EU

Australia vows to hold Russia accountable for MH17 disaster

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Thursday pledged to hold Russia accountable for shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, after a team of international investigators halted its probe into the disaster. The team said there were “strong indications” Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved supplying the missile system that eventually downed the flight — but halted the investigation because there was no “conclusive evidence”. The Boeing 777 was shot down over Ukraine in 2014, killing […]

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Ukraine hopes for progress on path to EU at Kyiv summit

by Stanislav DOSHCHITSYN with Arman SOLDIN in Bogoyavlenka Agence France-Presse KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukraine will hold a summit with the European Union in Kyiv this week, the government announced Tuesday, as it expressed hope the conference will bring the war-battered nation closer to EU membership almost a year after Russia launched its invasion. Kyiv also announced it expects to receive up to 140 modern battle tanks from its Western allies, and the prospect of […]

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EU reaches gas price cap agreement, angering Russia

by Marc BURLEIGH Agence France-Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — EU energy ministers on Monday overcame months of wrangling to agree a price cap for natural gas in the bloc, drawing an immediate warning from Russia that the move was “unacceptable”. The price ceiling was fixed at 180 euros per megawatt hour, but with conditions attached and a word of caution from the European Commission that it may suspend the measure if “the risks outweigh the […]

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EU agrees fresh sanctions on Russia over Ukraine war

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The EU agreed a fresh round of sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine on Thursday, after complaints from hawkish eastern European leaders some countries tried to water them down. The bloc’s executive arm last week proposed a ninth round of sanctions on Moscow. They included blacklisting “almost 200” individuals and entities, targeting three banks, curbing mining investments and banning more Russian TV channels. In the face of Russian strikes […]

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ASEAN and the EU sign the world’s first bloc-to-bloc Air Transport Agreement

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) and its member states have signed the Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement between the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the European Union and its member states (“ASEAN-EU CATA”) at the 28th ASEAN Transport Ministers’ Meeting on 17 October 2022, in Bali, Indonesia. The ASEAN-EU CATA is the world’s first bloc-to-bloc air transport agreement and reflects the latest policy thinking […]

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EU lawmakers impose single charger for all smartphones

Strasbourg, France (AFP) by Marie JULIEN The EU parliament on Tuesday passed a new law requiring USB-C to be the single charger standard for all new smartphones, tablets and cameras from late 2024. The measure, which EU lawmakers adopted with a vote 602 in favour, 13 against, will — in Europe at least — push Apple to drop its outdated Lightning port on its iPhones for the USB-C one already used by many of its […]

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Queues build up at Mongolian border as people flee Russia call-up

  Altanbulag, Mongolia (AFP) Long lines of vehicles were seen at a border crossing between Mongolia and Russia on Sunday as people fled the Kremlin’s call-up of hundreds of thousands of reservists for the war in Ukraine. The head of a checkpoint in the town of Altanbulag told AFP that more than 3,000 Russians had entered Mongolia via the crossing since Wednesday, most of them men. Queues of people holding Russian passports were also seen […]

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EU presidency calls new round of energy crisis talks

  PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP) — The European Union presidency said Tuesday it would convene another round of talks for the bloc’s energy ministers to discuss the energy crisis linked to the Ukraine war. “I am calling another extraordinary meeting of the energy ministers’ council for September 30,” Czech Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela, whose country now holds the rotating presidency, said in a tweet. At the meeting, EU ministers pledged “unprecedented measures” to […]

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EU ministers seek ways to face energy shock

by Alex PIGMAN Agence France-Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — EU energy ministers on Friday will attempt to forge a united response to the energy shock from Russia’s war on Ukraine that has sent prices for electricity and heating skyrocketing. Moscow’s invasion has seen the price of natural gas hit record levels, throwing the EU economy into deep uncertainty with all eyes on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will cut off the energy flow entirely. Before […]

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Russia to ‘intensify’ fighting, Zelensky warns as EU decision looms

  by Benoit Finck with Anna Malpas in the Donbas Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russia was likely to intensify its “hostile activity” this week, as Kyiv awaits a historic decision from the European Union on its bid for candidate status. Nearly three months after Russia launched a bloody invasion of his country, Zelensky said there had been “few such fateful decisions for Ukraine” as the one it expects from the EU this week. “Only […]

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EU working on joint purchase of monkeypox vaccines

The EU is working on centralising purchases of vaccines and treatments for monkeypox, with details to be agreed in the “coming days,” the European Commission told AFP on Thursday. The push, through the commission’s Health Emergency and Preparedness Authority (HERA), comes as the EU’s disease agency said the number of monkeypox cases in humans worldwide in the current spread had reached 219. Former EU member Britain has the highest number of cases, at 71, followed […]

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Moscow says EU becoming ‘aggressive, militant’

  MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said he doubted the motives of Ukraine’s intention of joining the European Union, while accusing Brussels of ambitions beyond the European continent. Ukraine, where Russia launched a military campaign on February 24, “is ready to declare a neutral, non-aligned status,” Lavrov told reporters following a meeting of CIS foreign ministers in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe. “At the same time, they are trying in every […]

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