Travels News
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”
Three British Afghan women are on a hunger strike near the British Parliament to protest the treatment of women in Afghanistan by the Taliban. Yalda Baktash reports. …
The United States and Britain will help Australia develop a nuclear-powered submarine fleet, U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday, as leaders of the three countries announced a new trilateral security partnership focused on the Indo-Pacific region.”We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region and how it may evolve,” …
Six years ago, more than a million migrants traveled across the Mediterranean and Europe to reach Germany — many of them Syrians escaping the civil war. So, could history repeat itself as refugees try to flee Taliban rule in Afghanistan? As Henry Ridgwell reports from Berlin, immigration is high on the agenda as Germany prepares …
Read more “Germany Vows ‘No Repeat’ Of 2015 Refugee Influx as Election Looms”
The European Union’s chief executive called on member nations to develop its defense capabilities without U.S. support, an appeal that came after the Taliban’s recent seizure of Afghanistan.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s remarks came a month after the Afghan army’s swift collapse and the messy evacuation of thousands of people fleeing the country …
Russia is preparing for parliamentary and local elections Sunday in what the opposition says is an atmosphere of repression in which a number of candidates not aligned with the ruling party have been excluded. Jon Spier narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina in Moscow.Camera: Ricardo MarquinaVideo editor: Henry Hernandez …
Pope Francis said Wednesday that Catholic bishops should minister to politicians who support abortion rights, such as U.S. President Joe Biden, with “compassion and tenderness,” not condemnation.The pontiff, returning to Rome from Slovakia, warned that Catholic Church leaders should not let politics enter into questions about whether observant Catholics like Biden should be refused the …
Read more “Pope Francis: Bishops Should Show ‘Compassion’ to Politicians Who Support Abortion”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday demoted Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to justice secretary and deputy prime minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle seen by some as an attempt to refocus on rebuilding an economy still reeling from COVID-19 lockdowns. Liz Truss was expected to take his position, leaving her position as secretary of …
Read more “UK Prime Minister Johnson Demotes Foreign Secretary in Cabinet Reshuffle”
London’s High Court said on Wednesday it would take steps if necessary to serve papers on Britain’s Prince Andrew in a U.S. lawsuit brought by a woman who accuses him of sexually assaulting her two decades ago. The prince, Queen Elizabeth’s second son, is accused by Virginia Giuffre of assaulting her when she was 17, …
Read more “UK Court to Ensure Sexual Assault Papers Can Be Served on Prince Andrew”
Authors of theCluster Munition Monitor 2021report say great progress toward the elimination of these lethal weapons has been made since the Cluster Ban Treaty came into force in 2010.The Monitor finds there has been no new use of cluster munitions by any of the 110 states that has joined the treaty, nor by the 13 …
Read more “Report Points to Success in Global Campaign Against Cluster Bombs”
Dozens of Polish news outlets have expressed anger over a media ban at the border with Belarus, part of a state of emergency imposed by Warsaw following an influx of migrants. Thousands of migrants — mainly from the Middle East — have crossed or tried to cross the border from Belarus into the eastern EU …
The European Union is pledging to donate 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to low-income countries by mid-2022. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the pledge Wednesday in Strasbourg, France during her annual State of the European Union speech before the European Parliament. Von der Leyen said the 200 million doses the EU plans …
Read more “EU Pledges 200 Million Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines to Low-Income Nations”
U.S. warnings to Russian President Vladimir Putin over shielding cybercriminals holed up in Russia appear to have made little impact, according to top U.S. law enforcement and cyber officials. “There is no indication that the Russian government has taken action to crack down on ransomware actors that are operating in the permissive environment that they’ve created …
In a message of inclusion, Pope Francis is reaching out to the Roma people of Slovakia, where he has condemned Central Europe’s historic marginalization of communities including Jews.On his second day in Slovakia, the pope travelled to the town of Presov in the eastern part of the country where he celebrated mass in the Byzantine …
Read more “During Visit, Pope Reaches Out to Slovakia’s Roma”
A Russian court has fined Facebook, Twitter and Telegram, saying the companies failed to delete content that Russian internet regulator Roskomnadzor said violates Russian law. Facebook was fined about $288,000, while Twitter was fined about $69,000 and Telegram was hit with $124,00 in fines, according to the magistrate court in Moscow’s Taganskiy district. …
Read more “Russia Fines Social Media Giants for Not Deleting Banned Content”
Turkey is calling for collective international action to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The call comes as Turkey, already hosting the largest number of refugees globally, warns it cannot take any more.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, addressing a high-level United Nations meeting on Afghanistan Monday, warned that with millions of Afghans displaced and …
Read more “Turkey Resists Pressure to Take Afghan Refugees, Calls for Global Response”
When Germany’s long-standing chancellor, Angela Merkel, steps down following federal elections later this month, it will mark the end of an era, not only for Germany but also for the European Union.In power since 2005, the 67-year-old Merkel has been the third longest-serving chancellor in German history, beaten in the longevity stakes only by Otto …
The center-left bloc headed to a victory in Norway’s elections Monday as official projections pointed to the governing Conservatives losing power after a campaign dominated by climate change and the future of the country’s oil and gas exploration industry. With a projection based on a preliminary count of nearly 93% of the votes, the Labor Party …
Read more “Norway’s Center-left Heads to Victory in General Elections”
Britain’s chief medical officer (CMO), Professor Chris Whitty, recommended Monday that children between the ages of 12 and 15 be offered the COVID-19 vaccine, saying they would benefit from reduced disruption to their education. More than a week ago, Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, the panel that advises British health departments on immunization policies, …
Read more “Britain to Offer COVID-19 Vaccines to 12-to-15-year-Olds “
Four months ago, Germany’s Green Party was riding high in the opinion polls and at one point even overtook Angela Merkel’s storied Christian Democrats and its Bavarian affiliate, the Christian Social Union, to briefly become the country’s most popular party in Germany. As the country headed into the campaign for September 26th federal …
Firefighting crews in southern Spain are looking at the sky for much-needed rainfall expected on Monday and that they hope can help extinguish a major wildfire that has ravaged 7,700 hectares in five days and displaced around 2,600 people from their homes. Authorities are describing the blaze in Sierra Bermeja, a mountain range in the …
Read more “Crews in Southern Spain Face ‘Complex’ Wildfire for 5th Day “
Pope Francis called for Europe to show “solidarity” around the world during economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, speaking on a visit to Slovakia — one of the worst hit countries in Europe. On his first foreign trip since a colon operation in July, the 84-year-old Argentine pontiff called the pandemic “the great test of …
Read more “Pope Calls for Europe to Show Pandemic ‘Solidarity’”
Two French politicians kicked off their presidential campaigns Sunday, seeking to become France’s first female leader in next year’s spring election.The far-right National Rally party’s Marine Le Pen and Paris’ Socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, both launched their presidential platforms in widely expected moves. They join a burgeoning list of challengers to centrist President Emmanuel Macron. …
Read more “Two Women Join Race to Become France’s 1st Female President”
Poland’s top political leaders on Sunday attended the beatification of two revered figures of the Catholic Church — a cardinal who led the Polish church’s resistance to communism and a blind nun who devoted her life to helping others who couldn’t see.Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski and Mother Elzbieta Roza Czacka took a step toward sainthood at …
Read more “Polish Nun, Cardinal Who Defied Communism Are Beatified”