Month: September 2021

This week’s nuclear submarine deal between the United States and Australia threatens to become divisive in Australia, where some critics already are saying it risks Australian security rather than enhances it in the face of China’s militarization of the South China Sea. Under the deal, the U.S. will help Australia build at least eight nuclear-powered …

Read more “Dusting Off Its Forever Wars, Australia Names US Its ‘Forever Partner’ In Indo-Pacific”

France has recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia after Australia ended a deal to buy French submarines in favor of one to pursue nuclear-powered vessels using U.S. technology. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a written statement Friday that the move “is justified by the exceptional seriousness” of the matter. He …

Read more “France Recalls US, Australian Ambassadors Over Submarine Deal “

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi cautioned Britain on Friday that nullifying the Northern Ireland peace agreement — known as the Good Friday accords — would likely undermine negotiations for a post-Brexit bilateral trade agreement with the United States.     Pelosi, who was in London, told Chatham House she was not making a …

Read more “Pelosi, in London, Cautions UK on Ending Northern Ireland Peace Deal”

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday celebrated the 40th anniversary of France’s Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) — “high-speed train” — system, by unveiling a more efficient and environmentally friendly next-generation train.  During a ceremony at the Gare de Lyon rail station in Paris, Macron hailed the history of the original TGV, inaugurated at the …

Read more “French President Unveils New High-Speed Train”

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin provoked chuckles earlier this month from school kids in the Russian city of Vladivostok when a 10-year-old asked him to subscribe to his YouTube channel. “Sign up please. I’d be very glad,” the kid said.   Russia’s 68-year-old leader seemed baffled.     “What do I have to sign?” Putin asked. …

Read more “Will Russia’s Young People Vote in Parliamentary Elections?”

Two men appeared in court Friday in connection with the murder of Lyra McKee, an influential Northern Irish journalist shot dead as she covered rioting in Londonderry in 2019.   Gearoid Cavanagh, 33, and Jordan Devine, 21, were charged with murder, possession of a firearm and ammunition, possession of petrol bombs, throwing gasoline bombs, arson …

Read more “Two Charged With Murdering Irish Journalist Lyra McKee at Riot”

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s Smart Voting app disappeared from Apple and Google stores Friday as Russians began voting in a three-day parliamentary election marked by a historic crackdown on the opposition. “Removing the Navalny app from stores is a shameful act of political censorship,” top Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said on Twitter. The app promoted an …

Read more “Navalny App Gone from Google, Apple Stores on Russia Vote Day”

The tourism industry in Turkey has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and until recently several wildfires. Several sites, however, have again started to attract local and international visitors. VOA’s Arif Aslan reports from Van, Turkey, in a story narrated by Sirwan Kajjo. …

France has suspended 3,000 health care workers who were not inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine by a government-mandated Sept. 15 deadline. “Several dozens” of the country’s 2.7 million health workers, Health Minister Olivier Veran said Thursday, opted to resign rather than receive the inoculation against the coronavirus. Tens of thousands health workers were unvaccinated in …

Read more “France Suspends 3,000 Unvaccinated Health Care Workers”

Taiwan’s government called on the European Union to quickly begin trade talks after the bloc pledged to seek a trade deal with the tech-heavyweight island, something Taipei has long angled for. The EU included Taiwan on its list of trade partners for a potential bilateral investment agreement in 2015, the year before President Tsai Ing-wen …

Read more “Taiwan Calls for Quick Start to Trade Talks with EU”

Sir Clive Sinclair, the British inventor who pioneered the pocket calculator and affordable home computers, died Thursday at age 81. He died at his home in London a decade after being diagnosed with cancer, U.K. media said, prompting tributes from many who fondly recalled their first experience of computing in the early 1980s. He was …

Read more “Clive Sinclair, Computing Pioneer, Dies at 81”

