word of the not-yet-finalized deal, with Russia’s Wagner Group, has already rankled some French and European officials. And it …

Fresh volcanic eruptions in Spain’s Canary Islands prompted the cancellation of flights, airport authorities said Friday, the first since the Cumbre Vieja volcano came to life again. New evacuations were also ordered as large explosions and new openings were reported at the volcano on La Palma island on Friday. A large cloud of thick, black …

Namibian activists and opposition members stormed parliament this week over a deal with Germany to atone for a colonial genocide more than a century ago. Opposition lawmakers also called for a renegotiation of the deal, in which Germany has agreed to fund about $1.3 billion in development projects over 30 years to redress land taken …

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet reported the human rights situation in Belarus continues to worsen, as President Alexander Lukashenko stiffens repressive measures to quell dissent. The High Commissioner has submitted her latest update on Belarus to the U.N. Human Rights Council.   This latest report examines alleged human rights violations in Belarus since May …

Officials on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma say the Cumbre Vieja volcano continued to erupt Friday, spewing lava and ash, and threatening the homes and livelihoods of the island’s 85,000 residents. Pictures and drone video taken of a single home that was surrounded but spared by the advancing lava has made it a …

Poland’s broadcasting regulators extended the license of Discovery Inc.-owned TVN24 at the last moment Wednesday but also adopted a resolution to pressure the American company to sell its majority stake in the TV news channel, which airs coverage that is critical of Poland’s government.     The National Broadcasting Council, known by the Polish acronym …

Exiled former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was arrested in Italy on Thursday, his lawyer and an aide said, four years after fleeing following an independence referendum that Madrid ruled unconstitutional. The European MEP was expected to appear in court on Friday at a hearing that could see him extradited to Spain to face sedition charges. …

Britain is in talks with U.S. nuclear reactor company Westinghouse on building a new atomic power plant on Anglesey in Wales, the British newspaper The Times reported. If it gets the go-ahead the new plant at Wylfa would be able to generate enough electricity to power more than 6 million homes and could be operational …