European allies rallied cautiously around France on Tuesday after the US and Australian decision to strip Paris of a submarine supply contract, but some warned the dispute should not torpedo trade talks. German Europe Minister Michael Roth said France’s diplomatic crisis with the US was a “wake-up call for all of us” on the importance […]
The European Court of Human Rights found on Tuesday that Russia was responsible for the assassination of ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died an agonizing death in 2006 after being poisoned in London with a rare radioactive substance. Litvinenko, a defector who had become a vocal critic of the Kremlin, died three weeks after drinking […]
The line-up at the Louis Vuitton Foundation’s new exhibition in Paris reads like a who’s who of artistic giants from the Belle Epoque: Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Cezanne… What is most surprising is that they all come from one collection — a pair of Russian brothers from the late 19th century who just happened […]
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that dozens of people in his inner circle at the Kremlin had tested positive for coronavirus, which has affected over seven million people in the badly-hit country. Earlier this week, the 68-year-old Putin said he was self-isolating after announcing an outbreak among members of his entourage. “Cases of the coronavirus […]
President Vladimir Putin will self-isolate after coronavirus cases were detected in his inner circle, the Kremlin said Tuesday, as Russia struggles with stubbornly high Covid infection rates. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin was “absolutely healthy” and had taken a coronavirus test, without specifying the result. Putin had been due to travel to […]
Cuban scientists said Monday there was no evidence for claims of US diplomats coming down with so-called “Havana Syndrome” on the island. The mysterious affliction is said to cause headaches, nausea and possible brain damage, and is speculated to be caused by electronic weapons possibly wielded by a US rival such as Russia. Several suspected […]
“Insane” — that was teenager Barbara Stowe’s reaction 50 years ago when her parents and the other founders of Greenpeace decided that they would send a boat to halt US nuclear tests. But their conviction won over Stowe and her brother Robert, who witnessed these pathbreaking meetings in the family home in Vancouver to send […]
Vice President Kamala Harris launched a new broadside against China as she ended her Southeast Asian tour in Hanoi Thursday, warning the US would continue to push back against Beijing’s claims in disputed Asian waters. The comments came on the final day of a regional trip in which Washington has sought to reset relations in […]
The Tokyo Paralympics begin on Tuesday after a year’s pandemic delay. Here, AFP Sport picks out five athletes hoping to make an impact: Markus Rehm (GER) Known as the “Blade Jumper”, three-time Paralympic champion Rehm is aiming to push the boundaries even further after demolishing the T64 long jump world record in June. The German, […]
By Kanishka Singh (Reuters) – Britain would have to turn to Russia and China to exercise a “moderating influence” over the Taliban, despite a mistrust between the UK and those governments, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. “We’re going to have to bring in countries with a potentially moderating influence like Russia and China, however uncomfortable […]
The Taliban have offered a pledge of reconciliation, vowing no revenge against opponents and to respect women’s rights in a “different” rule of Afghanistan from two decades ago. The announcements came on Tuesday night shortly after the return to Afghanistan of their co-founder, crowning the group’s astonishing comeback after being ousted by a US-led invasion […]
Allies and critics alike on Monday condemned the United States over the botched end to its 20-year NATO campaign in Afghanistan, with a leading German politician slamming the pullout as “the biggest debacle” in the alliance’s history. Stunned by the Taliban’s lightning advance across the country after the departure of Western troops, NATO allies have […]
Facebook on Tuesday said it shut down a disinformation operation which sought to spread Covid-19 vaccine hoaxes by duping social media influencers into backing false claims. The leading social network labeled the operation a “disinformation laundromat” which sought to legitimize false claims by pushing them through people with clean reputations. Influencers who caught onto the […]
We ignored the warnings, and now it’s too late: global heating has arrived with a vengeance and will see Earth’s average temperature reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels around 2030, a decade earlier than projected only three years ago, according to a landmark UN assessment published on Monday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change […]
Firefighters work to extinguish burning trees as wildfires have been raging for nearly 10 days near Mugla. Hakan Akgun/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa More than 5,000 firefighters in Turkey, backed by aerial and ground support, battled the worst wildfires in over a decade on Saturday, while six fires are still out of control, Agriculture […]
