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Ireland, Spain, Malta and Slovenia standing ready to recognize the Palestine state has given Palestinians “hope,” its ambassador has said. Earlier, in a joint-statement, the four countries’ prime ministers said they were ready to recognize the Palestine state when the “circumstances are right”. The Palestinian ambassador to Ireland, Dr. Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, welcomed the statement, describing it as “promising news”. She said it might only be a few EU countries, but that Ireland is “leading” the way and she expressed thanks for “all the Irish efforts”. …

On this date in 1943, Slovenian student Lojze Grozde was executed by communist partisans. An ardent young Catholic, the 19-year-old Grozde was on his way from boarding school in Ljubljana in Italian-occupied Slovenia* to visit some relatives when he was stopped at a roadblock. Partisans who found the devotional book The Imitation of Christ on his person were a mite hostile, since the Holy See was not exactly at loggerheads with fascism. All of Yugoslavia had become one gigantic dirty war, and though individual Catholics might fall anywhere on the political spectrum, the institutional church did not shy from working...

The government revoked a decree that served as the legal basis for the commemoration just hours before Slovenia was due to mark National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Communist Violence on Wednesday, triggering sharp criticism from the right and talk of a ‘new civil war’. In a brief statement after a correspondence session, the Robert Golob government said that the memorial day had been declared without a “public and expert debate”. The national memorial day was declared by the Janez Janša government by decree on 12 May 2022, just days before its term ended, with the reasoning being...

Despite costing €9 million, the campaign has been slammed by art critics and government officials.For many, Botticelli’s Venus embodies the Renaissance ideal of beauty, but have you ever wondered what that might look like today? Italy’s ministry of tourism has launched a campaign that reimagines the iconic figure as an influencer—and it has been swiftly ridiculed on social media. “Hi there, everybody. My name is Venus,” the ad’s digitally altered protagonist announced on her Instagram. “But that’s something you probably already know. I’m 30, ok maybe just a wee bit more than that… And I am a virtual influencer. What...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFriday, January 27, 2023 Members of Eastern European Organized Crime Group Allegedly Plotted to Murder a U.S. Citizen of Iranian Origin in New York City Who Has Publicly Opposed the Iranian GovernmentA federal court in New York today unsealed murder-for-hire and money laundering charges against three members of an Eastern European criminal organization for plotting the murder of a U.S. citizen who has been targeted by the Government of Iran for speaking out against the regime’s human rights abuses.According to court documents, Rafat Amirov, aka Farkhaddin Mirzoev, aka Pᴎᴍ, aka Rome, 43, of Iran; Polad Omarov, aka Araz...

A New York federal court on Friday unveiled an indictment charging three men on murder-for-hire and money laundering charges for plotting the assassination of a U.S. citizen targeted by the Iranian government. All three men, associated with an Eastern European criminal organization, are in custody and will stand trial in the U.S., Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed. The Department of Defense has not named the victim, though Fox News confirmed the individual is Masih Alinejad, who was the target of a 2021 kidnapping plot that was foiled by the FBI.

Vladimir Putin has approved a 31-page "humanitarian policy" which says Russia should "protect, safeguard and advance the traditions and ideals of the Russian World". The foreign policy concept of a "Russian World" is a notion that hardliners have used to justify intervening abroad to support Russian speakers, such as in parts of Ukraine. It means that the idea is now enshrined in official policy, though it was presented as a soft power strategy. The new policy stated that Moscow should further deepen its ties with the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic - two breakaway entities in...

NEW YORK (AP) — As winter nears, European nations, desperate to replace the natural gas they once bought from Russia, have embraced a short-term fix: A series of roughly 20 floating terminals that would receive liquefied natural gas from other countries and convert it into heating fuel. Yet the plan, with the first floating terminals set to deliver natural gas by year’s end, has raised alarms among scientists who fear the long-term consequences for the environment. Some scientists say they worry that the floating terminals will end up becoming a long-term supplier of Europe’s vast energy needs that could last...

The Eastern European country of Slovenia just legalized same-sex “marriage” and adoption privileges last Friday, following two cases in which litigants complained they could obtain neither. According to Jurist, the Slovenia Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities said the court was acting in response to the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. The Dobbs ruling laid out principles according to which the Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalizing same-sex “marriage” in the U.S. could also be overturned. The Constitutional Court of Slovenia voted 6-3 in the two cases it heard, striking down current laws that...

A top court in Slovenia ruled that bans on same-sex couples getting marrying and adopting children are unconstitutional in the small European country and ordered its parliament to amend the law within six months to guarantee they can. Constitutional Court judges ruled 6-3 on both issues Friday, saying that Slovenia's laws allowing only opposite-sex marriages and adoptions violated a constitutional prohibition against discrimination. Discrimination against same-sex couples “cannot be justified with the traditional meaning of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, nor with special protection of family,” according to the ruling carried by the Slovenian Press...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Western weaponry pouring into Ukraine helped blunt Russia’s initial offensive and seems certain to play a central role in the approaching, potentially decisive, battle for Ukraine’s contested Donbas region. Yet the Russian military is making little headway halting what has become a historic arms express. The U.S. numbers alone are mounting: more than 12,000 weapons designed to defeat armored vehicles, some 1,400 shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to shoot down aircraft and more than 50 million rounds of ammunition, among many other things. Dozens of other nations are adding to the totals. The Biden administration is preparing yet...

