Daily: 10/07/2021

«Схеми»: державний «Укрексімбанк» видав 60 мільйонів доларів кредиту бізнесмену, компанія якого сплачує податки угрупованню «ДНР»

Державний «Укрексімбанк» видав $60 мільйонів кредиту підприємцю Сергію Брюховецькому, який є власником бізнесу на окупованій території Донеччини

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Підконтрольний Кремлю суд продовжив арешт кримськотатарському активісту Рустему Таїрову

До 11 січня 2022 року Рустем Таїров залишиться в СІЗО Сімферополя

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Britain Eases Quarantine Requirements for 47 Countries

After losing two full summers of tourism revenue, Britain is getting rid of restrictive quarantine requirements for visitors from 47 countries, including India, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey.

Starting Monday, vaccinated travelers from those countries will no longer have to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel upon arrival in Britain.

Britain recognizes the AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccines.

Visitors from seven countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela will still be required to quarantine.

People who are fully vaccinated and arriving from countries such as India, Turkey and Ghana will now have to provide only a negative test after two days.

Airline companies like Ryanair and easyJet had complained that complicated travel restrictions have prevented the tourism industry from recovering from lost business during pandemic lockdowns.

“Restoring people’s confidence in travel is key to rebuilding our economy and leveling up this country,” British Transport Minister Grant Shapps said Thursday. “With less restrictions and more people traveling, we can all continue to move safely forward together along our pathway to recovery.”

 

Earlier this week, Britain lifted recommendations against nonessential travel to 32 countries, including Ghana and Malaysia. 

 

Some information for this report came from Reuters.

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Рада ООН з прав людини призначить доповідача по Афганістану

Резолюція ЄС передбачає, що спеціальний доповідач приступить до роботи в березні

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Росія: за добу в Оренбурзькій області від отруєння алкоголем померли 10 людей

За повідомленнями, отруєння спричинило смерть навіть від невеликої дози випитого

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Google to Invest $1 Billion in Africa Over Five Years

Google plans to invest $1 billion in Africa over the next five years to ensure access to fast and cheaper internet and will back startups to support the continent’s digital transformation, it said on Wednesday.

The unit of U.S. tech company Alphabet Inc made the announcement at a virtual event where it launched an Africa Investment Fund, through which it will invest $50 million in startups, providing them with access to its employees, network and technologies.

Nitin Gajria, managing director for Google in Africa told Reuters in a virtual interview that the company would among others, target startups focusing on fintech, e-commerce and local language content.

“We are looking at areas that may have some strategic overlap with Google and where Google could potentially add value in partnering with some of these startups,” Gajria said.

In collaboration with not-for-profit organization Kiva, Google will also provide $10 million in low interest loans to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa so they can get through the economic hardship created by COVID-19.

Small businesses in Africa often struggle to get capital because they lack the necessary collateral required by banks in case they default. When credit is available, interest rates are usually too high.

Google said a program pioneered last year in Kenya in partnership with Safaricom that allows customers to pay for 4G-enabled phones in instalments would be expanded across the continent with mobile operators such as MTN, Orange and Vodacom.

Gajria said an undersea cable being built by Google to link Africa and Europe should come into service in the second half of next year and is expected to increase internet speeds by five times and lower data costs by up to 21% in countries like South Africa and Nigeria.

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NATO Expulsions of Russian Diplomats Will Likely Trigger Moscow Response

NATO is expelling eight Russian diplomats and plans to halve the size of Russia’s observer mission to the Western alliance in response to alleged malign Russian espionage activities in Europe, which have included killings, attempted assassinations and explosions, say European officials.

The diplomats have been told to leave Brussels by the end of this month. Two other Russian diplomatic slots currently vacant at NATO headquarters will not be allowed to be filled, NATO officials told VOA.

 

The stripping of the accreditations of the eight Russian diplomats, first reported by Britain’s Sky News, was denounced swiftly by Russian lawmakers. The lawmakers said the Kremlin would retaliate, although not necessarily with a tit-for-tat round of expulsions of Western diplomats based in Moscow, setting the stage for a further deterioration of relations between Western countries and Russia, reminiscent of the Cold War.

A NATO official said Wednesday, “We have reduced the number of positions which the Russian Federation can accredit to NATO to 10,” down from 20 previously. The official described the diplomats targeted as “undeclared Russian intelligence officers.”

“We have strengthened our deterrence and defense in response to Russia’s aggressive actions, while at the same time we remain open for a meaningful dialogue,” he added.

NATO’s action Wednesday, came a day after Democratic and Republican senators in Washington urged US President Joe Biden to expel 300 Russian diplomats from the United States if Moscow refuses to issue more visas for Americans to represent the US in Russia. There are only about 100 American diplomats stationed in Russia, compared with 400 Russian diplomats based across the United States, the senators said.

“This disproportionality in diplomatic representation is unacceptable. Accordingly, Russia must issue enough visas to approach parity between the number of American diplomats serving in Russia and the number of Russian diplomats serving in the United States,” the senators wrote in a letter to Biden.

Troubled history

All 30 NATO member countries approved the decision to halve Russia’s observer mission, which was established two decades ago to help promote dialogue and cooperation in common security areas. The Russian diplomats based in Brussels are meant to meet with their Western counterparts in a forum known as the NATO-Russia Council, although there have been no formal proceedings for months.

