Travels News
A German court Tuesday convicted a former Islamic State member of the 2015 murder of a 5-year-old Yazidi girl. Taha al-Jumailly, an Iraqi national, was also sentenced to serve life in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity. He was ordered to pay the victim’s mother, who survived captivity, $57,000. It is the first genocide …
Read more “German Court Convicts Ex-IS Member of Murder, Role in Yazidi Genocide”
With Syrian rebels facing defeat, Turkey – one of the rebels’ main backers – is now facing growing calls to restore diplomatic relations with Damascus. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …
In search of a better life, many migrants try to cross what has been dubbed the “deadliest border in the world” – the Mediterranean Sea. Despite the risks, the International Organization for Migration says the number of people crossing has doubled in the first half of this year to an estimated 77,000. This reporter witnessed …
Read more “IOM Says Despite Risks, Number of Migrants Crossing the Mediterranean Sea Has Doubled”
A longtime pilot for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein resumed his testimony at Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial Tuesday, saying that the British socialite charged with helping the financier find teenage girls to sexually abuse was “Number 2” in the hierarchy of Epstein’s operations. Lawrence Paul Visoski Jr. is the first witness in the sex trafficking trial …
Read more “Epstein Pilot Resumes Testimony at Ghislaine Maxwell Trial”
A far-right former TV pundit with multiple hate-speech convictions officially entered the race for France’s presidency on Tuesday and warned his supporters that they will likely be called racists for backing his anti-immigration and anti-Islam views that have already shaken up the election campaign. The launch of Eric Zemmour’s run for the presidency made …
Read more “Zemmour, French Far-right Pundit, Launches Presidential Run”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Latvia Tuesday for talks with the country’s leaders and a NATO ministerial meeting as the alliance expresses concern about Russia’s military buildup along the border with Ukraine. Blinken’s schedule in Riga includes sessions with Latvian President Egils Levits, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins and Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics. …
Thousands of migrants continue to wait in Belarus to enter the European Union through Poland, a crisis in the central European country that has sharply divided its society between those who want to assist migrants and those who refuse to open their borders. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina in Warsaw. Camera: Ricardo Marquina …
Last week’s 10% drop in the value of the Turkish currency plunged it to historic lows, threatening an economic crisis. The Turkish lira has dropped 45 percent this year, prompting concerns that economic turmoil could further raise tensions over the presence of millions of refugees. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …
Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld lower court rulings in the bitter custody battle surrounding a 6-year-old boy who survived a cable car crash in Italy, saying he should be returned to his relatives there within two weeks. Eitan Biran has been the focus of a legal battle between his paternal relatives in Italy and …
Read more “Israeli Court: 6-Year-Old Cable Car Crash Survivor to Return to Italy”
Is the populist wave in Europe ebbing? Two populist luminaries, who rode to power on waves of anti-elitism anger, have been ousted this year: Bulgaria’s Boyko Borisov, a former bodyguard who was voted out of office in April, and the Czech Republic’s Andrej Babiš, a businessman who lost last month’s election and has been replaced …
Western analysts say Bosnia-Herzegovina is facing its greatest crisis since the Dayton Accords ended a war there in 1995, with many suspecting Russian and Chinese hands in what could be the unraveling of the pact that has provided 25 years of uneasy peace. The U.S.-brokered accords divided the Balkan country into a Serb-dominated Republika Srpska …
Read more “West Struggles to Counter Secessionist Threat in Bosnia”
Russia said Monday it had carried out another successful test of its Zircon hypersonic cruise missile, as world powers race to develop the advanced weaponry. Russia, the United States, France and China have all been experimenting with so-called hypersonic glide vehicles — defined as reaching speeds of at least Mach 5. As part of “the …
Read more “Russia Says Latest Zircon Hypersonic Missile Test Successful”
France is inducting Josephine Baker — Missouri-born cabaret dancer, French World War II spy and civil rights activist — into its Pantheon, the first Black woman honored in the final resting place of France’s most revered luminaries. On Tuesday, a coffin carrying soils from the U.S., France and Monaco — places where Baker made her …
