Month: February 2020

British Finance Minister Sajid Javid announced his resignation Thursday, a development that came unexpectedly as Prime Minister Boris Johnson reorganizes his Cabinet.Javid’s resignation followed reports of tensions between him and Johnson’s top advisor, Dominic Cummings.His announcement came less than one month before he was scheduled to unveil his first budget and as the government tries …

Read more “British Finance Minister Unexpectedly Resigns”

Political and military leaders from across the world head to Germany for the three-day Munich Security Conference that opens Friday. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Munich, from Iran to Hong Kong, Ukraine to Libya, there is no shortage of security flashpoints — and the conflicts are taking place against the backdrop of the coronavirus outbreak and …

Read more “Tensions Soar as Leaders Prepare for Key Global Security Summit”

France marks the 60th anniversary of nuclear weapons tests that turned it into one of the world’s first nuclear powers.  That was at the height of the Cold War.  But critics claim more than three decades of testing — first in Algeria and later French Polynesia — left many scars, including victims who remain uncompensated. On February 13, 1960, …

Read more “Questions, Scars Remain as France Marks 60 Years Since Nuclear Tests”

NATO has agreed “in principle” to take over some of the training activities carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State terror group in Iraq, according to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “Today allied ministers reaffirmed our support to Iraq and agreed in principle to enhance NATO’s training mission,” Stoltenberg said at a news conference Wednesday after a meeting of …

Read more “NATO Agrees to Expand Anti-IS Training Mission in Iraq”

Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General’s Office in Lviv suspects an underworld criminal and a police major of collusion in the arson of a vehicle belonging to RFE/RL correspondent Halyna Tereshchuk.Iryna Didenko, the lead prosecutor of the Lviv region, signed the charge sheets for the two suspects on Feb. 11.Accused of ordering the torching of the journalist’s car is …

Read more “Ukrainian Police Major, Ex-Convict Wanted in Arson of RFE/RL’s Reporter’s Car”

Social media giant Facebook on Wednesday removed two unconnected networks of accounts, pages, and groups “engaging in foreign or government interference,” one originating in Russia and the other one in Iran, both of which have alleged ties to intelligence services.Calling the behavior “coordinated” and “inauthentic,” Facebook’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said both operations …

Read more “Facebook Removes Accounts in Russia, Iran With Alleged Intelligence Links”

Facebook on Wednesday said it had suspended a network of accounts used by Russian military intelligence to seed false narratives online targeting Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe.”Although the people behind this network attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to Russian military intelligence services,” Facebook said in a statement.Facebook, …

Read more “Facebook Says It Dismantles Russian Intelligence Operation Targeting Ukraine”

One patient jumped out of a hospital window to escape her quarantine and another managed to break out by disabling an electronic lock.Two Russian women who were kept in isolation for possible inflection by a new virus say they fled from their hospitals this month because of uncooperative doctors, poor conditions and fear they would …

Read more “2 Russians Flee Virus Quarantine, in Dismay at Hospitals”

A Russia blogger has gone viral with a video prank that inadvertently goes to the heart of a debate over how much public support for Russian President Vladimir Putin enjoys after 20 years in power and counting.   The discussion was launched after blogger Bashir Dokhov posted a video to Youtube in which he glues a …

Read more “Russian Video Prank of Putin in Elevator Goes Viral”

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is threatening to escalate fighting against Syrian government forces following Monday’s killing of Turkish soldiers. The warning comes in the face of calls for restraint from Moscow, but Erdogan is facing growing domestic pressure for an uncompromising stance.”We have given the necessary response and retaliated in kind, but this is …

Read more “Erdogan Threatens Military Escalation in Syria  “

It could have been a scene taken from “The Thick of It,” the internationally acclaimed British comedy series satirizing the inner workings of the British government.The country’s top political reporters, collectively known as the Lobby, were summoned last week to No. 10 Downing Street for a special post-Brexit briefing, but once they had arrived, those …

Read more “Britain’s Boris Johnson Takes on ‘The Blob’”

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will host the administration’s third state dinner in April, for King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain, the White House announced Tuesday.The fancy, black-tie dinner — a diplomatic tool often reserved for America’s staunchest allies — is part of a state visit scheduled for April 21 …

Read more “Trump, First Lady to Host State Dinner in April for Spain”

Ukraine’s first and currently only television channel in the Crimean Tatar language says it is on the brink of shutting down operations due to lack of government funding.ATR hasn’t received $2 million that the government allocated for the channel in this year’s state budget, a statement by the channel said on Feb. 10.The channel said …

Read more “Ukraine-Based Crimean Tatar TV Channel Blames Lack of State Funding for Imminent Closure”