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BEIJING, China (AFP) — French President Emmanuel Macron was due in Beijing on Wednesday for a visit in which he hopes to dissuade China from supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while also forging closer ties with a crucial trade partner. Macron will look to stand firm on Ukraine during talks with his counterpart Xi Jinping and offer “another path” from the directly confrontational tone often heard from Washington, an official from his office told reporters […]
by Julie CAPELLE and Jan HENNOP Agence France-Presse VOORSCHOTEN, Netherlands (AFP) — A Dutch passenger train derailed after smashing into a crane early on Tuesday, killing a maintenance worker and injuring 30 other people in the Netherlands’ worst rail accident for years. The double-decker train carrying around 50 people from Leiden to The Hague veered off the tracks near the village of Voorschoten at around 3:30 am (0130 GMT), ending up partly in a field. […]
Paris, France | AFP | Tuesday 4/4/2023 by Daphne Benoit and Didier Lauras Finland on Tuesday becoming the 31st member of NATO is a strategic step that doubles the military alliance’s border with Russia and provides the coalition with additional military capacity. Here are the key facts: – Russia ‘more vulnerable’ – Finland broke with decades of non-alignment to ask to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after Russia invaded its pro-Western neighbour Ukraine in […]
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Tuesday 4/4/2023 by Max DELANY Finland became the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday, in a historic realignment of Europe’s defences that drew an angry warning of “countermeasures” from the Kremlin. Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine last year upended Europe’s security landscape and prompted Finland — and its neighbour Sweden — to drop decades of military non-alignment. Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto formally wrapped up the process by handing Helsinki’s […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — NATO is the world’s biggest military alliance, bringing together 30 European and North American countries who commit to defend each other in the event of attack. After Finland joins on Tuesday, it will have 31 members. The alliance was formed at the start of the Cold War to protect Western Europe against the threat of Soviet aggression but its remit and reach have expanded over time. Here is a brief history […]
Russia alleged on Monday the “terrorist attack” that killed a top military blogger the day before was orchestrated by Ukraine with the help of supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Russian investigators detained 26-year-old Darya Trepova, who was said to have links to Navalny, and posted a video in which she is heard saying she brought to the cafe a statuette rigged with an explosive device. Ukraine has blamed Russia’s domestic infighting for […]
by Elias HUUHTANEN Finland’s centre-right leader claimed victory in Sunday’s tight general election that saw the far-right post a record score to come in second, as Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats finished third. “This was a great victory,” the 53-year-old head of the conservative National Coalition Party, Petteri Orpo, told his cheering supporters. “On the basis of this election result … we will start negotiating a government in Finland,” he said. Orpo could choose […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group on Monday claimed it had “in a legal sense” captured the eastern Ukraine town of Bakhmut — the site of the longest battle of Moscow’s operation in the country — with its units now in control of city hall. The Wagner group has supported Russian troops throughout the offensive to surround Bakhmut, the fight for which both sides have invested heavily, despite analysts’ assertions that the city […]
Sofia, Bulgaria | AFP | Sunday 4/2/2023 by Vessela SERGUEVA Bulgarians vote on Sunday in their fifth general election in two years, a record in the European Union, amid deep divisions over the war in Ukraine. Russia’s invasion of its neighbour has deepened the political crisis that has engulfed Bulgaria since 2020, the worst instability since the fall of Communism. The poor Balkan nation of 6.5 million people is a member of the EU […]
Helsinki, Finland | AFP | Sunday 4/2/2023 by Elias HUUHTANEN Finland votes Sunday in legislative elections that could see the country take a dramatic turn to the right, as centre-right and anti-immigration parties vie to unseat Social Democratic Prime Minister Sanna Marin. After the breakthrough by nationalists in neighbouring Sweden and the far right’s victory in Italy last year, Finland could become the latest country to join the nationalist wave in Europe. The vote […]
Climate activists in Italy turned a Baroque-style fountain at the foot of Rome’s Spanish Steps black on Saturday, in a protest they said evoked an “end of the world” scenario. Three activists from the anti-climate change organisation Last Generation poured a vegetable-based carbon liquid into the landmark 17th-century fountain, known to Romans as La Barcaccia, before being escorted away by police. The fountain, in the shape of a boat, was designed by famed Italian sculptor […]
Ukraine on Saturday branded Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of April “a slap in the face”, joining a chorus of outrage from Western countries. Moscow assumes the presidency as part of its monthly rotation between the Security Council’s 15 member states, with ties with the West at their lowest point since the Cold War over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia’s tenure was “a slap […]