This is not the first time NATO has expelled Russian diplomats based at the alliance’s headquarters. Seven Russian diplomats were expelled in 2018 after the poisoning in England of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer who defected to Britain, and his daughter. The Kremlin denied any involvement in the attempted assassination but Britain has identified Russian intelligence officers it says were behind the poisoning.

 

Last month, Britain’s Metropolitan Police charged a third suspect, Denis Sergeev, an officer for Russia’s military intelligence agency, GRU, over the poisoning.

In April, Czech officials said two of the Russian agents allegedly involved in the Skripal poisoning were behind a fatal blast at a Czech ammunition depot in 2014, which left two dead. Czech officials told local media that Russia orchestrated the blast to stop arms deliveries to Ukraine via Bulgaria. The Czech government subsequently expelled 18 Russian diplomats and the Kremlin responded by ordering 20 Czech diplomats to leave Russia.

The Czechs since then have been urging NATO to downsize the Russian mission in Brussels, a British official told VOA.

The NATO-Russia Council has hardly been operating in recent years, largely because of increasing disputes and rising tensions between Western powers and the Kremlin, fueled initially by Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and the support given to pro-Moscow separatists in the eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko,  accused NATO Thursday of being responsible for the deterioration of relations.

“The leaders of NATO yesterday spoke of the importance of de-escalating relations with Russia and spoke out in favor of a resumption in dialogue in the framework of the Russia-NATO Council,” he told Russia’s Kommersant daily newspaper.

“If anyone believed in the sincerity of those statements then today they don’t. Their real worth is clear to all. After the dramatic end of the Afghan era, how can they get by without the bogeyman of the ‘Russian threat.’ They can’t,” Grushko added.

Leonid Slutsky, a Russian lawmaker and chair of the Duma’s international affairs committee, told the Interfax news agency NATO’s move would damage dialogue between Moscow and the West and said he expected the Kremlin to respond with “asymmetric” measures. “The collective West is continuing its policy of diplomatic confrontation with Russia,” he said.

Some information from Reuters was used for this report

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Бойовики на Донбасі запустили через лінію розмежування свій безпілотник – штаб ООС

Ситуація в районі проведення операції Об’єднаних сил залишається контрольованою, запевняють військові

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ВАКС обиратиме запобіжний захід Труханову та його заступнику 8 жовтня

Раніше цього тижня Труханову та іншим особам оголосили підозри через присвоєння землі в Одесі

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ВООЗ рекомендувала до широкого застосування першу вакцину від малярії

Директор організації назвав цей крок «історичним» у боротьбі з хворобою, яка щороку призводить до смерті сотень тисяч людей

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Разумков: «Слуга народу» не має законних підстав для позбавлення мене мандата депутата

Разумков під час обрання на посаду голови Верховної Ради оголосив про вихід із фракції «Слуга народу». Його опоненти вважають це підставою для позбавлення також і повноважень депутата

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Разумков про свої президентські амбіції: Рада сьогодні прибрала запобіжник

«Раніше казали, що з голови Верховної Ради ніхто не ставав президентом. Цей запобіжник Верховна Рада сьогодні прибрала»

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Росія: закінчився термін давності у справі про вбивство Анни Політковської

Замовники злочину, імена яких слідство досі не назвало, офіційно уникнули відповідальності, зазначає видання «Новая газета», де працювала Політковська

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Рада 7 жовтня розгляне відкликання Разумкова з посади спікера

Депутатська фракція «Слуга народу» на виїзному засіданні фракції у Трускавці зібрала близько 180 підписів за ініціювання відкликання Дмитра Разумкова з посади голови Верховної Ради

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Pontiff Voices ‘Shame’ as French Inquiry Finds Massive Child Sex Abuse

Victims of sexual abuse by priests in France are calling for historic reform of the Catholic Church after an independent commission found that hundreds of thousands of children had suffered systematic abuse over the past seven decades. Henry Ridgwell reports.

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Швеція і Данія призупинять використання вакцини Moderna від COVID-19 для тих, кому менше від 20 років – Reuters

Євросоюз визнає чотири вакцини: AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna і Johnson & Johnson

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Місце перебування 2 службовців «Укрексімбанку» у справі про напад на журналістів «Схем» з’ясовують – ОГП

Слідчі та процесуальні дії у кримінальному провадженні тривають, додали у відомстві

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NATO Expels Eight Members of Russia’s Mission

NATO said Wednesday it expelled eight members of Russia’s mission to the military alliance for allegedly working in secret as intelligence officers. 

“We can confirm that we have withdrawn the accreditation of eight members of the Russian Mission to NATO, who were undeclared Russian intelligence officers,” an unnamed NATO official said.

NATO also said it would cut the number of positions that Russia could accredit to NATO from 20 to 10 at the end of October. The alliance did not immediately explain why the decision was made. 

The official said, “NATO’s policy towards Russia remains consistent. We have strengthened our deterrence and defense in response to Russia’s aggressive actions, while at the same time we remain open for a meaningful dialogue.” 

Senior Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian lower house of parliament’s international affairs committee, said Moscow would retaliate but did not provide specifics, according to Interfax. 

NATO-Russian relations have steadily deteriorated since Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. NATO and Russia also disagree over issues such as Russia’s nuclear missile development and aerial intrusions into NATO airspace. 

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. 

 

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