Read more “In French Pantheon, Josephine Baker Makes History Yet Again”
Talks about reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resume Monday in Vienna after a five-month break and for the first time since a new president took office in Iran. Like six previous rounds of negotiations, which began in April, the United States is participating indirectly, similar to the 2015 deal, which was known as the …
Taiwan and Europe must work together to defend against authoritarianism and disinformation, President Tsai Ing-wen told visiting lawmakers from the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on Monday. Lithuania has faced sustained pressure from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, since allowing the opening of a de facto Taiwanese embassy in its …
Read more “Taiwan, Europe Must Defend Democracy Together, President Says”
Katrin Jakobsdottir, a popular and fervent feminist who has become a unifying force after years of political upheaval, on Sunday kicked off her second term as prime minister of Iceland. The country’s three coalition parties agreed that the 45-year-old former journalist would remain premier, a post she has held since 2017, despite her Left-Green Movement’s …
Read more “Katrin Jakobsdottir, Iceland’s Staunch Feminist PM, Begins Second Term”
Virgil Abloh, fashion’s highest profile Black designer and the creative mind behind Louis Vuitton’s menswear collections, died on Sunday of cancer, Vuitton’s owner LVMH said. The French luxury goods giant said Abloh, 41, had been battling cancer privately for years. “Virgil was not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with …
Read more “Louis Vuitton Star Designer Virgil Abloh Dies After Battle With Cancer”
Czech President Milos Zeman appointed the leader of a center-right alliance Petr Fiala as prime minister on Sunday in a ceremony he performed from a plexiglass cubicle after testing positive for COVID-19. Fiala leads a bloc of five center and center-right opposition parties that won an election in October, ousting the incumbent premier Andrej Babis …
Read more “COVID-Positive Czech President Appoints New PM From Plexiglass Cubicle”
Swiss voters on Sunday gave clear backing to legislation that introduced a system with special COVID-19 certificates under which only people who have been vaccinated, recovered or tested negative can attend public events and gatherings. Final results showed 62% of voters supporting the legislation, which is already in force. The referendum offered a rare bellwether …
Read more “Swiss Vote to Approve COVID Restrictions as Infections Rise”
France hosts a meeting of European ministers on Sunday to discuss ways to stop migrants crossing the Channel in dinghies, but without Britain, which has been excluded following a row last week. Ministers responsible for immigration from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium will meet in the northern French port of Calais on Sunday afternoon …
Read more “Britain Snubbed as France Hosts Channel Migration Talks”
Portugal’s new law on working from home makes the European Union country sound like a workers’ paradise. Companies can’t attempt to contact their staff outside working hours. They must help staff pay for their home gas, electric and internet bills. Bosses are forbidden from using digital software to track what their teleworkers are doing. There’s …
Read more “As Europe’s Teleworking Laws Evolve, Portugal’s Meets Skepticism”
The price to cross the English Channel varies according to the network of smugglers, between 3,000 and 7,000 euros ($3,380 and $8,000) though there are rumors of discounts. Often, the fee also includes a very short-term tent rental in the windy dunes of northern France and food cooked over fires that sputter in the rain …
Read more “Smugglers Net Millions per Kilometer from Migrants Crossing Channel”
Skirmishes on Saturday erupted in Serbia between police and anti-government demonstrators who blocked roads and bridges in the Balkan country in protest over new laws they say favor interests of foreign investors devastating the environment. Hundreds of people on Saturday appeared simultaneously in the capital Belgrade, the northern city of Novi Sad and other locations …
Read more “Anti-Government Protesters Block Bridges, Roads in Serbia “
Ukraine’s military is ready and able to repel any attack, says Ukrainian soldier Oleksander, standing in a trench just a few hundred meters from pro-Russian separatists. Ukraine’s military intelligence said last week that Russia had more than 92,000 troops massed around Ukraine’s borders and was preparing for an attack by the end of January or …
Read more “We’re Ready, Ukrainian Soldiers Say on Frontier With Rebels”