Bulgarian nationalists protest government plans to adopt euro currency
SOFIA, Bulgaria, June 1, (AP): Thousands of flag-waving Bulgarians took to the streets of the capital, Sofia, and other major cities on Saturday to protest government plans to adopt the euro and to demand a referendum on the new currency. The protesters, led by civic groups and nationalist parties, sang patriotic songs and shouted slogans like "Freedom for the Bulgarian lev' and "The future belongs to sovereign states.'
The anti-euro rally came four days before the Balkan country is expected to receive green light from Brussels to enter the eurozone. The demonstrators in Sofia carried flags of the pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party and a huge banner that read "The battle for the Bulgarian lev is the last battle for Bulgaria.' An increased police presence kept the protest peaceful.
Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 and remains of its poorest members, plagued by years of instability that has fueled euroscepticism among its 6.4 million citizens. Disinformation campaigns from home and abroad have added fears of economic changes that could bring more poverty. President Rumen Radev encouraged the anti-euro voices by proposing earlier this month a referendum on the currency, citing public concerns over inflation and purchasing power. The proposal was turned down by the pro-European majority in parliament, which accused Radev of acting in favor of Moscow with his last-minute attempt to sabotage the euro adoption, aimed at deepening European integration amid growing geopolitical tensions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
an hour ago
- Kuwait Times
‘My duty': Ukraine women reporting from the war front
KRAMATORSK: When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Olha Kyrylenko was at home watching images from her colleagues risking their lives to cover the siege of the port city of Mariupol. 'I asked myself whether I could work in such conditions at all,' said Kyrylenko, now a 26-year-old reporter for the leading media outlet Ukrainska Pravda. 'And I was like, well, I have to at least try,' she told AFP during a rare break in war-torn eastern Ukraine. She went to cover the front lines for the first time shortly after Russia invaded, and noticed that she was far from the only woman. 'All my friends, journalists working in the war, are women,' Kyrylenko said. While women journalists had already been covering fighting between Ukraine and Kremlin-backed separatists since 2014, a new generation emerged in 2022. 'Truth of this war' Mobilization in Ukraine's army is obligatory only for men, but the country has seen more and more women joining its ranks. Two Ukrainska Pravda journalists have been drafted into the army, including the photographer Kyrylenko worked with on her first reporting trip to the front in 2022. Since then, she has been working on her own. That was also the case for Viktoria Roshchyna, whose death in Russian detention last year highlighted the risks taken by Ukrainian journalists covering the war. The 27-year-old went missing in 2023 during a high-risk trip to territory occupied by Russian forces. Her body was sent back only in February and bearing signs of torture, according to a media investigation. Kyrylenko worked with Roshchyna and remembers her as 'tenacious' and ready to work where no one else would. But Kyrylenko said her death had forced her to think hard about whether journalism 'is worth risking your life'. In April, Kyrylenko was reporting in Pokrovsk, a vital front-line logistics hub where fighting is fierce, on her mother's birthday. She promised her mother that nothing would happen to her. But, she said, 'my life right now is not the highest value in my life'. The main thing is 'that my country as a country should survive and that the truth about this war, whatever it is, should be present in the information space'. 'A woman in this war' Keeping a professional distance as a Ukrainian journalist covering the war can be difficult. Alina Yevych, a 25-year-old reporter, said she had managed—for a while. Then she met a woman who said she had been kidnapped and raped for a week by Russian soldiers in Mariupol. After hearing her words, 'I don't know how to be objective', said Yevych, who works along with her boss Maria Davydenko for Vchasno, an independent news outlet. Yevych said soldiers they interview sometimes found it hard to believe that women could understand how tanks work or listen to their stories without flinching. Mentalities are changing, Yevych said, but 'for some people, you really remain a girl in this war'. 'Play Rambo' Vyacheslav Maryshev, editor in chief of the visuals department at Suspilne, a state-funded news organization, in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, said his female employees tended to take less unnecessary risks. The men sometimes want to act like 'Rambo' to prove their bravery, he said, but in his team of war reporters there are more women than men. One of them, Oleksandra Novosel, said she had just convinced her bosses to invest in bulletproof jackets more suited to women's body shapes. At the start of the invasion, one of the vests available at Suspilne weighed 12 kilograms - around a quarter of her weight. 'I walked around in it and wobbled,' Novosel recalled. The 30-year-old said she would prefer not to need a bulletproof vest, and had not imagined working in a war zone until her country became one. She would rather be covering courts or investigating corruption, she said, but for the moment, reporting on the war is 'my duty'. — AFP
Arab Times
10 hours ago
- Arab Times
After talks with Zelenskyy and Macron, US senators warn: Putin 'is preparing for more war'
