Month: June 2022

A Britain-based group says its latest study of worldwide free expression rights shows only 15% of the global population lives where people can receive or share information freely. In its 2022 Global Expression Report, Article19, an international human rights organization, said that in authoritarian nations such as China, Myanmar and Russia, and in democracies such …

Read more “Report: Only 15% of World Enjoys Free Expression of Information”

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that 144 of the country’s fighters were freed from Russian captivity via “an exchange mechanism” and that nearly 100 of the freed fighters had participated in the defense of the Ukrainian coastal city of Mariupol. Earlier, a leading Ukrainian parliamentarian told VOA that Kyiv and Moscow were undergoing …

Read more “144 Ukraine Fighters Freed from Russian Captivity in Prisoner Exchange”

The United States joined its NATO allies on Wednesday to issue a strong rebuke to “malicious hybrid and cyber” threats from the People’s Republic of China, warning the “no-limits” partnership between China and Russia is undercutting a rules-based international order. In Beijing, Chinese officials pushed back and asked the Atlantic alliance to stop “stoking political …

Read more “US, NATO Trade Charges With China Over New Strategic Concept   “

The United States will strengthen its forces in Europe as NATO faces up to the threat from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. President Joe Biden announced the deployments at the NATO summit in Madrid. Henry Ridgwell reports. …

U.S. President Joe Biden thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday for dropping his objections to the bids by Sweden and Finland to join NATO, leading the way for the military alliance to expand even closer to Russia. “I want to particularly thank you for what you did putting together the situation with regard …

Read more “Biden Thanks Erdogan for Dropping Veto on Sweden, Finland NATO Bids”

The lone survivor of a team of Islamic State extremists was convicted Wednesday of murder and other charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole in the 2015 bombings and shootings across Paris that killed 130 people in the deadliest peacetime attacks in French history. The special court also convicted 19 other men involved …

Read more “Lone Surviving Attacker in Paris Massacre Guilty of Murder”

NATO heads of state and government meeting in Madrid on Wednesday approved a new Strategic Concept for the alliance, naming “Russia’s aggression,” “systemic challenges posed by the People’s Republic of China” and the “deepening strategic partnership” between the two countries as its main priorities. In this document, the Western military alliance that was formed after …

Read more “New NATO Strategic Concept Targets Russia, China”

Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington aimed at breaking an impasse about how to salvage Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact have ended without the progress “the EU team as coordinator had hoped-for,” EU’s envoy Enrique Mora tweeted Wednesday. “We will keep working with even greater urgency to bring back on track a key deal for non-proliferation …

Read more “US, Iran Indirect Talks to Revive 2015 Nuclear Pact End Without Progress”

A U.N. investigator warns that systematic and widespread repression in Belarus is eroding peoples’ civic and political rights. The investigator’s report was presented Wednesday at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council. Belarus boycotted the meeting. Special Rapporteur Anais Marin says the human rights situation in Belarus has gone from bad to worse. She …

Read more “UN: Climate of Fear and Impunity Reigns in Belarus”

U.S. President Joe Biden announced Wednesday the United States is bolstering its military presence in Europe, including the deployment of additional naval destroyers in Spain and positioning more troops elsewhere. Biden, in Madrid for a 30-nation NATO summit, said the U.S. would establish a permanent headquarters for the U.S. 5th Army Corps in Poland, add …

Read more “Biden: US to Bolster European Military Presence”

A German court on Tuesday handed a five-year jail sentence to a 101-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard, the oldest person to go on trial for complicity in war crimes during the Holocaust.  Josef Schuetz was found guilty of being an accessory to murder in at least 3,500 cases while working as a prison guard …

Read more “German Court Gives 101-year-old Ex-Nazi Guard Five Years in Jail”

NATO ally Turkey lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden’s bid to join the Western alliance on Tuesday after the three nations agreed to protect each other’s security, ending a weeks-long drama that tested allied unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The breakthrough came after four hours of talks just before a NATO summit began …

