Despite the raging coronavirus pandemic, polls opened Sunday for elections that could impact government leaders’ future in the East European nations Lithuania and Ukraine.
European governments are battling to contain a massive wave of new coronavirus infections. In the most dramatic move so far this season, the French government is imposing a curfew on two-thirds of the country, after strict measures in other nations, including Eastern Europe.
Thousands of Hungarians, many of them students, marched through Budapest on Friday to demand freedom in universities and media.
Poland’s top court has ruled that abortions in cases of fetal defects are unconstitutional.
A new report has shown that the proportion of Jews living in Europe is at its lowest level in 900 years, Israel National News reports. The report was published Thursday by the European Jewish Demography Unit at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR).
The European Union has awarded its top human rights prize to the Belarus opposition movement and its leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. They received the Sakharov Prize for their challenge to what EU leaders view as Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s long, hard-line reign.
The World Economic Forum, which organizes the annual Davos economic summit, is involved in developing a passport-like system for travelers to prove they are not infected with COVID-19 before they enter another country, Zero Hedge reports. The system is being spearheaded by the Commons Project, a non-profit funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
The chief Brexit negotiator for the European Union stressed Monday the bloc was prepared to “intensify” trade talks with Britain after holding a call with British dealmaker David Frost.
Facebook’s election integrity expert formerly worked as a special adviser for European policy to Joe Biden while he served as vice president.
The United States says Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to extend the New START nuclear disarmament treaty without freezing nuclear warheads is a “nonstarter.”
Germany has agreed to give $662 million in aid to some 240,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors struggling under the burdens of the coronavirus pandemic, the group involved in the talks said.
European governments rush to impose harsh measures to halt a massive increase in coronavirus infections across the continent. The partial lockdowns and other regulations impact millions of people from East to West.
Authorities in Belarus have authorized police to use lethal force if necessary against anti-government protesters, prompting more European Union sanctions. The move comes after officials confirmed that at least 713 people were detained since Sunday during mass protests against the reelection of the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in a disputed vote.
China and Russia were among 15 countries elected to the UN Human Rights Council on October 13, drawing sharp criticism from rights groups and the United States over their abysmal human rights records.
Protesters overturned statues of former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in Portland, Ore., ahead of Monday’s federal Columbus Day holiday.
The European Union has told the Palestinian Authority that it cannot have extra EU funding while Ramallah refuses to accept its own tax money collected by Israel, the Jerusalem Post reports. Anticipating Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced in May that he would cease all cooperation with Israel.
France and Germany said on Wednesday they would propose European Union sanctions against Russian individuals after receiving no credible answers from Moscow over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent.
Officials in the former Soviet nation of Kyrgyzstan say they have annulled the results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections after violent protests in the capital Bishkek killed at least one person.
Germany’s government has condemned the latest anti-Semitic attack that overshadowed the 30th-anniversary commemoration of the reunification of Germany.
The United Nations has confirmed the names of most of the candidates running for seats on the U.N. Human Rights Council in elections tentatively set for next week, and the expected return of the likes of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba will draw attention once again to the justification given by the Trump administration in 2018 for its decision to withdraw.