Section: European Voice (EU)
UN ambassador hunt drags on as top candidate fades
The hunt for a new United Nations ambassador — a job for which State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert was once considered a lock but is now out of contention — has faced repeated delays and is running up against Nikki Haley’s end-of-year departure date. Meanwhile, a raft of new candidates has emerged, but no one has grabbed the...
Poland offers US up to $2 billion for permanent military base
Poland wants a permanent U.S. military presence — and is willing to pony up as much as $2 billion to get it, according to a defense ministry proposal obtained by Polish news portal Onet. The Polish offer reflects a long-standing desire in Warsaw to build closer security relations with the U.S. and put American boots on the ground. The push dates...
Elon Musk’s plan to rate ‘truth’ trolled
Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk has drawn the ire of journalists over his plan to launch a site called “Pravda” — “truth” in Russian — to keep tabs on the media. The billionaire innovator, who has lashed out at the media over negative reports of his electric vehicles business, said he wants to create a service that would rate journalists...
Investigators say Russian-owned missile downed MH17 flight
A Dutch-led team of international investigators has concluded that a Russian-owned missile was responsible for the 2014 Malaysian Airlines crash that killed 298 passengers. The investigators’ findings showed the missile that downed flight MH17 came from a Russian anti-aircraft missile brigade and was fired from an area of eastern Ukraine...
Boris Johnson duped by pranksters pretending to be Armenian PM
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reportedly fell victim to a pair of Russian pranksters posing as the prime minister of Armenia. The pair said they held an 18-minute phone conversation with Johnson last week during which one of them pretended to be Nikol Pashinyan, the new prime minister of Armenia, the Guardian reported Thursday. The fake...
Gazprom escapes EU fine in competition probe
Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Thursday stuck with her controversial decision not to fine Gazprom on charges that it abused its dominance to rip off consumers in Central and Eastern Europe. Instead, the settlement announced Thursday will seek to change Gazprom’s behavior through a set of legally-binding commitments. “Our...
John McCain’s last fight
John McCain always said he’d go down fighting, and so he has, dickering from his deathbed over CIA nominee Gina Haspel and pre-emptively uninviting President Donald Trump from his funeral, then leaving as a legacy some fierce final words for the leader of his party, who is now a political enemy. All Trump displays is “a reality-show...
Putin says Ukraine gas transit after Nord Stream 2 needs to make economic sense
Russia is ready to continue shipping some gas to Europe via Ukraine after the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is built, but only if it makes economic sense, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday. “Once we launch Nord Stream 2, we will continue to pump gas through Ukraine if it is economically feasible and viable for the companies that operate...
Italy — what happens next?
Brussels’ nightmare — a Euroskeptic government in one of the EU’s largest countries — could become reality as soon as next week. The leaders of Italy’s anti-establishment 5Stars and far-right League are putting the final touches on a coalition agreement they have pledged to deliver to Italian President Sergio Mattarella “by...
Inside Mueller’s FBI team
President Donald Trump has repeatedly hurled insults at the FBI agents working on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 campaign. Rudy Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney who’s now Trump’s lawyer, has attacked them as “stormtroopers.” The vitriol is unsurprising. The agents are powering an investigation that...
