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The first high-level talks between Turkey and Syria in over a decade held in Moscow last week reflect the common interests of the two nations in limiting the autonomy of Syrian Kurds, experts say. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said more talks are planned for later this month. Analysts speaking to VOA believe that if …
Read more “Is Assad-Erdogan Reconciliation Likely Before Turkey’s Elections?”
European Union regulators on Wednesday hit Facebook parent Meta with hundreds of millions in fines for privacy violations and banned the company from forcing users in the 27-nation bloc to agree to personalized ads based on their online activity. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission imposed two fines totaling 390 million euros ($414 million) in its decision …
Read more “Meta Fined 390 Million Euros in Latest European Privacy Crackdown”
A son of Equatorial Guinea’s long-ruling president is under investigation in connection with kidnapping and torture allegations that observers say will damage the president’s attempts to improve his international reputation. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 80, has ruled the oil-rich former Spanish colony since 1979, and after winning a sixth term in office in November, observers …
Read more “Spanish Court Investigates Equatorial Guinea Leader’s Son for Kidnapping”
Pope Francis praised Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s “acute and gentle thought” as he presided over a packed Wednesday general audience in the Vatican, while thousands of people paid tribute to the former pope on the final day of public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica. Francis was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd in the Paul VI …
Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland got a formal welcome into the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, taking the two-year seats they won unopposed in June. In a tradition that Kazakhstan started in 2018, the five countries’ ambassadors installed their national flags Tuesday alongside those of other members outside the council chambers. Mozambican Ambassador Pedro …
Read more “UN Security Council Welcomes New Members; 2 are First-Timers”
Turkey on Tuesday hosted the leaders of Syria’s opposition in a bid to assuage their concern following its overtures to Damascus. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted images of his meeting in Ankara with the opposition Syrian National Council chief Mahmut al-Maslat and other leaders. The talks came less than a week after the defense chiefs …
Read more “Turkey Hosts Syria Opposition After Outreach to Assad”
Drone advances in Ukraine have accelerated a long-anticipated technology trend that could soon bring the world’s first fully autonomous fighting robots to the battlefield, inaugurating a new age of warfare. The longer the war lasts, the more likely it becomes that drones will be used to identify, select and attack targets without help from humans, …
Read more “Drone Advances in Ukraine Could Bring Dawn of Killer Robots”
Tens of thousands more people paid homage to former Pope Benedict on Tuesday on the second day his body lay in state, and the Vatican announced that his funeral will be similar to that of a reigning pope, including a three coffin burial. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who like Benedict has called for the …
Read more “Benedict Funeral to Be Similar to that of Reigning Popes”
Zohra stuffs packages of sliced bread, fresh fruit and canned vegetables into her shopping cart — free handouts she once never thought she would need. Other Parisians patiently wait their turn for the Salvation Army’s weekly food distributions in the French capital: two women from Africa, a middle-aged man from the French Antilles, a young …
Read more “War in Ukraine Bolstered EU Solidarity—Will it Last?”
