Category: World

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed up to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to turn Turkey into a Russian natural gas hub. Erdogan, addressing his parliamentary deputies Wednesday, said Turkey had secured a vital opportunity by agreeing to Putin’s plan. “European countries are currently searching to find where to get natural gas supplies,” he …

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A man accused of helping find weapons for the jihadi gunmen who attacked the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in France eight years ago was given a life sentence after his appeal trial, a judicial source said Thursday. Ali Riza Polat, 37, who contests the charges of complicity in a terrorist attack, was …

Read more “Suspect in Charlie Hebdo Attack Gets Life Sentence on Appeal”

The European Union agreed Thursday to impose new sanctions on entities supplying Iranian drones to Russia that were used to strike Ukraine. The Czech presidency of the European Union announced the agreement in a tweet Thursday, saying it came after three days of talks with EU ambassadors and would go into effect Thursday afternoon. It …

Read more “EU Sanctions Iranian Entities for Drone Deliveries”

Liz Truss said on Thursday she was resigning as British prime minister just six weeks after she was appointed, brought down by an economic program that sent shockwaves through financial markets last month and divided her Conservative Party. Speaking outside the door of her Number 10 Downing Street office, Truss accepted that she could not …

Read more “Liz Truss To Quit as UK Prime Minister Next Week”

Ukraine is restricting power use Thursday in response to Russian attacks that damaged parts of the country’s electrical infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged people to conserve energy in an address late Wednesday. He said the government was working to create “mobile power supply points for critical infrastructure in cities and villages.” Ukraine’s power grid …

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back against growing concerns that Republican lawmakers would not keep aid flowing to Ukraine should they retake control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the November midterm election. “The United States has provided Ukraine with robust bipartisan support,” she told reporters Wednesday. “We will continue to work …

Read more “White House Pushes Back Concerns That Ukraine Support Is Waning”

Cattle farmers in Botswana, one of Africa’s top beef exporters to the European Union, have welcomed renewed beef exports to Europe. The move follows a two-month ban that followed an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and the culling of thousands of cows. Botswana officials on Monday said the August outbreak near the border with Zimbabwe has …

Read more “Botswana Farmers Welcome Lifting of EU Beef Export Ban”

Some Republican lawmakers are questioning the amount of U.S. aid to Ukraine, citing the looming recession, the need for greater oversight and the competing security concerns from China. With polls predicting Republicans will win control of the House in the midterms, White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara looks at how that might affect U.S. support …

Read more “After $60 Billion Authorized, Is US Support for Aid to Ukraine Waning?”

The European Union on Wednesday readied new sanctions on Iran over its supply of drones to Russia as the U.N. Security Council met to discuss the unmanned attacks that have caused destruction in Ukraine.  The United States, France and Britain requested the closed-door Security Council discussion to voice alarm over the drone shipments, which Western …

Read more “EU Readies Sanctions on Iran for Supplying Drones to Russia”

The World Health Organization said Wednesday it is too early to lift the highest-level alert for the COVID-19 crisis, with the pandemic remaining a global health emergency despite recent progress. The WHO’s emergency committee on COVID-19 met last week and concluded that the pandemic still constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), a …

Read more “WHO: COVID-19 Still an International Emergency”

U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday charged five Russian nationals with sanctions evasion and other crimes for shipping military technologies bought from U.S. manufacturers to Russian buyers, some of which ended up on the battlefield in Ukraine.   Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said the electronic components purchased by Russian nationals Yury Orekhov and Svetlana Kuzurgasheva included semiconductors, radars …

Read more “US Charges 5 Russians With Shipping US Military Tech to Moscow, Evading Sanctions “

Giorgia Meloni, who is expected to be Italy’s next prime minister, threw down the gauntlet to her right-wing coalition partners on Wednesday, saying her new government would be pro-NATO and fully a part of Europe. Her uncompromising statement came after her conservative ally Silvio Berlusconi reiterated his sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin and accused …

Read more “New Italian Government Will Be Pro-NATO, Pro-Europe, Meloni Says”

