Britain recognized the scientists and medical chiefs at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19 in Queen Elizabeth’s annual New Year’s honors list, while James Bond actor Daniel Craig was given the same award as his famous onscreen character. Craig, who bowed out from playing the fictional British spy after five outings following the release …
Read more “UK Honors COVID Scientists and Medics, Bond Actor Daniel Craig “
President Joe Biden plans to speak Sunday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a White house official said Friday, a day after Biden spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on how to reduce tensions on the Ukraine-Russia border. Biden will reaffirm support for Ukraine, discuss Russia’s military build-up on its borders and review preparations for diplomatic …
Read more “Biden, Ukraine President to Speak Sunday Amid Tensions with Russia “
For the second time in a month, US President Joe Biden has spoken directly to his Russian counterpart and urged him to de-escalate, as President Vladimir Putin continues to amass soldiers near the border with Ukraine. But administration officials said Putin provided no assurances of his intentions. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington. …
Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin spoke frankly for nearly an hour late Thursday amid growing alarm over Russia’s troop buildup near Ukraine, a simmering crisis that’s recently deepened as the Kremlin has stiffened its demands for increased security guarantees and test-fired hypersonic missiles to underscore its demands. Putin’s foreign affairs adviser said Biden reaffirmed …
Read more “Biden Affirms Sanctions Threat; Putin Says That Would Be ‘Colossal Mistake’”
Gazprom, Russia’s giant state-owned energy company, is slated to finalize an agreement in 2022 for a second huge natural gas pipeline running from Siberia to China, marking yet another stage in what energy analysts and Western diplomats say is a fast-evolving gas pivot to Asia by Moscow. They see the pivot as a geopolitical project …
Read more “Russia’s ‘Gas Pivot’ to China Poses Challenge for Europe”
A few days after Vladimir Putin was reelected his country’s president in 2018, a former top Kremlin official outlined to VOA how perilous relations had become between the West and Russia. In a wide-ranging conversation, almost foretelling the high-stakes clash developing now between the Kremlin and NATO over Ukraine, he said Putin believed the fracture …
Read more “Cold War Resentment Has Been Building for Decades in Kremlin”
President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will speak Thursday as the Russian leader has stepped up his demands for security guarantees in Eastern Europe. The two leaders will discuss “a range of topics, including upcoming diplomatic engagements,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement announcing the call. The talks come as the …
Read more “Biden, Putin to Hold Call Over Stepped Up Security Demands”
The United States recorded more than 512,000 daily new coronavirus cases Tuesday – the single highest one-day number of cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data released by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center The one-day record coincides with a New York Times database showing the seven-day average of cases in the U.S. rose above 267,000 …
A Bosnian war crimes prosecutor has indicted nine Bosnian Serbs for the killing of around 100 Muslim Bosniaks, including seven entire families, early in the 1992-95 war, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Wednesday. Twenty-six years after the end of its devastating war between Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks in which …
Read more “9 Serbs Indicted for Killing Around 100 Muslims During Bosnian War “
In his Nobel speech, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov described journalism as the “antidote to tyranny.” The editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta and his staff face frequent threats because of the independent paper’s investigative, hard-hitting coverage. Several of its journalists and contributors have been killed, including Anna Politkovskaya, who reported on human rights abuses in Chechnya. A …
Read more “In Russia, State Is Waging Hybrid War Against Media, Nobel Laureate Says”
In a court filing Tuesday, lawyers for Prince Andrew say a lawsuit by an American who claims he sexually abused her when she was 17 might have to be thrown out because she no longer lives in the United States. Attorneys Andrew Brettler and Melissa Lerner said they recently discovered that Virginia Giuffre has lived …
Read more “Andrew’s Lawyers Say Accuser Can’t Sue Because She Doesn’t Live in US”
The United States and Russia will hold talks in January about nuclear arms control and tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border. A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told reporters the two sides would meet January 10, followed by Russia-NATO talks on January 12. In addition, Russia, the United States and other members of …