Read more “Finland, Sweden on Path to NATO Membership as Turkey Drops Veto”

President Joe Biden’s administration added five companies in China to a trade blacklist on Tuesday for allegedly supporting Russia’s military and defense industrial base, flexing its muscle to enforce sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The Commerce Department, which oversees the trade blacklist, said the targeted companies had supplied items to Russian “entities …

Read more “US Accuses 5 Firms in China of Supporting Russia’s Military”

NATO leaders began arriving in Madrid Tuesday for a crucial summit on the alliance’s future – dominated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the threat Moscow poses to the West. Henry Ridgwell reports from the Spanish capital. …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday he stressed the need for a “powerful missile defense system for Ukraine to prevent Russian terrorist attacks” in talks with NATO’s leader. The phone call with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg came ahead of the start of a summit of NATO leaders in Madrid where Ukraine is expected to …

Read more “Zelenskyy Calls for Missile Defense System Ahead of NATO Talks”

One of France’s most high-profile trials in history wraps up this week amid a sharply changing security landscape across Europe, where the war in Ukraine and far-right violence have reshaped threat perceptions once dominated by Islamist extremism. Verdicts are expected Wednesday in Paris, where 20 men stand accused of being involved in the November 2015 …

Read more “As Key French Terror Trial Ends, Europe Faces New Security Landscape “

Anita Powell reports from Telfs, Austria on the close of the G7 Summit and looks ahead to the NATO summit in Madrid. Producer: Marcus Harton …

Giving aid to Ukraine and pain to Vladimir Putin – those are the measures leaders of the world’s wealthiest liberal democracies zeroed in on Monday as they listened to Ukraine’s president plea for more help. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Telfs, Austria. …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads to this week’s NATO summit in Madrid, threatening to veto Finland’s and Sweden’s bid to join the Atlantic alliance. Ankara is warning it’s not ready to lift its veto threat of their NATO membership bid ahead of the alliance’s summit in Madrid on Tuesday.   Erdogan’s chief adviser Ibrahim …

Read more “Turkey Maintains Threat to Veto Sweden, Finland from Joining NATO”

Russia moved closer Sunday to defaulting on international debt payments for the first time in a century.  Interest payments totaling $100 million on two bonds were originally due May 27, but carried a 30-day grace period.  Russia has struggled to make such payments due to restrictions on its financial activities and sanctions imposed in response …

Read more “Russia Edges Toward Debt Payment Default”

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will attend a round of talks with the leaders of Sweden and Finland, as well as NATO on Tuesday ahead of the summit in Madrid, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Sunday. Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the bids have faced …

Read more “Erdogan to Meet With Leaders of Sweden, Finland Before NATO Summit in 4-Way Talks”

The family of Dom Phillips on Sunday bid farewell to the British journalist, who was killed earlier this month along with Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira in the Amazon. Phillips’ wife Alessandra Sampaio, siblings Sian and Gareth, and brother-in-law Paul Sherwood attended the 57-year-old’s funeral in Niteroi near Rio de Janeiro. “Today Dom will be …

Read more “Family Bids Farewell to British Journalist Murdered in the Amazon”

The war in Ukraine could allow illegal drug production to flourish, while the opium market’s future hinges on the fate of crisis-wracked Afghanistan, the United Nations warned Monday.  Previous experience from the Middle East and Southeast Asia suggests conflict zones can act as a “magnet” for making synthetic drugs, which can be manufactured anywhere, the …

Read more “Ukraine War Could Boost Illegal Drug Production, says UN”

Pope Francis on Sunday hailed as a martyr an Italian missionary nun slain in Haiti, where she cared for poor children. The diocese of Milan says Sister Luisa Dell’Orto, 64, was slain “during an armed aggression, probably with the aim of robbery,” in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. The Vatican’s official media said Dell’Orto, gravely wounded, …

Read more “Italian Nun Slain in Haiti Hailed by Pope as Martyr”