Ukraine and the United States will start joint military exercises in western Ukraine next week, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Thursday, days after Belarus and Russia staged large-scale drills that raised neighboring countries’ concerns. The “Zapad-2021” war games ran on Russia’s and Belarus’ western flanks, including sites close to the European Union’s borders, and …

Read more “Ukraine, US to Hold Joint Military Drills “

Russians in the Far East began voting in a three-day parliamentary election in which vocal Kremlin critics have been barred from running following a historic crackdown on the opposition. Parliamentary and local polls in the world’s largest country spread over 11 time zones began at 8 a.m. Friday. So as Muscovites prepared to go to …

Read more “Russians Start Voting in Parliamentary Polls After Historic Crackdown”

As Germany prepares to elect a new leader, climate change is high on the agenda. Floods blamed on global warming killed hundreds in July. But as Henry Ridgwell reports from Germany, the country is also Europe’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and is struggling to wean itself off fossil fuels …

A European Union official said Thursday that the union is designating $35 billion to a new Health and Emergency Response Authority (HERA) designed to prevent and rapidly respond to health emergencies, after being caught off guard in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.    In her state of the union speech Thursday, European Commission …

Read more “EU Designates $35 Billion for New Health Crisis Agency”

On a warm September afternoon, the River Ahr winds gently through steep terraced vineyards and wooded valleys in a prosperous corner of western Germany. It’s difficult to believe the river, now running barely a foot deep across the scoured gravel, could swell into such a destructive force.   Eight weeks ago, as a storm system …

Read more “Germany Faces Climate Dilemma as Election Looms”

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned five al-Qaida supporters for allegedly helping the militant group with financial assistance. The department said the operatives supporting al-Qaida were working out of Turkey.  “We will continue working with our foreign partners, including Turkey, to expose and disrupt al-Qaida’s financial support networks,” Treasury Department official Andrea Gacki said in a …

Read more “US Sanctions al-Qaida Supporters Working From Turkey”

Security forces in Istanbul detain unregistered Afghans as Turkey’s government faces growing public pressure to not accept any more refugees …

The European Union’s executive arm asked its member countries Thursday to better protect journalists amid a rise of physical attacks and online threats against media professionals. According to the European Commission, 908 journalists and media workers were attacked across the 27-nation bloc in 2020. A total of 23 journalists have been killed in the EU …

Read more “‘No Journalist Should Die’ – EU Calls for Better Media Safety”

The Speaker of the British House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, has banned China’s ambassador to Britain, Zheng Zeguang, from entering Parliament until Beijing lifts sanctions it imposed six months ago on five Conservative lawmakers and two peers.     The ban — the first ever imposed on a foreign envoy by a House of Commons …

Read more “China Envoy Banned from Visiting Britain’s House of Commons”

On September 26 Germans will go to the polls in a federal election to apportion seats in the Bundestag and decide who will succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor. Marking the end of the Merkel era, many view this electoral contest as Germany’s most important election in decades. But one wouldn’t be able to guess that …

Read more “Who Will Succeed Angela Merkel as Germany’s Chancellor?”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson continued reshuffling his Cabinet Thursday with two junior ministers taking on new roles.      The prime minister moved Penny Mordaunt from paymaster general at the Cabinet Office to a ministerial role at the trade department.  Mordaunt is being replaced by Michael Ellis, who served as solicitor general.      …

Read more “British PM Continues Shake-up of Cabinet with Reassignment of Junior Ministers”

Australia has signed a new security partnership with the United States and Britain to share defense technologies in what analyst say is an effort to counter the potential threat from China.  British officials have stressed that the pact was not a response to one country, but analysts believe it is an unmistakable sign of concern about China’s …

Read more “Australia Signs New Defense Accord with US and Britain “

The United States is backing Lithuania in the face of what American officials describe as China’s “coercive behavior” after Vilnius recently became the first European country since 2003 to allow Taiwan to open a representative office.On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis met for talks at the State …

Read more “US Backs Lithuania in Row With China Over Taiwan”