Read more “US, Russia to Discuss Ukraine During January Talks”
The U.S. State Department called Tuesday for Russia to release Paul Whelan, who was detained by Russian authorities three years ago. Whelan, 51, was in Russia as a tourist and was arrested at a Moscow hotel. He was convicted of espionage charges and is currently serving a 16-year sentence of hard labor at a prison …
Read more “State Department Calls for Release of Two Americans Held in Russia”
Mali’s military government has denied hiring Russian mercenaries from the controversial Wagner Group, which has been sanctioned by the European Union for rights abuses. France and 15 other Western nations last week condemned what they said was Russia’s deployment of Wagner fighters to Mali. Mali’s transitional government says it is only engaged with official Russian …
Read more “Mali’s Military Government: Russia Sends Trainers, Not Mercenaries”
Prominent historians and human rights activists were shocked by a Russian Supreme Court ruling Tuesday to close Memorial International, which chronicled historical abuses of the former Soviet Union and identified victims of former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s purges. The human rights group, which has long drawn the ire of Russian officials, was found guilty …
Read more “Historians Lament Dissolution of Russia’s Memorial Historical Rights Group “
An investigative journalist for the BBC’s Russian-language service in Moscow said in a video released on Monday that he had felt compelled to leave Russia for self-imposed exile in Britain due to what he called unprecedented surveillance. Russian authorities designated Andrei Zakharov a “foreign agent” in October, a decision the British broadcaster said at the …
Read more “BBC Journalist Says he has Left Russia for British Exile”
With the arrival of winter in Europe and energy prices soaring, tensions are running high over the provision of gas from Russia — especially through the Yamal-Europe pipeline that runs through Poland and Belarus. But the Yamal pipeline is just one part of a complex gas infrastructure network shaped not only by energy needs but also …
Russia’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Memorial, the country’s most prominent human rights organizations, must shut down. Prosecutors had accused Memorial of failing to properly mark its publications under its designation as a foreign agent.They also said the group denigrated the former Soviet Union and rehabilitated “Nazi criminals.” Memorial rejected the accusations as being politically …
Read more “Russian Court Orders Prominent Rights Group to Shut Down “
As Europe rang in the New Year 20 years ago, 12 of its nations said goodbye to their deutschmarks, French francs, liras and pesetas as they welcomed the euro single currency. On January 1, 2002, euro notes and coins became a reality for some 300 million people from Athens to Dublin, three years after the …
The United States and Russia will hold talks in January about nuclear arms control and tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border. A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told reporters the two sides would meet January 10, followed by Russia-NATO talks on January 12 and a meeting on January 13 with Russia, the United …
The English Premier League (EPL) is postponing several football (soccer) games as a record number of players have tested positive for COVID-19. According to the league, more than 100 players and staff tested positive over the past week, leading to the postponement of 15 games. “The League can today confirm that between Monday 20 December …
Read more “COVID Outbreaks Lead to Soccer Match Postponements in England “
Holiday travelers continued to experience widespread flight cancellations as the omicron variant causes airline staff to call in sick. According to FlightAware, which tracks delays and cancellations, there have been 2,395 total flight cancellations around the world Monday with 869 of those impacting flights “within, into, or out of the United States.” Some 6,342 flights …
Read more “Omicron Variant Causing Flight Cancellations Worldwide “
The announcement by Russia’s Defense Ministry Saturday that 10,000 troops deployed along the border with Ukraine are to return to their permanent bases isn’t easing the alarm of Western officials, who see the risks mounting of Russian military action. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week indicated his country’s willingness to sit down for talks …
Read more “Russia Lays Down More Conditions for Peace Talks “
Poland’s president on Monday said he has decided to veto a media bill that would have forced U.S. company Discovery to give up its controlling share in TVN, a Polish TV network. President Andrzej Duda noted that the bill was unpopular with many Poles and would have dealt a blow to Poland’s reputation as a …
Read more “Polish President Vetoes Media Bill that Targeted US Company “