Category: News

Public confidence in the European Union has dropped largely due to the bloc’s handling of the pandemic and its troubled procurement of coronavirus vaccines, according to a survey for the European Council on Foreign Relations of several member states.  The survey also finds dismay with the EU is spreading from peripheral southern and eastern countries to …

Read more “Public Faith in EU Declines Due to Pandemic Handling, Survey Finds “

U.S. President Joe Biden meets Thursday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on a European trip that includes high-level talks with other Western heads of state and a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The world will be watching how Biden and Johnson will interact Thursday afternoon after past disagreements on policies, including Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, which the …

Read more “Biden in UK on Trip to Meet with Allies, Putin”

U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived in Newquay, Cornwall, Wednesday evening in anticipation of the G-7 summit, which starts Friday.Biden kicked off his United Kingdom visit earlier Wednesday with remarks to U.S. troops stationed at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, an air force station in Suffolk. The military base is used almost …

Read more “Biden Kicks Off UK Tour  “

The top U.S. envoy to Belarus told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that the country’s dependence on Russia had significantly increased. The warning came as a U.S. Senate panel considered policy options in response to Belarus’ detention last month of opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.Producer: Katherine Gypson. Camera: Alexei Gorbachev. …

Read more “Biden Administration Weighs New Sanctions Against Belarus”

A spokesperson for French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that an incident in which a man slapped the president would not deter his national tour.Macron was slapped Tuesday while shaking hands across a barrier in a small southeastern French town. The man in question was taken into custody, and after security initially pulled the president …

Read more “French Government Spokesman: Slap Won’t Stop Macron Travel”

Leaders of the G-7 group of industrialized nations meet this weekend in Britain, with an agenda topped by the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, taxation, and the challenges posed by Russia and China. The three-day summit beginning Friday will be held at Carbis Bay, a popular tourist resort in Cornwall on Britain’s southwestern …

Read more “Europe Prepares Warm Welcome for Biden at G-7, but Skepticism Remains”

President Joe Biden headed to Europe Wednesday on his first overseas trip as the U.S. leader, set to hold high-level talks with other Western heads of state before meeting next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Geneva.  As he boarded Air Force One, Biden said his goals for the trip were …

Read more “Biden Heads to Europe for Summits with Allies and Putin “

Albania’s Parliament voted Wednesday to impeach President Ilir Meta, after the ruling Socialist Party accused him of meddling in the April 25 national election and violating the country’s constitution.   The issue goes now to the Constitutional Court, which will have the final say.   One hundred and four lawmakers voted in favor, seven against …

Read more “Albania Parliament Votes to Impeach President”

The European Parliament gave final approval Wednesday to the COVID-19 digital certificate — a smart phone app that European Union citizens can use to travel freely among European countries without having to quarantine or undergo extra tests.   The regulations governing the use of the document were adopted in two votes at the European Parliament …

Read more “EU Parliament Approves Digital COVID-19 Travel Certificate”

A Belarusian opposition leader has called for creation of an international tribunal to investigate war crimes allegedly committed by authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.The request was made Wednesday by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko’s most powerful challenger in the Belarusian president election last year.“We cannot allow dictators to write history,” Tsikhanouskaya said in remarks before the Czech Senate …

Read more “Belarusian Opposition Leader Seeks Tribunal to Probe Lukashenko”

Four-year-old Kirill Zherebtsov  was born deaf and without ears. He was scheduled for a special surgery in California but a day before his flight, his mother died unexpectedly. What happened next is a story in resilience. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian   …

A Russian court has begun considering a request from prosecutors to ban organizations founded by jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Along with a new law, a ruling to outlaw the organizations would prohibit people linked to the groups from seeking public office, including seats in parliament, before a vital parliamentary election in September.Prosecutors have asked the …

Read more “Russian Court Considers Ban on Groups Founded by Opposition Leader Navalny”

When to unlock? Britain’s Boris Johnson is coming under mounting pressure from Conservative lawmakers and their allies in the media to keep to a previously outlined timetable that would see virtually all pandemic restrictions relaxed on June 21 in England.    But a sudden surge in coronavirus infections has triggered fierce counter-lobbying from the government’s scientific …

Read more “Britain Grappling with Decision to Ease COVID Restrictions  “

The European Union’s trade chief said Wednesday he hopes a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden next week will bring progress in resolving U.S.-EU trade disputes.Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Valdis Dombrovskis said the EU was looking for “decisive progress” on steel tariffs and a long-running clash over subsidies to airplane manufacturers.“As a …

Read more “EU Looks for Progress on Trade During Biden Visit”

The Biden administration is forming expert working groups with Canada, Mexico, the European Union and the United Kingdom to determine how best to safely restart travel after 15 months of pandemic restrictions, a White House official said on Tuesday. Another U.S. official said the administration will not move quickly to lift orders that bar people from …

Read more “US Forming Expert Groups on Safely Lifting Global Travel Restrictions”

President Joe Biden is heading to the United Kingdom and Europe on his first trip abroad, sending a signal that his administration values close trans-Atlantic relationships as it deals with challenges like emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and threats from China and Russia. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.    …

The World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations climate agency, reported Tuesday that Europe saw its coldest March through May since 2013, with temperatures 0.45 C below the 1991-2020 average.During a briefing from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis cautioned that Europe’s cool start did not reflect any pause in the world’s …

Read more “Europe’s Spring Coldest Since 2013, UN Climate Agency Says”

French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped Tuesday while shaking hands across a barrier in a small southeastern French town.   Video from the scene showed Macron striding toward a small crowd of people waiting behind a barrier. According to Reuters, as Macron reached out to shake hands, a man in the crowd shouted “A bas …

Read more “President Macron Slapped During Tour of Southern French Town”

Momentum is clearly growing within the United States and the world’s other major economies behind plans to make it more difficult for large international businesses to avoid paying taxes in countries where they are located. But experts warn there is still plenty to be done to achieve that elusive goal.   Over the weekend, the finance ministers …

Read more “Momentum Grows to Make Global Businesses Pay Their Taxes “

French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face on Tuesday by a man in a crowd of onlookers while on a walkabout in southern France, video of the incident showed.Macron’s security entourage quickly intervened to pull the man to the ground and move Macron away from him. Two people were arrested in connection with …

Read more “France’s Macron Slapped During Walkabout”

A number of major websites could not be reached early Tuesday because of an outage at the cloud services company Fastly.The affected sites included news agencies CNN, The Guardian and The New York Times, streaming platform Twitch, and the British government website.  All were back online within a period of hours.The outage also forced CNN’s website …

Read more “Internet Outage Hits Major Websites”

Russian dissidents are urging the West to take tougher action against President Vladimir Putin, saying it is in the West’s own self-interest to adopt a more decisive strategy against the Kremlin or pay a higher price later.In the run-up to this week’s G7 summit in Cornwall, England, and ahead of next week’s scheduled June 16 …

Read more “Russian Dissidents Urge ‘More Decisive’ Action Against Putin”

U.N. judges are set to rule Tuesday on former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic’s appeal of his 2017 conviction for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mladic, 78, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of leading the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, and of terror and unlawful …

Read more “UN Court to Rule on Bosnia War Crimes Appeal”

The German Defense Ministry said Monday it had been forced to deal with an unexpected problem regarding their troops in Afghanistan — a surplus of beer. At a news briefing in Berlin on Monday, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Christina Routsi explained that Germany’s troops in Afghanistan had been permitted to consume alcohol at times and in limited …

Read more “German Military Solves Alcohol Problem in Afghanistan”