Security forces in Belarus have launched a new crackdown on people protesting against the country’s long-time president Alexander Lukashenko who has refused to step down after a disputed election. Police in Belarus’s capital detained more than 100 people who assembled for a protest march Saturday after detaining hundreds since Thursday.
A huge container ship that blocked the crucial Suez Canal for nearly a week was almost completely freed early Monday, officials confirmed.
European Union leaders agreed to toughen export controls of coronavirus vaccines amid a row with Britain over deliveries. At an online summit attended by U.S. President Joe Biden, they also stressed the importance of a reliable global supply chain of COVID-19 jabs.
A gigantic, fully loaded container ship has run aground and become wedged across Egypt’s Suez Canal, blocking all other vessels from passing through, and threatening the viability of a pandemic-beleaguered global shipping system, the Associated Press reports. The MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that transports cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday for reasons that were still not clear on Wednesday.
The Middle East quartet of mediators – the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations – discussed on Tuesday reviving “meaningful negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinians with the aim of a two-state solution.
The European Parliament declared the European Union (EU) an “LGBTIQ Freedom Zone” on March 11, largely in reaction to various municipalities in Poland declaring themselves LGBTIQ-Free Zones. The vote in Parliament was 492 in favor, 141 against, and 46 abstentions, according to a European Parliament press release.
The European Union and the United States on Monday imposed sanctions on individuals and groups linked to last month’s military coup in Myanmar as the repression of pro-democracy protesters by security forces reached what Germany’s foreign minister called “an unbearable” level.
The United States and its allies in Canada, Britain and the European Union on Monday announced sanctions on several Chinese officials alleged to have links to what U.S. officials say is a genocidal campaign against Uyghur Muslims.
The U.S. State Department says Secretary of State Antony Blinken has “strongly condemned” recent attacks against Saudi territory from “Iranian-aligned groups” in the region, and discussed cooperation to end the war in Yemen in a call with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister.
The European Union has confirmed its plans to issue ‘digital green certificates’ to vaccinated members of its 450 million population, allowing them to travel freely across the bloc this summer, the UK’s Daily Mail reports. The new ‘passport’ would be issued to those who have been recently tested or who have recovered from the virus as well.
Demonstrators took to the streets in several European cities on Saturday to protest Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, with clashes between demonstrators and police erupting in the German city of Kassel while in London, police arrested dozens of people for breaching pandemic restrictions. Protests also erupted in Austria, Belgium, Britain, Croatia, Finland, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland as European authorities confront a third coronavirus wave.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was heading towards a fourth term in office as one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders in elections overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Chief Rabbi of Moscow warned this week that Jewish life in Europe is once again under serious threat due, among other things, to the intolerance of ritual slaughter and male circumcision practices that are central to Jewish religious expression. Writing in the Times of Israel, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt attested: “There is almost no value in remembering the past if a country and its politicians don’t allow its Jewish population to live their life in the present.”
Italy and Germany on Monday joined Ireland and Holland as the latest European Union member states to suspend the use of the British-Swedish AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Reuters reports. The decisions follow Norwegian reports of blood clots and brain hemorrhages among people who had taken the shot; Denmark, Norway, and Bulgaria have also suspended use of the vaccine.
The International Criminal Court is considering a lawsuit filed by a group of Israeli lawyers and doctors who believe Israel’s warp-speed COVID-19 vaccination campaign is a “medical experiment” that violates the Nuremberg Code and constitutes crimes against humanity, All Israel News reports.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday that the US should quickly rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran deal, because the upcoming Iranian elections may hinder any talks about it, the Washington Times reports. The JCPOA is a treaty under which international sanctions on Iran would be removed in exchange for the regime’s adherence to limits on its nuclear program.
The Netherlands faces the first significant test of a European Union government’s COVID-19 policies this year. This week the nation is holding parliamentary elections amid one of the strictest lockdown measures in Europe.
If Iran is “absolutely determined” to develop a nuclear weapon, the only way to stop the rogue regime may be militarily, according to Elliott Abrams.
Kosovo has become the first Muslim-majority nation to open an embassy in Israel’s capital Jerusalem.
An Iranian Christian father and his young son, who were detained on the Hungarian-Serbian border for 527 days, have been moved to a home in northwest Hungary following international pressure. A Baptist church helped Abouzar Soltani, a convert from Islam to Christianity, and his 12-year-old-son Armin to find an apartment in the Hungarian city of Győr, Worthy News learned.