European Union - Page 38

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has accused the secret services of Ukraine and an unidentified European Union country of being behind a series of false bomb threats against Air Serbia flights to Russia.

The citizens of the West should accept a lower standard of living to help Germany get off Russian gas, the ex-cheif of the UK army said.

A ‘sharp recession’ lies ahead for Germany should it be cut off from the Russian gas it is so badly addicted to.

27 per cent of people living in Germany now have a “migrant background”, the national statistical office has revealed.

As the entire world faces into a period of serious food instability, Russian armed forces have been actively targetting wheat stocks in Ukraine for destruction, an EU official has claimed.

Dairy farmers the latest in Euro agri-sector to report impending crisis as soaring costs of energy and animal feed slash margins and profits.

Jerusalem – As Europe aims to wean itself off Russian fossil fuel because of the Ukraine invasion, Israel hopes to help fill the gap with gas from its offshore reserves.

Conservative radio legend Michael Savage issued a direct appeal for peace to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday while condemning those on the left fighting to protect the borders, language and culture of Ukraine “while your own country is being overrun.”

The candidate for the establishment-right Républicains (Republicans) has urged voters to back the left-liberal Emmanuel Macron, not the national conservative Marine Le Pen, as exit polls indicate her own performance in the first round of France’s presidential elections was a dismal failure. 

Climate laws are having a negative knock-on effect on farming as businesses outbid locals for land in hopes of generating carbon credits.

Nearly 4,500 underage migrants who applied for asylum in Austria last year have reportedly gone missing, prompting concerns some may have fallen victim to human traffickers.

The French ambassador to Poland was summoned on Friday by the Polish foreign minister after President Emmanuel Macron branded Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki a “far-right antisemite”.

The number of violent incidents in Belgian asylum reception centres has doubled since 2017, with half of the total incidents involving physical or verbal assaults on asylum centre workers or other asylum seekers.

The Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament, has rejected a vaccine mandate for people over the age of 60, with the left-liberal coalition government’s proposal losing by over 80 votes.

PARIS (AP) – President Emmanuel Macron said Friday he has no fear of losing France’s presidential election despite far-right rival Marie Le Pen narrowing the gap in opinion polls ahead of Sunday’s first-round vote.

BRUSSELS (AP) – European Council president Charles Michel says the bloc’s top diplomat has proposed adding an additional 500 million euros ($544 million) to Ukraine under the “European Peace Facility,” the fund which has been used for the first time during the war to deliver lethal weapons to a third country.

Family members of teacher Samuel Paty, who was murdered by a Chechen refugee in 2020, have filed a complaint against the French government for not doing enough to prevent his death.

Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi has drawn ridicule for saying that people can either choose peace in Ukraine or their air conditioners.

BRUSSELS (AP) – Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger and two top European Union officials are in Kyiv looking to shore up the bloc’s support for war-torn Ukraine.

A survey released by a Brazilian-based firm this week has revealed that populist leader Marine Le Pen may be pulling ahead of President Emmanuel Macron as France votes in the first round of its presidential elections this weekend.

The Turkish government has claimed to have stopped over 1,7000 illegal immigrants from reaching Europe in the month of March.

The EU’s Green New Deal-style politics have made the bloc’s poor people even poorer while funding Russia’s war in Ukraine, an MEP has claimed.

As the EU considers new sanctions against Russia, the Hungarian government has stated that it will pay for Russian gas supplies in rubles.

The European Union is poised to ban Russian coal in the first sanctions on the vital energy industry over the war in Ukraine.

Michel called on soldiers to disobey orders: “if you don’t want to be a criminal, drop your arms, stop fighting, leave the battlefield”.

The United States, United Kingdom and the European Union were set Wednesday to impose new punishing sanctions targeting Russia.

The European Union looks set to launch sanctions against Hungary after Viktor Orbán achieved a landslide victory in the country’s recent general election.

BERLIN (AP) – German lawmakers who proposed a requirement for all adults to be vaccinated against COVID-19 sought a compromise on Monday after struggling to win a majority in parliament, suggesting a less sweeping mandate that would initially oblige everyone aged 50 and above to get shots.

Poland’s national conservative prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecky, has publicly upbraided the French president, Emmanuel Macron, over his negotiations with Vladimir Putin, insisting they have achieved nothing.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) – Lithuania on Monday announced that it will expel Russia’s ambassador and recall its envoy in Moscow in reaction to increasing signs that Russian forces may have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Hungary’s national conservative prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has won a fourth consecutive term of office, matching Germany’s Angela Merkel — despite the establishment left, far left, and even the far right teaming up to oust him at the ballot box.

BERLIN (AP) – A 60-year-old man allegedly had himself vaccinated against COVID-19 dozens of times in Germany in order to sell forged vaccination cards with real vaccine batch numbers to people not wanting to get vaccinated themselves.

Italian inflation rose to 6.7 per cent in March as the Russian invasion of Ukraine led to a surge in energy prices, marking the highest inflation the country has seen since July of 1991.

The German city of Cologne is considering dropping a depiction of its historic Christian cathedral from the city’s logo. Some have criticised the proposed change and called for residents to speak out against the city government.

French military intelligence chief General Eric Vidaud is to lose his job over the failure to predict Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, in a rare example of Western high officials facing real consequences for institutional failure.

The socialist government of Spain said that supermarkets will be allowed to ration as a part of its “Response Plan” to the war in Ukraine.