Bosnia Climbs Up EU Agenda as Serb Secession Talk Stokes Worry
Bosnia-Herzegovina was added to the agenda at a European Union summit as alarm among leaders mounted that a potential disintegration of the war-scarred Balkan nation could unleash turmoil in southeastern Europe.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said he would raise Bosnia as its Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, threatens to secede — placing the issue alongside assistance to Ukraine, grappling with US President Donald Trump and upgrading the bloc's economy as leaders met in Brussels Thursday.
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US opposes lowering G7 cap on Russian oil, Bloomberg reports
The United States is opposing a proposal by other Group of Seven nations to lower the price cap on Russian oil, Bloomberg reported on June 13. Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg said the U.S. remains opposed to reducing the cap from $60 to $45 per barrel – a position it first took earlier this year when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to support a similar effort. The price cap, introduced in December 2022 as a measure to limit the Kremlin's ability to finance its war against Ukraine, prohibits Western companies from shipping, insuring, or otherwise servicing Russian oil sold above $60 per barrel. Despite U.S. resistance, the European Union and United Kingdom – backed by other European G7 countries and Canada – have said they are prepared to move forward with the proposal, even without Washington's endorsement. One source told Bloomberg that the EU and U.K. could explore lowering the cap without the U.S., as most of Russia's oil is transported in European waters. However, a unified G7 agreement would carry greater impact if it could be enforced by the U.S. The price cap debate has become more urgent as oil prices, which had fallen below the $60 cap in recent months, surged following Israel's strikes against Iran in the past 24 hours. G7 leaders will revisit the price cap discussion during the upcoming summit, hosted by Canada from June 15-17 in Kananaskis County, Alberta. The summit agenda will also include topics such as support for Ukraine in the Russian war, global economic stability, digital transformation, and climate change. The G7 currently includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The European Union is also represented in the group. Read also: Israel-Iran war could provide economic boost Russia needs to continue fight against Ukraine We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
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Canada to join major European rearmament deal as early as June 23: sources
Prime Minister Mark Carney plans on joining a sweeping European plan in Belgium this month to rearm the continent and provide more military aid to Ukraine, CBC News has learned. Last month, Carney signalled to CBC's Power & Politics that he hopes to sign on to the new defence initiative by Canada Day as he tries to move away from relying on the United States for weapons and munitions. Now sources with knowledge of the matter say Carney is expected to join the rearmament deal as early as June 23, when he meets with European leaders in Brussels at the EU-Canada summit. Carney hinted on Monday this summit will "be more important than ever." "Canada will arrive at this summit with a plan to lead, with new investments to build our strength in service of our values," Carney said. WATCH | Why ReArm Europe would want Canada: The prime minister has said he's been in talks with European countries for months about closer defence co-operation. Carney wants to build up Canada's defence capabilities and expand its military suppliers beyond the U.S. as President Donald Trump wages a trade war on Canada and most of the world. "Over 75 cents on every dollar of capital spending for defence goes to the United States. That's not smart," Carney told Power & Politics host David Cochrane on May 27. Carney said it would be better to "spend more at home" with "diversified partnerships." CBC News is not naming the sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deal. European Union President Ursula von der Leyen first proposed the plan called ReArm Europe in March to bolster the continent's military capabilities during global threats, Russia's ongoing invasion in Ukraine and uncertainty with the United States. The plan, renamed Readiness 2030, includes boosting European defence spending by up to 800 billion euros, including a 150-billion euro loan program to pay for more military technology and weapons. It's unclear how much money Canada would contribute. CBC News asked the Prime Minister's Office for details about the spending commitment and has yet to receive a response. Carney announced more than $9 billion in new military spending this fiscal year on Monday — and said Canada must further increase defence spending in the years to come. Once Canada joins the European deal, the government will have to decide what initiative it wants to launch and which countries it will partner with. The list of potential projects includes air and missile defence, drones and anti-drone systems, artificial intelligence and electronic warfare. "The first step is joining the club. The next step is deciding what projects you want to work on with other club members," said Dave Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Ahead of the EU-Canada summit, Carney is also expected to announce more support for Ukraine. As part of Carney's promise to increase defence spending this year, supplementary estimates this week show the government has earmarked $2 billion for military aid to Ukraine and to expand defence partnerships. A source told CBC News the government is expected to reveal how much of that money will go toward Ukraine at the G7 meeting in in Kananaskis, Alta., next week. Carney is hosting this year's summit and invited Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who hopes to urge Trump to move forward with a stronger sanctions package on Russia. WATCH | Carney says Three years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it continues to push forward in the Donbas region where Ukrainians are progressively losing "more and more" territory, Perry said. Ukraine needs armoured vehicles, artillery systems, ground-based air defence systems and munitions, he said. "They need help repairing all of the critical infrastructure the Russians are going after," he said. "They need the funding to basically keep the government of Ukraine solvent … they need a whole range of things."
