Section: Voice of America (USA)
Putin to Meet Pope in Shadow of Ukraine Crisis
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with Pope Francis on Thursday, a day before Ukraine’s Catholic leaders meet at the Vatican to discuss the crisis in their country, and amid speculation that the visit could be a prelude to the first trip by a pope to Russia.Putin, who has met Francis twice before, is due to arrive at the...
EU’s Eastern Bloc Left Out in Top Jobs Deal
Eastern European states ended up empty-handed in the EU top jobs bonanza after they expended all their political capital in successfully blocking Dutch Socialist Frans Timmermans from becoming president of the executive European Commission.As a vice president of the outgoing Commission, Timmermans annoyed the nationalist governments in Poland and...
Ben Gurion Incident Exposes West’s Vulnerability to GPS Disruption
This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian service. A spate of GPS disruptions at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport has confirmed what several prominent tech analysts have long feared: that Western nations, and the U.S. in particular, are unusually vulnerable to foreign meddling with location-based technology. Most location-based software...
Finance Minister: Full Results of Ukraine Reforms to Take Years to Be Seen
It will take years for the full effects of reforms to be seen in Ukraine, where the government is trying to cast off Soviet-era institutions while clamping down on corruption, Finance Minister Oksana Markarova said on Tuesday.She made her remarks to a Toronto conference on reforms in Ukraine where other high-level participants stressed the need...
US Senate Approves Expanded Military Aid to Ukraine
The U.S. Senate’s version of the annual authorization for American armed forces earmarks $300 million in military aid to Ukraine, $50 million more than the amount allocated for 2019. The version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that senators approved this week budgets $750 billion for the Pentagon for fiscal 2020, which...
Four Ukrainians Released From Separatist Captivity
Four Ukrainian nationals have been released from separatist captivity and handed over to the Ukrainian government.The rare prisoner release, originally announced on Thursday, was completed on Friday when the four men were handed over to Ukrainian officials at the airport in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The men looked tired but had no visible...
Trump Lightheartedly to Putin: Don’t Interfere in US Election
U.S. President Donald Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a light-hearted warning not to interfere again in American elections.Appearing before reporters during his bilateral meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Trump was asked whether he would tell the Russian leader to not meddle in the U.S. electoral...
Trump Meets Abe, Modi and Merkel on G-20 Sidelines
VOA’s White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman in Osaka, Japan, contributed to this report.U.S. President Donald Trump met Friday morning with several world leaders on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan. Trump started his day with summit host Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, followed by short discussions with Indian Prime...
Trump Begins Busy Round of Meetings With World Leaders
U.S. President Donald Trump is set to begin a series of one-on-one meetings with at least eight world leaders on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan. On Friday, Trump will hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, all of whom Trump criticized just...
Trump Seeks to Reassure Allies at G-20
Amid renewed concern among America’s allies about the U.S. president’s commitment to them, Donald Trump is seeking to offer reassuring words after arriving in Japan for the Group of 20 leaders’ summit.During his first meeting in Osaka — a working dinner with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison — Trump was asked...
