Month: August 2021

A Belarusian Olympic sprinter told reporters Thursday she was advised by family members not to return home because she was being criticized by the Belarus media, who reported that she was mentally ill.Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, arrived in Warsaw, Poland, late Wednesday. Polish authorities granted her a humanitarian visa to seek political asylum earlier this week …

Read more “Belarus Olympic Sprinter Says Grandmother Advised Her Not to Come Home”

Activists say freedom of the press is at risk following a pair of lawsuits brought by Russian oligarchs against a British journalist and her publisher.Roman Abramovich, owner of Britain’s Chelsea Football Club, and Russia’s state-owned energy giant Rosneft, have both filed defamation lawsuits against journalist Catherine Belton and her publisher HarperCollins UK. The suits are …

Read more “Russian Defamation Trial Threatens British Press Freedom: Activists”

The owner of Britain’s Chelsea Football Club, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, and Russia’s state-owned oil giant Rosneft have both filed a defamation lawsuit against the author of a book about President Vladimir Putin’s rise to power. Activists say the case threatens the freedom of the press, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry RidgwellProduced by: …

Read more “Russian Defamation Trial Threatens British Press Freedom, Say Activists”

A heat wave in southern Europe, fed by strong hot winds from North Africa, has contributed to the outbreak of wildfires across the Mediterranean, including in Italy, Greece, Spain and Turkey. Firefighters in Italy have been deployed from all regions to battle blazes raging in many areas of the country, destroying thousands of hectares of …

Read more “As Mediterranean Wildfires Rage, Italy Counts Environmental Losses “

British police have arrested 11 people as part of an investigation into the online racist abuse directed at some of the Black players in the England soccer team following their defeat in last month’s Euro 2020 final.Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were the targets of the abuse after they missed spot-kicks in a …

Read more “Police Arrest 11 Over Racist Abuse of England Players After Euro Final”

China has lodged a stern representation with Britain’s BBC about its reporting of the floods in Henan and its statement on how foreign journalists were being treated, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.The head of communications for the BBC World Service declined to comment.The broadcaster had said in a statement last month that the Chinese government …

Read more “China Lodges Protest With BBC Over Flood Reporting “

The World Health Organization’s director-general is calling for a worldwide moratorium on COVID-19 booster shots until at least the end of September, to allow low-income nations to get more initial vaccination doses.At a media briefing at the agency’s Geneva headquarters, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus once again brought up inequities in worldwide vaccine allocation, noting more than …

Read more “WHO Wants Moratorium on Booster Shots Until Low Income Countries Catch up”

Moroccans make up the largest migrant population in Spain, with around a million people of Moroccan origin currently living in the country. Some arrive illegally to find work; others are offered seasonal jobs through official work programs in sectors like agriculture. However, as Henry Ridgwell and Alfonso Beato report, in some cases, the workers’ expectations …

Read more “In Spain’s Sweet Strawberries, A Story of Toil and Sacrifice”

Turkey is seeing one of its worst wildfires in decades, with at least nine people killed as of Wednesday. The Turkish government is coming under growing criticism because its fleet of firefighting planes is out of action.Tourists and locals use buckets to fill a tank on a pickup truck with seawater to douse a nearby …

Read more “Fires Rage in Turkey as Anger Grows over Grounded Firefighting Aircraft”

Britain’s top military commander, General Nick Carter, said Wednesday that Western powers need to retaliate for a suspected Iranian drone strike on an oil tanker, which killed a British security guard and the ship’s Romanian captain — otherwise Tehran will feel emboldened.Speaking to the BBC, Carter, chief of the British Defense Staff, said if a …

Read more “Britain’s Top General Calls for Retaliation on Iran for Drone Strike ”

Greek firefighters on Wednesday grappled with fires razing swathes of forest land on the outskirts of Athens, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate and killing animals from tortoises to horses.The inferno has scorched the slopes of Parnitha, which includes a protected nature reserve, just north of Athens.It started in a wooden ravine and is the …

Read more “Greece Grapples with Massive Forest Fires, Evacuations”

The closed-door trial of two leading Belarusian opposition figures began in Minsk on Wednesday over charges stemming from their calls for protests against the official results of last year’s widely discredited presidential election.Maryya Kalesnikava and Maksim Znak are accused of conspiring to seize power, calling for action to damage national security, and encouraging actions harmful …

