NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has sought a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council next month and contacted Moscow to secure its attendance, an alliance spokesman said Sunday. Stoltenberg has on several occasions in recent months offered to resume dialogue with Moscow through this body, set up in 2002 but currently inactive because of the conflict in …
Read more “NATO Chief Seeks NATO-Russia Council Meeting in January”
France has recorded more than 100,000 virus infections in a single day for the first time in the pandemic and COVID-19 hospitalizations have doubled over the past month, as the fast-spreading omicron variant complicates the French government’s efforts to stave off a new lockdown. More than 1 in 100 people in the Paris region have …
Read more “France Sees Over 100,000 Daily Virus Infections for 1st Time “
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would ponder various options if the West fails to meet Moscow’s demands for security guarantees, amid heightened tensions involving a massive deployment of Russian troops near Ukraine. Moscow earlier this month submitted draft security documents demanding an end to NATO’s eastward expansion and military cooperation with countries such …
Read more “Putin to Mull Options if West Doesn’t Meet Security Demands “
As 2021 nears its end, hopes that the coronavirus pandemic might be ending are rapidly fading – as the new omicron variant sweeps across the world. Henry Ridgwell looks back on a tumultuous year in Europe as populations and policymakers struggled to return to normality. Producer: Barry Unger …
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth spoke of the loss of her husband, Prince Philip, on Saturday, remembering the “mischievous twinkle” in his eyes in an unusually personal Christmas message to the nation. The 95-year-old monarch said that while Christmas was a time of happiness for many, it could be hard for those who had lost loved ones, …
Read more “Queen Elizabeth Speaks of Family and Loss at Christmas”
Scientists declared the eruption on Spain’s La Palma officially over on Saturday, allowing islanders to breathe a sigh of relief nearly 100 days after the Cumbre Vieja volcano began to spew out lava, rock and ash and upended the lives of thousands. After bursting into action on Sept. 19, the volcano suddenly went quiet on …
Read more “La Palma volcano eruption declared over after three months of destruction”
Senior German and Russian government officials have agreed to a rare in-person meeting next month in an effort to ease political tensions over Ukraine, a German government source said Saturday. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s foreign policy adviser Jens Ploetner and Russia’s Ukraine negotiator Dmitry Kozak agreed to meet after a lengthy phone conversation Thursday, the …
Read more “Berlin and Kremlin Envoys to Meet About Ukraine, Says Source”
Japan’s Fukuoka prefecture has confirmed its first infection with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, its governor Seitaro Hattori said Saturday. The case was a result of possible community transmission as the infection route was unclear, Hattori told a news conference. France recorded a record high of 104,611 COVID-19 infections Saturday, breaking the 100,000 threshold …
Read more “Omicron Reported in Japan’s Fukuoka; France’s COVID-19 Infections Top 100,000”
On Christmas Day, in his message to the city and the world, Pope Francis stressed the importance of being open to dialogue to resolve the large number of conflicts, crises and disagreements that exist in today’s world. He mentioned Syria, Iraq and Yemen as examples of countries where longstanding conflicts have caused endless suffering. As …
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Worshippers in face masks filed into Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois Church across from the Louvre Museum on Friday for Christmas Eve Mass and were greeted by the rector of the closed Notre-Dame Cathedral. It was the second year that holiday services were held under the shadow of the coronavirus. Everyone was masked, and members of the congregation sprayed …
Read more “Paris’ Notre-Dame Rector Offers Hope to Virus-Weary Worshippers”
At least three people died when a migrant boat sank in the Aegean Sea on Friday, just hours after similar sinking claimed 11 lives, Greece’s coast guard said. The latest tragedy, the third since Wednesday, came amid high smuggler activity not seen in Greek waters in months. The coast guard said it found three bodies …
Read more “More Than a Dozen Dead in Greece Migrant Boat Accidents”
It may be known as midnight Mass, but for the second year running, Pope Francis chose to celebrate the service marking the birth of Jesus Christ in the early evening. Although conditions at the Vatican this year differed from last year, when Italy was in near-total lockdown, authorities did step up restrictions this Christmas season …
Read more “Pope Holds Early Christmas Eve Service to Limit St. Peter’s Crowd”
