10/19/17 As the EU approaches their summit this month, the question of Turkey joining the fracturing IGO still looms. Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, along with many other leaders in the EU push for Turkey not be admitted. Turkey has been striving to become a member for quite some time, but frequent controversial actions by the NATO nation continues to delay… Read more »
Al-Jazeera Tensions with Turkey will be high on the agenda of the European Union summit this weekend, amid calls within the bloc to freeze relations. Turkish and European officials have been in a war of words, with Ankara accusing members of the EU of supporting “terrorism” and EU politicians alleging a deterioration of democratic and human rights in Turkey. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that… Read more »
Al-Jazeera The son of Malta’s best-known investigative journalist says his mother had been killed by a car bomb because of her work exposing political corruption. Matthew Caruana Galizia’s comments on Tuesday came as hundreds of people demonstrated in Valletta to demand justice after her death. Daphne Caruana Galizia, who wrote about corruption across Malta’s political divides on her blog, died… Read more »
Al-Jazeera More than 200,000 people took to the streets in Barcelona, demanding the release of two men they consider political prisoners after they were arrested earlier this week on charges of sedition. Chanting “Freedom for Sanchez and Cuixart!” protesters called for the release of Jordi Cuixart of Omnium Cultural and Jordi Sanchez of the National Catalan Assembly (ANC) who were… Read more »
The EU’s chief diplomat Federica Mogherini announced Monday she will visit Washington early next month to defend the Iran nuclear deal after US President Donald Trump threatened to tear it up. Mogherini said she would “be in Washington in early November” to urge US lawmakers not to pull out of the landmark 2015 deal curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme in return… Read more »
France 24 Portugal began three days of national mourning Tuesday over 41 deaths, with pressure growing on the government to explain why it failed to prevent a tragedy that came just four months after 64 others died in another fast-moving blaze. Rain and lower temperatures on Tuesday helped emergency teams in Portugal and Spain bring under control most of the forest fires… Read more »
Al-Jazeera The French parliament on Tuesday approved a controversial anti-terror bill, which activists say will create a permanent emergency situation in the country. The bill, approved by 415 votes to 127 and 19 abstentions grants police exceptional powers. On Sunday, a knifeman used multiple aliases before killing two women at the main train station in Marseille in an attack claimed by the Islamic State… Read more »
10/3/17 On Sunday, October 1, thousands of Catalans went out to the polling booths to vote on their independence. What they faced there was frightening. Riot police from around the country were waiting for them, ready to stop the vote. Yet despite bloody faces, billy clubs, and hundreds of injuries, the Catalans managed to vote overwhelmingly for their own independence…. Read more »
Al-Jazeera Activists and experts have condemned a law implemented in Austria on Sunday prohibiting the face veil as “counterproductive” and as an “attack on religious freedom”. The law, commonly known as the “Burqa ban,” came into effect in advance of a general election on October 15, which could see the traditionally xenophobic far-right Freedom Party make gains. Of approximately nine… Read more »
France 24 In an apparent bid to raise his profile as Russia’s most influential Muslim, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov brought tens of thousands of people to the streets of the capital Grozny on Monday to protest the “genocide of Muslims” in Myanmar. Violence over the past few days in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has killed nearly 400 people and prompted thousands… Read more »