Section: European Voice (EU)
Russia beams message into Georgia: ‘You belong to us’
TBILISI, Georgia — The EU used to be seen here as a beacon of democracy and prosperity. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the prospect of membership fueled reforms all over the region. The allure of today’s European Union, plagued with crisis, appears to be waning. For most Georgians, Europe is little more than a fantasy that comes to...
Why George Washington would have agreed with Donald Trump
For all the lamentation about the level of rhetoric in this Trumped-up election year, the race between Donald Trump and all-but-certain Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is already shaping up to be a debate over America’s global role of the kind we haven’t had for decades, perhaps since the last “America First” movement of the late...
Reporters name exact missile launcher that brought down MH17
Investigative journalists on Wednesday said they have identified the exact number and unit of the Russian anti-aircraft missile launcher suspected of shooting down a Malaysian Airlines plane over eastern Ukraine in 2014. Moscow responded that it doesn’t have information on identification numbers of Russian weapons. Bellingcat, the...
World Press Freedom Day brings calls for journalist’s release from prison
The government of Azerbaijan was under growing international pressure to release the investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova from prison Tuesday, as she was honored with UNESCO’s annual World Press Freedom Prize. Ismayilova, a contributor to the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail in...
Eurovision flag ban angers Palestinians
A senior Palestinian leader has asked Eurovision organizers to reverse a ban on the Palestinian flag at this year’s edition of the song contest in Stockholm, which starts on May 10. Saeb Erakat, second-in-command of the Palestine Liberation Organization, called the decision “totally biased and unacceptable,” in a letter to Jean-Paul...
Germany to push for fresh Russia-Ukraine talks
The German government wants to “give new momentum” to peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Sunday. “We have lost time. The cease-fire has become more fragile … I think it is necessary that we now give new momentum to overcoming the obstacles between Kiev and Moscow,” Steinmeier told German...
The selling of Obama
President Barack Obama insists he does not obsess about “the narrative,” the everyday media play-by-play of political Washington. He urges his team to tune out “the noise,” “the echo chamber,” the Beltway obsession with who’s up and who’s down. But in the fall of 2014, he got sick of the narrative of gloom hovering over his White...
Serbian opposition calls for post-election street protests
BELGRADE — Confusion and delays in counting votes after Serbia’s parliamentary election on Sunday prompted an increasingly disgruntled opposition to call for street protests. The opposition complained about the slow count, which took five days, encouraging people to demonstrate on Saturday. The ruling party responded Friday by threatening...
German officials slam Trump’s “America First”
Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy speech didn’t sit well with U.S. allies anywhere, but it’s drawing particularly pointed criticism from officials in Germany, just days after President Barack Obama visited Europe’s most influential country to extol transatlantic cooperation. The Republican front-runner’s...
George Osborne cosies up to political journalists at Westminster correspondents dinner
The Washington version of this dinner might get all the global attention (it’s happening tomorrow night), but George Osborne did his best to catch up on Thursday night, professing near endless love for journalists and entertaining them with swipes at his Tory leadership rival Boris Johnson. The Chancellor hasn’t had the smoothest of...
