Five hundred years after Hernán Cortés conquered Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire, a Spanish mayor is demanding the return of the conquistador’s remains to his birthplace because of what he says are anti-Spanish sentiments in modern-day Mexico. Valentin Pozo Torres, mayor of Medellín, the village in western Spain’s Extremadura region where Cortés was …
Read more “500 Years Later, Spain and Mexico Spar Over Conquest”
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says no third country has a veto on Ukraine’s aspirations to join the NATO military alliance. “Ukraine…has a right to decide its own future foreign policy, and we expect that they will be able to do that without any outside interference,” Austin said during a visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, …
Read more “Pentagon Chief: No Country Has ‘Veto’ on Ukraine’s NATO Aspirations”
Russian government officials Tuesday recommended closing workplaces after the nation again set a daily record for COVID-19 deaths and nearly 34,000 new infections. Russia’s government coronavirus task force reported 1,015 deaths over the past 24 hours, the highest number since the pandemic began. That brought the total death toll to 225,325 — by far the …
The European Commission is considering potential legal and financial responses after Poland’s constitutional court challenged the supremacy of EU law, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday. Speaking during a meeting of EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, von der Leyen said the Polish court’s ruling earlier this month was “a direct challenge to the …
Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who died Monday at age 84, used his decades-long governmental and military career to defend traditional U.S. alliances with European nations, some analysts say. Family members say Powell died of COVID-19 complications. Doctors say he also suffered from multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that suppresses the body’s immune response, as well …
Witnesses, security camera footage and forensic evidence all point to two men charged in the murder of Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, prosecutors said Monday as the trial of the suspects opened in Amsterdam. De Vries, 64, was gunned down in July in the Dutch capital in a brazen attack that sent shockwaves …
Read more “Trial Opens of Alleged Killers of Dutch Reporter De Vries”
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is warning Russia against distracting European leaders with new talks when it has yet to make good on previous commitments. “Russia, which currently occupies 20% of Georgia’s territory, should focus on honoring its 2008 cease-fire commitments before promoting any new discussion platforms,” Austin said Monday during a visit to Tbilisi, …
Chinese President Xi Jinping aims to bolster relations in Europe, a traditional stronghold of support for the United States, as a buffer against shaky Sino-U.S. ties, analysts believe. Xi spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last Wednesday and with European Council President Charles Michel on Friday. The council is a policymaking body for the European …
Russia is retaliating for the recent expulsion of its diplomats from its NATO mission in Brussels, saying Monday it will suspend its mission to the alliance and ordered NATO’s office in Moscow shuddered. Earlier in the month, NATO said eight Russians working at its mission in Brussels were intelligence officers and removed their accreditation. NATO …
The man held for the fatal stabbing last week of a British lawmaker had been referred to the British government’s anti-extremism program, called Prevent, because of his radical Islamist views, but the country’s security services, including MI5 – Britain’s domestic intelligence agency – had not deemed him a serious threat requiring monitoring, confirmed British officials. Police have not released the name of …
Read more “Britain’s Security Officials Fear More Lone Wolf Attacks in Wake of MP’s Murder”
Facebook says it plans to hire 10,000 workers in the European Union over the next five years to work on a new computing platform. The company said in a blog post Sunday that those high-skilled workers will help build “the metaverse,” a futuristic notion for connecting people online that encompasses augmented and virtual reality. Facebook …
Read more “Facebook Plans to Hire 10,000 in EU to Build ‘Metaverse’”
A two-day storm in Athens last week killed a 70-year-old farmer, whose car was washed away as he was rushing to tend to his herd of sheep. Dozens of other people, including tourists, were rescued from the floodwaters that destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses. Roads turned into rivers, homes and apartment blocks collapsed like …
Read more “Greece Grapples with Extensive Destruction After Flooding in Athens”