Together with Slovenia and the Czech Republic, Poland has prepared a list of actions the EU must enforce if it really wants to end the war. 1) Cut off all Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system. 2) Put in place a common asylum policy for Russian soldiers who refuse to serve the criminal regime in Moscow. 3) Completely stop Russian propaganda in Europe. Freedom of speech does not mean the right to lie. 4) Block Russian ships from our ports. 5) The same blockade must be put in place for road transport in and out of Russia. 6)...

The prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia are travelling to Kyiv by train, the first foreign leaders to visit the Ukrainian capital since Russia invaded its neighbour last month. “The aim of the visit is to express the European Union’s unequivocal support for Ukraine and its freedom and independence,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in a Twitter post. His Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, said on Facebook the trip was taking place on the 20th day of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “criminal aggression against Ukraine”. “At such breakthrough times for the world, it is our duty to...

That stark warning followed the release of a “draft treaty” proposal from Moscow that Russian officials portray as a resolution to the standoff, which has intensified as Russian forces amass near Ukraine's borders. Yet the Russian document demands not only that NATO promise never to admit Ukraine to the alliance, but it also goes so far as to demand the removal of U.S. and Western European forces from Central and Eastern Europe — a rollback that would amount to a practical breakup of NATO. “It’s not even valid to consider it,” a Baltic official told the Washington Examiner on condition...

Slovenia's regulation forbidding people without 'COVID certificates' from pumping fuel shows governments are getting increasingly creative in their coercion. It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s fake on the internet these days. So when I stumbled on a Twitter post that claimed automobile drivers in Slovenia were forbidden from pumping gas without a COVID certificate, I was skeptical. All the tweets I found were screenshots of a single story published by TV N1 Zagreb, a news partner of CNN. Attempts to find information of this alleged regulation on the Slovenian government’s website didn’t go well (I don’t read Slovenian!),...

Engineers have successfully transferred digitally encoded information wirelessly using nuclear radiation instead of conventional technology. Radio waves and mobile phone signals rely on electromagnetic radiation for communication but in a new development, engineers from Lancaster University in the UK, working with the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia, transferred digitally encoded information using “fast neutrons” instead. The researchers measured the spontaneous emission of fast neutrons from californium-252, a radioactive isotope produced in nuclear reactors. Modulated emissions were measured using a detector and recorded on a laptop. Several examples of information, i.e., a word, the alphabet, and a random number selected blindly,...

A river winds its way through Ljubljana and the surrounding villages. A river that hides Slovenia’s most threatened cultural heritage. Now thousand-year-old jewelry, swords, pitchers and boats are being laboriously hauled out of the river mud, restored and exhibited.An earring from the first century, a five-thousand-year-old wheel, a sword from Roman times. For thousands of years, different artifacts have mysteriously ended up in the Ljubljanica River...The green Ljubljanica River is a wonder of the world. But it is an endangered wonder; the riverbank is collapsing and cultural treasures are in danger of disappearing forever...The fragile wooden structure is barely visible...

France is leading a group of ten EU countries pushing for nuclear energy to be labeled “green” as the continent tries to end its dependence on fossil fuels without wrecking the economy. The group — which includes Poland, Hungary and Finland — argue that nuclear is “essential” to lowering energy costs and ending Europe’s reliance on foreign imports, while also cutting emissions without becoming overreliant on renewables. But they are being opposed by another group led by Germany, which gets around 75 percent of its energy from fossil fuels and stands to benefit from the new Nord Stream 2 gas...

Nations convinced to shun Durban Conference under Israeli diplomatic pressure, spearheaded by Lapid; FM says move demonstrates Israel's political power on the world stage Thirty-one nations have so far decided to boycott a UN meeting marking the 20th anniversary of the Durban World Conference on Racism later this week due to the event's anti-Semitic nature in the past, marking a major diplomatic win for Israel. The first conference was held in Durban, South Africa from August 31 through September 8, 2001, and covered several controversial issues, including redress for transatlantic slavery and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Most EU countries, including Hungary, have voiced solidarity with LGBTIQ protesters in Georgia after a violent mob halted their Pride march on Monday (4 July). “We condemn today’s violent attacks on the civic activists, community members, and journalists, as well as the failure of the government leaders and religious officials to condemn this violence,” the EU states’ embassies in Tbilisi said in a joint statement. “Participation in peaceful gatherings is a human right guaranteed by Georgia’s constitution. Violence is simply unacceptable and cannot be excused,” they also said. And they called on those who incited or carried out hate-crimes to...