The International Energy Agency said Wednesday that it expects carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels to rise again this year, but by much less than in 2021 due to the growth in renewable power and electric cars. Last year saw a strong rebound in carbon dioxide emissions — the main greenhouse gas responsible …

Read more “Energy Agency: CO2 Emissions Rise in 2022, but More Slowly”

The European Parliament (EP) has awarded its 2022 Sakharov Prize to “the brave people of Ukraine” in their battle against Russia’s unprovoked invasion in late February. The EP said in a statement Wednesday that the award went to “brave Ukrainians, represented by their President [Volodymyr Zelenskyy], elected leaders, and civil society.” “This award is for …

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British Prime Minister Liz Truss described herself as “a fighter and not a quitter” Wednesday as she faced down a hostile opposition and fury from her own Conservative Party over her botched economic plan. Yet the grim faces of Conservative lawmakers behind her in the House of Commons suggested that Truss faces an uphill struggle …

Read more “Embattled UK leader Liz Truss Loses 2nd Minister in Week”

The United States, Britain and France have asked for the U.N. Security Council to discuss the issue of Russia using Iranian drones in the war in Ukraine. Diplomats said Tuesday the request included asking for a U.N. official to brief the council during a closed-door meeting Wednesday. Ukrainian officials have said drones used in waves …

Read more “US, France and Britain Ask UN Security Council to Meet on Iranian Arms Transfers to Russia”

Ukraine has invited U.N. experts to examine debris from what it says are Iranian-made drones sold to Russia in violation of international sanctions and used to attack Ukrainian towns and cities.     In a letter sent to the president of the U.N. Security Council and seen by VOA, Ukraine’s ambassador says that according to …

Read more “Ukraine Invites UN Experts to Examine Iranian Drone Debris”

An appeals court in Moscow has rejected jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny’s move to have his nine-year prison sentence on charges of financial fraud and contempt of court struck down.  The second court of appeals of common jurisdiction in the Russian capital announced its decision on Tuesday.  Navalny, who took part in the hearing via …

Read more “Russian Court Rejects Navalny’s Appeal of Fraud, Contempt Sentences”

As the cold season starts in landlocked Afghanistan, concerns are mounting about widespread hunger, particularly in the rugged parts of the country where the first snowfall blocks the roads. This year there is hope that 30,000 metric tons of wheat coming from another war-torn country, Ukraine, will mitigate the hunger for some Afghans. The U.N. …

Read more “Who Donated Wheat to Afghanistan — Ukraine or US?”

Viewers of Slovenia’s public broadcaster RTV had an unexpected interruption to the evening news show last month, when journalists entered a studio during a live broadcast to show support for their colleagues. The protest came after Uros Urbanija, the director of RTV’s TV Slovenia unit, ordered anchor Sasa Krajnc and news editor Vesna Pfeiffer to …

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The death toll has risen to 14 after a Russian warplane crashed into a residential area in the Russian port city of Yeysk, causing a massive fire at an apartment building.  Authorities released the updated death toll on Tuesday.  The Russian Defense Ministry said the plane was on a training mission Monday when one of …

Read more “Death Toll Rises to 14 After Russian Warplane Crashes in Russian City of Yeysk”

In the first case of its kind, a French industrial company and its Syrian subsidiary pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State and the al-Nusrah Front.  Lafarge S.A., a global building materials manufacturer based in Paris, and Lafarge Cement Syria, based in Damascus, allegedly paid the two U.S.-designated terrorist …

Read more “French Company, Syrian Unit Plead Guilty to Material Support for Terrorism”

NATO on Monday began its long-planned annual nuclear exercises in northwestern Europe as tensions simmer over the war in Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use any means to defend Russian territory.  Fourteen of NATO’s 30 member countries were due to take part in the exercises, which the military alliance said would involve around …

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Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize on Monday for his second novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, about a dead war photographer on a mission in the afterlife. Karunatilaka received a trophy from Queen Consort Camilla at the English language literary award’s first in-person ceremony since 2019. He also gets a …

Read more “Sri Lankan Author Shehan Karunatilaka Wins 2022 Booker Prize”