Ukraine and the European Union will hold a summit in Kyiv on February 3 to discuss financial and military support, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said in a statement on Monday. Zelenskyy discussed details of the high-level meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in his first phone call of the year, the statement …
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s longtime personal secretary has written a tell-all book that his publisher on Monday promised would tell the truth about the “blatant calumnies,” “dark maneuvers,” mysteries and scandals that sullied the reputation of a pontiff best known for his historic resignation. Archbishop Georg Gaenswein’s Nothing but the Truth: My Life Beside Pope …
Read more “Benedict Aide’s Tell-all Book Will Expose ‘Dark Maneuvers’”
Belgium will test wastewater from planes arriving from China for new COVID variants as part of new steps against the spread of the coronavirus as infections in China surge, the government announced Monday. “This will be an additional monitoring objective to verify that the data we receive from China is accurate,” Steven Van Gucht of …
Read more “Belgium to Test Wastewater on Airliners From COVID-hit China”
The German government Monday condemned incidents on New Year’s Eve in which police officers and firefighters were attacked, mostly with fireworks. People across Germany on Saturday resumed their tradition of setting off large numbers of fireworks in public places to ring in the new year. That followed two years in which sales of fireworks were …
Read more “Germany Condemns New Year’s Attacks on Firefighters, Police Officers”
Europe’s wholesale natural gas prices fell Monday to their lowest level since Russia invaded Ukraine, which had driven them to a record high last year. A mild winter has enabled countries to tap less gas from stocks that were built up in anticipation of cuts in supplies from Russia, which was Europe’s main supplier before …
Read more “European Gas Prices Fall to Lowest Level Since Ukraine War”
The suspected mastermind behind the removal of a Banksy mural in a Ukrainian town could face up to 12 years in prison if found guilty, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Monday. The artwork, depicting a woman in a gas mask and a dressing gown holding a fire extinguisher, was taken off a wall in the town …
Read more “Mastermind of Banksy Removal Could Face Years in Jail, Ukraine Says”
Much of the Alps just don’t look right for this time of year. Sparse snowfall with unseasonably warm winter weather in much of Europe is allowing grass to blanket mountaintops across the region where snow might normally be, causing headaches for ski slope operators and aficionados of Alpine white. Patches of grass, rock and dirt …
Read more “Alpine Slopes Face Snow Shortage in Unseasonably Warm Winter”
The president of the European Parliament has launched an urgent procedure to waive the immunity of two lawmakers following a request from Belgian judicial authorities investigating a major corruption scandal rocking EU politics. The European Parliament said Monday that President Roberta Metsola asked all services and committees to give the procedure priority, with the goal …
Read more “EU Parliament Starts Process to Lift 2 Lawmakers’ Immunity”
Tens of thousands of people filed into St. Peter’s Basilica Monday to pay their respects to the late Pope Benedict XVI, whose body is lying in state. Some of the faithful had lined up hours before dawn to wait for the doors of the basilica to open. By mid-afternoon Monday, 40,000 people had filed past …
Read more “Tens of Thousands Pay Their Respects to Pope Benedict”
Scuffles broke out on Monday outside a village in western Germany that is to be razed to allow the expansion of a coal mine, a plan that is drawing resistance from climate activists. Activists threw fireworks, bottles and stones at police outside the village of Luetzerath before the situation calmed down and officers pulled back, …
Read more “Climate Activists Protest as German Village to Make Way for Coal Mine”
“Lord, I love you,” are reported to be the last words Pope Emeritus Benedict uttered shortly before his death, according to a report on The Vatican News website. The retired pope’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, said a nurse was the only person with Benedict at the time. “I was not there at the moment, …
Germany has warned Iranians living in the country who have been critical of the Iranian government to be careful about traveling to Iran. Thomas Haldenwang, head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, told the Germany Press Agency that for some years the Iranian government has worked to identify critics, and that …
Read more “Germany Cautions Iranian Critics Against Traveling to Iran”
Pope Francis hailed the “beloved” Benedict XVI in New Year’s Day services on Sunday as the Vatican released the first pictures of the former pontiff following his death at the age of 95. Official photos showed the German theologian’s body on a catafalque in the chapel of the monastery in the Vatican grounds where he …
Read more “Pope Hails ‘Beloved’ Benedict as Vatican Releases Photos of Body”
Environmental group Extinction Rebellion said Sunday it would no longer stage its infamous blockades of U.K. transport networks and will instead hold a major demonstration against government policy in April. The activist network, formed in the U.K. in 2018, has regularly used civil disobedience to protest what it calls government inaction on climate change. Activists …
Read more “Climate Group Extinction Rebellion Suspends ‘Public Disruption’ Tactics”
There was no tolling of the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica, no solemn announcement by a Vatican monsignor to the faithful in the square. A fisherman’s ring did not get smashed and the diplomatic corps were not mobilized to send official delegations to Rome. The death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed in an entirely …
Read more “Benedict’s Death Paves Way for Protocols for Future Popes”