Read more “Leading Belarussian Opposition Figures Go on Trial in Minsk”

Officials in the Czech Republic say three people are dead and at least 40 are injured after a high-speed express train traveling from Munich, Germany collided with a commuter train near the western village of Milavce early Wednesday.Police say the dead include both drivers of the trains and a passenger. Fire and rescue officials say …

Read more “Czech Train Collision Leaves Three Dead, 40 Injured”

A Belarusian Olympic sprinter who said she faced punishment if she returned to her country departed Japan Wednesday on a flight bound for Austria. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was scheduled to land in Vienna Wednesday afternoon. She is then expected to travel on to Poland, where the government has offered her a humanitarian visa. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki posted Tuesday on Facebook that he had spoken …

Read more “Belarusian Olympian Departs Tokyo for Vienna”

More than 500 firefighters struggled through the night to contain a large forest fire on the outskirts of Athens, which raced into residential areas Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee. It was the worst of 81 wildfires that broke out in Greece over the past 24 hours, amid one of the country’s most intense heatwaves in …

Read more “Thousands Flee Homes Outside Athens as Heat Fuels Wildfires”

The United Nations accused the government of Iraq of the widespread torture of detainees held in the country’s detention centers. A U.N. report covers conditions in the centers from July 1, 2019 to April 30, 2021.Torture and ill treatment are prohibited under international law. Iraq ratified the international convention against Torture in 2011 and since …

Read more “UN Report: Torture Widespread in Iraqi Detention Centers”

A court in Belarus convicted a journalist of insulting the president in messages in a deleted chat group and sentenced him to 1 1/2 years in prison, the Belarusian Association of Journalists said Monday. The verdict in the case against Siarhei Hardziyevich, 50, comes as part of a massive crackdown that Belarusian authorities have unleashed on …

Read more “Belarus Sends Reporter to Prison Over Deleted Chat Messages”

Wildfires scorching some of Turkey’s most popular destinations have upended a nascent recovery in the country’s tourism sector hobbled for more than a year by the COVID-19 pandemic.Scenes of happy beachgoers flocking to coastal areas turned nightmarish as fires forced mass-evacuations of tourists and locals alike in cities such as Bodrum and Marmaris.Tuesday marked the …

Read more “Turkey Wildfires Scorch Recovery in Hobbled Tourism Sector”

France hopes to secure more than $350 million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon’s crisis-battered population at a donors’ conference it co-hosts with the United Nations Wednesday — marking the year anniversary of Beirut’s deadly port blast. International pressure is growing for Lebanon’s fractious parties to unify and push through reforms.  Roughly 40 representatives of international …

Read more “Donors’ Conference Aims to Boost Lebanese a Year After Beirut Blast”

The British government’s scientific advisers have raised the prospect of fighting a forever war against the coronavirus saying the eradication of the virus “will be unlikely.” And they warn “there will always be variants.”They hold out the hope that the virus may evolve in such a way that it causes “much less severe disease,” but …

Read more “British Scientists Fear a Forever COVID War, Germany Opts for Booster Shots”

Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said Tuesday she is focused on her safety and seeking refuge in Europe after facing threats from officials at home.“They made it clear that upon return home I would definitely face some form of punishment,” she told The Associated Press in a videocall interview. “There were also thinly disguised hints …

Read more “Belarusian Olympian Says She Faced Punishment at Home”

A Belarusian activist was found dead in a park near his home in Kyiv early on Tuesday, a day after he was reported missing, Ukrainian police said. Vitaly Shishov, who led a Kyiv-based organization that helps Belarusians fleeing persecution, had been reported missing by his partner on Monday after not returning home from a run. Police said …

Read more “Missing Belarusian Activist Found Dead in Kyiv Park”

Huan Huan, a giant panda on loan to France, gave birth to twin cubs very early Monday, according to the Beauval zoo.  The twins, born around 1 a.m., are Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi’s second and third cubs, after the first panda ever born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017. “The two babies are …

Read more “Panda on Loan to France Gives Birth to Twins”

Every day sees more Afghan refugees reach Turkey after a grueling trek across Iran. As far as they’re concerned their journey is far from over — they want to get to the countries of the European Union — for them the Promised Land. But it is a land that is unwilling to accept them and …

Read more “As Taliban Advances, Europe Fears an Afghan Migration Crisis”