A Russian actor and a film director making the first move film in space returned to Earth on Sunday after spending 12 days on the International Space Station (ISS). The Soyuz MS-18 space capsule carrying Russian ISS crew member Oleg Novitskiy, Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko landed in a remote area outside the western Kazakhstan …
Read more “Russian Actor and Director Making 1st Movie in Space Back on Earth”
A British member of Parliament died Friday after being stabbed several times at a church in what police said Saturday was a terrorist attack. David Amess, 69, was a member of the Conservative Party and represented Southend West in Essex, England. He was attacked Friday while visiting constituents in his home district in southeastern Britain, …
Read more “Suspect in Stabbing Death of British MP Amess Identified”
As dozens of African migrants traversed the Mediterranean Sea on a flimsy white rubber boat, a small aircraft circling 1,000 feet above closely monitored their attempt to reach Europe. The twin-engine Seabird, owned by the German non-governmental organization Sea-Watch, is tasked with documenting human rights violations committed against migrants at sea and relaying distress cases …
Read more “Volunteers in the Sky Watch Over Migrant Rescues by Sea”
French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condemned as “inexcusable” a deadly crackdown by Paris police on a 1961 protest by Algerians whose scale was covered up for decades, disappointing activists who hoped for an even stronger recognition of responsibility. Macron told relatives of victims on the 60th anniversary of the bloodshed that crimes were committed …
Read more “Macron Condemns 1961 ‘Inexcusable’ Paris Massacre of Algerians”
Tens of thousands of union members and other Italians gathered in Rome to stand up against rising fascism Saturday, a week after right-wing extremists forced their way into the headquarters of Italy’s most powerful labor confederation while protesting a COVID-19 certification requirement for workplaces. The head of the CGIL union confederation, Maurizio Landini, led the …
Read more “Tens of Thousands Demonstrate in Rome Against Neo-Fascists”
An Iranian appeals court has upheld a verdict sentencing an Iranian-British woman long held in Tehran to another year in prison, her lawyer said Saturday. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has already served a five-year prison sentence in the Islamic Republic. Her lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, told the Associated Press that the appeals court upheld a verdict issued earlier …
Read more “Court Upholds New One-Year Sentence for Iranian-British Woman”
When Vaclav Havel nearly died of a ruptured intestine as Czech president in 1998, doctors provided daily updates on his condition. Nearly a quarter of a century later, a Czech president is again hospitalized but the public has not been told what is wrong with him. President Milos Zeman was taken into intensive care in …
Read more “Czechs Want to Know What’s Wrong With Their Ill President”
Norway on Saturday announced it will hold an independent investigation into the actions of police and security agencies following a bow-and-arrow attack that killed five people and injured three others. Police have been criticized for reacting too slowly to contain the massacre, acknowledging that the five deaths took place after police first encountered the attacker. …
Read more “Norway to Conduct Probe of Police Response to Bow-and-Arrow Attack”
Greece is lauding a renewed defense pact with the United States as a “resounding vote of confidence” from Washington to Athens. The deal is seen by Greece as an added swipe against its age-old foe — but NATO ally — Turkey, in a long-running dispute over sea and air rights in the Aegean, eastern Mediterranean …
Read more “Renewed Greek-US Defense Pact Expected to Roil Turkey”
Britain’s interior minister has ordered an immediate review of the security arrangements for the country’s lawmakers following the slaying Friday of Conservative Member of Parliament David Amess, who was stabbed multiple times in a suspected Islamist terror attack while meeting with constituents east of London. The 69-year-old Amess is the second British MP to have …
Read more “Killing of UK Lawmaker Shocks Nation; Security Reviews Ordered”
At an emergency conference this week, the European Union pledged more than 1 billion dollars in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and neighboring countries, as the United Nations warns millions of Afghans are facing famine. But the United States has been cautious, saying it is sending humanitarian aid, but cannot provide funds directly to the Taliban-led …
Read more “World Donors Seek Ways to Help Afghans, Not Taliban”
A British member of Parliament died Friday after being stabbed several times at a church in what police said Saturday was a terrorist attack. David Amess, 69, was a member of the Conservative Party and represented Southend West in Essex, England. He was attacked Friday while visiting constituents in his home district in southeastern Britain, …
Read more “Stabbing Death of British MP Amess Called Terrorist Attack”