Russia is pushing out a new conspiracy theory that suicides of officers involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol are being faked by the United States government. It has become a kind of “kitchen sink” conspiracy, with Russian state-television stations pushing out several conspiracy theories all at once that are unrelated. Among […]
The US State Department said Friday that Moscow is forcing it to lay off nearly 200 Russian employees in its Russia diplomatic missions, saying the move will constrict diplomatic efforts and embassy operations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said 182 Russian employees and dozens of contractors in Moscow, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg would be let go […]
By Andrew Osborn and Alexander Marrow MOSCOW (Reuters) -A software glitch, and possible lapse in human attention, were to blame for throwing the International Space Station out of control, but work was proceeding to activate a newly attached module at the centre of the mishap, Russian space officials said on Friday. Jet thrusters on the […]
Hundreds of thousands of people in China were in coronavirus lockdown Friday as the country battled its worst outbreak in months, while the United States intensified vaccination efforts in the face of a Delta variant-fueled surge. The World Health Organization has warned that the highly transmissible strain, first detected in India, could unleash more Covid-19 […]
The United States and Russia will hold high-level talks next week in the second bid in as many months to encourage stability in the tense relationship, officials said Friday. The so-called Strategic Stability Dialogue, set up during a June 16 summit between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva, will […]
After years of climate-worsened damage to its vibrant corals, Australia’s vast Great Barrier Reef could this week be added to UNESCO’s list of endangered World Heritage sites. Along with six other sites globally that are grappling with issues like ecological damage, overdevelopment, overtourism or security concerns, the reef’s fate is being considered at a meeting […]
Russia on Tuesday unveiled its new Sukhoi stealth fighter jet designed to compete with the US F-35 and capable of striking six targets simultaneously. Dubbed “The Checkmate”, the plane was first shown to a reportedly “pleased” President Vladimir Putin before the launch at a biennial airshow outside Moscow. Reports first surfaced that the jet was […]
China on Tuesday said the US had “fabricated” allegations it carried out a massive Microsoft hack, countering that Washington was the “world champion” of cyber attacks while raging at American allies for signing up to a rare joint statement of condemnation. The United States on Monday accused Beijing of carrying out the March cyber attack […]
The United States on Thursday offered $10 million rewards for information on online extortionists abroad as it stepped up efforts to halt a sharp rise in ransomware attacks, which US officials say often originate in Russia. The State Department said it would pay $10 million to anyone who can identify or locate a person who […]
None of the 28 people on board a Russian An-26 plane have survived its crash on Tuesday in the country’s far east, Interfax and RIA news agencies quoted sources in the rescue service as saying The plane, en route from regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the village of Palana, lost contact with air traffic control during […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Classified documents from Britain’s defence ministry containing details about a British warship and Russia’s potential reaction to its passage through the Black Sea have been found at a bus stop in southern England, the BBC reported on Sunday. The BBC said the documents, almost 50 pages in all, were found “in a […]
There was no talk of gazing into Vladimir Putin’s “soul” and the Russian president didn’t try to gaslight a rookie US leader. Instead, Putin’s first summit with the fifth US president of his tenure, Joe Biden, was about mutual respect — and the meeting in Geneva could, both of them said, lead to a more […]
President Joe Biden pressed Vladimir Putin at their summit Wednesday to replace the combustible US-Russian standoff with a more “predictable” relationship between “two great powers” capable of agreeing to disagree. The two leaders shook hands, striking cautiously positive notes at the elegant Geneva villa chosen for their first summit. Huge motorcades of limousines, communications equipment […]
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin face off Wednesday at a tense Geneva summit, where ghosts of the Cold War will hover over modern-day US concerns about Russian cyberattacks and what the White House sees as a dangerous authoritarian drift. The setting — a sumptuous villa overlooking Lake Geneva — may be picturesque, but a gruelling […]
Fiona Hill, the former official at the U.S. National Security Council, specializing in Russian and European affairs, spoke to CNN’s Don Lemon, remembering what it was like during the meeting between former President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. President Joe Biden will meet with Putin in the early hours of Wednesday morning in the […]