PARIS, June 2, (AP): Russian President Vladimir Putin is stalling at the peace table while preparing a new military offensive in Ukraine, two senior U.S. senators warned Sunday, arguing that the next two weeks could shape the future of a war that has already smashed cities, displaced millions and redrawn Europe's security map. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen Richard Blumenthal spoke to The Associated Press in Paris after meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and touring neighborhoods shattered by what they called the worst Russian bombardments since the full-scale invasion began. In Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron - who they say is "100% aligned' with them on the war - the senators warned the window to prevent a renewed assault is closing. A sweeping US sanctions bill could be the West's last chance to choke off the Kremlin's war economy, they said - adding that they hope their firsthand findings will shift momentum in Washington and help bring a skeptical President Donald Trump on board. "What I learned on this trip was he's preparing for more war,' Graham said of Putin. Blumenthal called the sanctions proposed in legislation "bone-crushing' and said it would place Russia's economy "on a trade island.' "It is crunch time for Putin and for the world because Russia is mounting a new offensive,' he said. At the heart of their push is a bipartisan sanctions bill, backed by nearly the entire US Senate but still facing uncertain odds in Washington. It would impose 500% tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports - targeting nations like China and India that account for roughly 70% of Russia's energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort. Graham called it "the most draconian bill I've ever seen in my life in the Senate." "The world has a lot of cards to play against Putin,' he said. "We're going to hit China and India for propping up his war machine.' With peace talks yielding little and Trump's approach to Ukraine highly uncertain, Graham and Blumenthal have stepped into the breach - blunt emissaries on a lonely mission. Political opposites moving in lockstep, they're crossing Europe, and the aisle, with the moral urgency of two men trying to forestall another Russian offensive before it's too late. Peace talks are scheduled to resume Monday in Istanbul. But Ukrainian officials say Moscow has yet to submit a serious proposal - a delay both senators described as deliberate and dangerous.
Kuwait Times
15 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
2 bridges in Russia collapse in 'blasts'
MOSCOW: The overnight collapse of two bridges in Russian regions bordering Ukraine that killed seven people were caused by explosions, Russian officials said Sunday, treating them as "acts of terrorism". In Russia's Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, a blast caused a road bridge to collapse onto a railway line late Saturday, derailing a passenger train heading to Moscow and killing seven people, authorities said. A separate rail bridge in the neighboring Kursk region was blown up hours later in the early hours of Sunday, derailing a freight train and injuring the driver. Authorities did not say who was behind the explosions, but investigators said a criminal inquiry was underway. Russian President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the incidents throughout the night, the Kremlin said. Videos posted on social media from the Bryansk region showed rescuers clambering over the mangled chassis of a train belonging to national operator Russian Railways, while screams could be heard in another video. "There are seven dead as a result of the collapse of a bridge onto railway tracks," Alexander Bogomaz, the Bryansk region's governor, wrote on Telegram. At least 71 people were injured, 44 of whom were in hospital, he told reporters. In the incident in the Kursk region, a rail bridge collapsed onto a road, derailing a freight train. "Last night... in the Zheleznogorsk district, a bridge collapsed while a freight locomotive was passing. Part of the train fell onto the road below the bridge," Kursk region governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram. "One of the locomotive drivers suffered leg injuries, and the entire crew was taken to hospital," he said. 'Illegal interference' There was no immediate comment from Russian investigators as to who was behind the blasts. A spokeswoman for Russia's Investigative Committee said the incidents had been "classified as acts of terrorism", without elaborating. But senior ruling party lawmaker Andrey Klishas blamed Ukraine, describing it as a "terrorist enclave". Ukraine, which Russia has blamed for previous incidents, did not immediately comment. Russia has been hit by dozens of sabotage attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale military assault on its neighbor in 2022, many targeting its vast railroad network. Kyiv says Russia uses railroads to transport troops and weaponry to its forces fighting in Ukraine. An AFP reporter saw relatives waiting for loved-ones to arrive from the Bryansk region at a station in central Moscow. "Russian Railways said that those who had survived would be coming here," said 30-year-old entrepreneur Sergey Trinkinets. "My dad finally got in touch. He said he had some bruises and wasn't feeling very well, so I came to meet him," he told reporters. In one video posted on social media, purportedly taken at the scene of the incident in the Bryansk region, someone could be heard screaming as eyewitnesses rushed to find help. "How did the bridge collapse? There are children there!" a woman can be heard shouting in the video. Russia's emergency ministry said a team was on site in the Bryansk region, while Russian Railways said it had dispatched repair trains to the scene. The incidents came on the eve of a possible meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul, amid a US-led diplomatic push to end the three-year-long conflict. Moscow's three-year assault on Ukraine has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. Russia currently occupies around a fifth of its neighbor. - AFP