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Deadly school shooting fuels debate on Austria's gun laws
With Austria still reeling from this week's deadly school shooting that killed 10 people, a debate is now raging over the Alpine country's gun laws. The unprecedented case of deadly gun violence stunned the country of almost 9.2 million people, which ranks among the 10 safest in the world, according to the Global Peace Index. While politicians have called for tighter restrictions on private gun ownership in the wake of the shooting in Graz, interest in firearms and demand for weapons training courses has surged. "You can't imagine how many people have signed up for shooting courses" since Tuesday's attack, Viennese gun dealer Markus Schwaiger, who also offers training courses at shooting ranges, told AFP. "People are worried that gun laws are about to get tightened" in the coming months, he added. Austria has a relatively high number of weapons in circulation, with more than 1.5 million registered to about 370,000 owners. - 'Strong gun culture' - According to industry expert Aaron Karp, Austria has a "strong gun culture" centred around "hunting and sports shooting, especially in the countryside", which is rich with game. The Alpine nation is also one of the European countries with the largest number of small arms in circulation per capita, said Karp, one of the authors of the Small Arms Survey, which compiles data on gun ownership. Famous for the Glock pistol, invented by Austrian engineer Gaston Glock, gun ownership is deeply rooted in the country -- and has been on a steady rise in recent decades: only about 900,000 weapons were registered in Austria in 2015, according to official figures. For Schwaiger, "rising populism" has also played its part, with right-wing politicians tapping into people's anxieties over crises, arguing that the world has become a more dangerous place. "For twenty years, right-wing populism has been scaring people" and "every crisis causes sales to skyrocket," he told AFP. The shooting at a secondary school in the southern city of Graz by a 21-year-old former pupil was the deadliest postwar mass shooting in Austria. But a study published online in 2020 in the European Psychiatry journal suggests that the number of violent deaths in Austria has been increasing in lockstep with the number of weapons. In order to join the European Union in 1995, Austria had to regulate the sale of firearms, which temporarily led to a drop in violent deaths -- until the financial crisis of 2008 hit. According to the study, the positive effect of the reform has been "offset by the global economic slowdown", which increased anxiety among the public and thus the tendency to purchase weapons. "After such an act of madness... there must be consequences and changes," Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said on Friday. Under the current legislation, anyone without a criminal record and over the age of 21 can buy handguns after undergoing an assessment and registering their weapon. - 'Unfit' - "The standards for psychological testing" to grant gun licences in Austria are "very good", said Karp, but proper implementation appears to be the bottleneck. The gunman, who killed nine pupils and a teacher in Graz, was rejected from Austria's mandatory military service after failing the psychological tests and being deemed "unfit". He was nonetheless able to receive a gun licence and purchase the shotgun and pistol that he used in the attack. "He obviously found a gun dealer and a psychologist who didn't look too closely," Schwaiger lamented. "There is still too much leeway." Such shortcomings have been dominating and fuelling the most recent debate on Austria's gun laws, with the opposition Green Party tabling a bill to tighten legislation in May. Austrian authorities have said they plan to consult other European countries like France, Sweden and the Czech Republic, which have experienced mass shootings in the past. "But there are cultural differences and each country must chart its own course," Karp said. bg/kym/bc