The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office has asked a court to arrest former President Petro Poroshenko on suspicion of high treason and financing pro-Russian separatists, a lawmaker from Poroshenko’s faction in parliament said Friday. “On Christmas Eve, the prosecutor general office confirmed the information … that the prosecutor general had approved a motion to arrest Poroshenko …
Read more “Ukraine Lawmaker Says Prosecutor Seeks Arrest of Former President Poroshenko”
The year 2021 saw a new migrant crisis on Europe’s borders – as thousands of asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa travelled to Belarus and tried to cross the border into Poland and the European Union. Henry Ridgwell reports. Camera: Henry Ridgwell …
The Russian foreign ministry said Friday that someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail at the Russian consulate in Ukraine’s Lviv and that it had formally protested over the attack, which it called “an act of terrorism.” Russia’s foreign ministry summoned a Ukrainian official and demanded apologies from Ukrainian authorities. Ukrainian police in Lviv said they …
New satellite images captured by a private U.S. company show that Russia has continued to build up its forces in annexed Crimea and near Ukraine in recent weeks while pressing the United States for talks over security guarantees it is seeking. Reuters could not independently verify the latest images from U.S.-based Maxar Technologies. The Kremlin …
Read more “Satellite Images Show Russia Still Building Up Forces Near Ukraine”
The White House said Thursday that Washington is keeping a keen eye on Moscow and remains committed to diplomacy during upcoming high-level talks. This comes amid increasingly heated rhetoric from Russia’s leader, who on Thursday accused U.S. and NATO allies of undermining his country as he continues to mass troops near Russia’s border with Ukraine. …
Read more “White House Vows Diplomacy as Russia’s Putin Ratchets Up Rhetoric “
Polish Senator Krzysztof Brejza’s mobile phone was hacked with sophisticated spyware nearly three dozen times in 2019 when he was running the opposition’s campaign against the right-wing populist government in parliamentary elections, an internet watchdog found. Text messages stolen from Brejza’s phone — then doctored in a smear campaign — were aired by state-controlled TV …
Read more “AP Exclusive: Polish Opposition Senator Hacked With Spyware “
More than a dozen Western powers on Thursday expressed anger that Russian mercenaries working for the controversial Wagner Group have started to deploy in Mali, accusing Moscow of providing material backing for the fighters. The powers involved in the fight against an insurgency in Mali, including Canada, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, said they …
Read more “West Condemns ‘Deployment’ of Russian Mercenaries in Mali “
A freelance journalist, who has worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Belarus Service, remains in jail on unspecified charges, despite serving two 10-day sentences on controversial hooliganism charges, his relatives said Thursday. Andrey Kuznechyk’s family told RFE/RL that they were officially informed that the journalist was being transferred from the notorious Akrestsina detention center, where …
Read more “Jailed Belarusian Journalist Kuznechyk Faces Criminal Charges”
Belarus’s Interior Ministry has added RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, known locally as Radio Svaboda, to its registry of extremist organizations, in a continued clampdown on independent media and civil society sparked by an eruption of protests against authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko’s claim he won a presidential election last year that the opposition says was rigged. According …
Read more “Minsk Labels RFE/RL’s Belarus Service as ‘Extremist’”
President Vladimir Putin has demanded that the West provide Russia with security guarantees “immediately” amid spiraling tensions involving a massive deployment of Russian troops toward Ukraine. Speaking at his annual news conference on December 23, Putin responded testily to a reporter’s question about Russia’s intentions, listing off a litany of grievances about Ukraine and about …
Read more “Putin Repeats Demands That West Provide Security Guarantees “
Pope Francis urged Vatican cardinals, bishops and bureaucrats Thursday to embrace humility this Christmas season, saying their pride, self-interest and the “glitter of our armor” was perverting their spiritual lives and corrupting the church’s mission. As he has in the past, Francis used his annual Christmas address to take Vatican administrators to task for their …
Read more “Pope Demands Humility in New Zinger-filled Christmas Speech”
French schoolchildren clung nervously to their parents as they entered a vast vaccine center west of Paris on Wednesday — then walked excitedly away with a decorated “vaccination diploma,” as France kicked off mass COVID-19 inoculations for children age 5 to 11. It’s not a moment too soon for the French government, which is facing the highest …
Read more “French Kids Line up to Get Vaccine Shots as Omicron Spreads”