Month: June 2018

The president of Portugal will be visiting the White House later this month to meet with President Donald Trump. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will visit on June 27. She says the visit will mark “the culmination of a month-long celebration of the Portuguese-American community” and celebrate the close bond between the countries. Sanders notes Portugal is an important NATO ally and partner in Afghanistan and says the meeting will focus on strengthening the countries’ cooperation in addressing global conflicts and promoting economic prosperity, among other topics. …

READ MORE

Back in 2010, President Vladimir Putin helped secure Russia’s bid for the World Cup with guarantees he would introduce the world to an open and welcoming Russia. This week, Putin said Russia had made good on its promises. “We’ve done everything to ensure our guests, sportsmen, experts, and, of course, fans feel at home in Russia,” said Putin in a video address released by the Kremlin.”We have opened our country and our hearts to the world.” With the final countdown to Thursday’s opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia underway, the stadiums appear ready, the fan zones (nearly) built, the …

READ MORE

Macedonia’s President Gjorge Ivanov says an agreement reached Tuesday with Greece to change his country’s name is detrimental for the Republic of Macedonia and that he would not sign it into law. In a televised national address, Ivanov said the agreement reached between Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras violates constitutional law. The deal called for Macedonia to be renamed as the Republic of North Macedonia. “The government did not have the strength and courage to initiate the building of a common stance and consensus,” he said. “The entire process lacked transparency and the end …

READ MORE

China and Russia see the now-concluded Singapore summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as vindicating their views on how the thorny issue of a nuclear armed North Korea could and should be approached. Security analysts, however, are less certain about the outcome of the summit, especially Trump’s announcement that he would halt “war games” on the peninsula.   Some argue the announcement is not only in line with Pyongyang’s interests but Beijing’s bigger strategic objectives as well.   Commenting on the summit, the Kremlin said the meeting had shown that President Vladimir Putin had …

READ MORE

Sotheby’s says it’s auctioning a set of natural pearls that once belonged to the famed — or infamous — French queen Marie Antoinette, and have not been seen in public for two centuries. The sale of “Royal Jewels from the Bourbon-Parma family” is set to take place in Geneva on Nov. 12.   Sotheby’s says Marie Antoinette, who was guillotined during the French Revolution, was often portrayed wearing pearls, which the auction house says were as prized as diamonds in the late 18th century.   Announcing the sale Wednesday, the auction house said the pearls have not been seen in public in …

READ MORE

The Turkish and Azerbaijani presidents on Tuesday inaugurated a key pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan’s gas fields to Turkish markets and eventually to Europe, part of a wider Southern Gas Corridor project that aims to diversify gas supplies and reduce countries’ dependence on Russia.   The Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, or TANAP, is also part of Turkey’s ambition of becoming a major energy hub.   “We are taking a historic step,” Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a ceremony in central Eskisehir province with Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev marking the delivery of the first gas. “We are inaugurating a …

READ MORE

Greece and Macedonia reached a historic settlement Tuesday to their long-simmering dispute over the name Macedonia — shared by the former Yugoslav republic and an ancient region of northern Greece. Under the deal between the two prime ministers, the country will now be called The Republic of North Macedonia. “Our investment in the compromise is a definition of a specified Macedonian name for our country, a dignified and geographically defined name,” Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the deal ends any claim he believes Macedonia may have had on Greek territory. “This achieves a clear distinction …

READ MORE

Frosty relations between the United States and its European allies should not be blamed on U.S. President Donald Trump — that’s according to a diplomat who represents one of the countries with whom Trump has been feuding. “The impression is that if we have a crisis in the transatlantic relationship, it’s because of one person  —the president,” French Ambassador to the U.S. Gerard Araud said Tuesday in Washington. “It’s something that I don’t believe to be true.” Instead, the French envoy believes the fraying ties are the result of an underlying fragility in the U.S.-European alliance and the lack of …

READ MORE

Another hearing was postponed on Tuesday in the Serbian trial dealing with the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims from Srebrenica, further delaying the landmark proceedings that opened over a year ago. The trial of eight former Bosnian Serb policemen charged with killing hundreds of Bosnian Muslim prisoners is seen as a test of Serbia’s resolve to help punish those responsible for Europe’s worst crime since World War II. The proceedings have been constantly delayed and were suspended for several months last year because the indictment was filed while Serbia did not have a chief war crimes prosecutor. Serbia’s war crimes …

READ MORE

Ireland will hold a referendum later this year to remove the offense of blasphemy from its constitution. Charlie Flanagan, minister for justice and equality announced Tuesday that the referendum will likely be held in October at the same time as the presidential election. The Irish constitution says, “The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious or indecent matter is an offense which shall be punishable in accordance with law.” The move is part of the government’s plan to overhaul the constitution of the most socially conservative country in Europe. It pairs with the referendum last month that overturned Ireland’s ban on …

READ MORE