Month: June 2021

Rafael Nadal Pulls Out of Wimbledon, Tokyo Olympics

Spain’s Rafael Nadal will not play at Wimbledon or at the Tokyo Olympics, saying Thursday he has decided to skip the two tournaments after “listening” to his body.Nadal, who reached the French Open semifinals this month but lost to Novak Djokovic, won the title at Wimbledon twice. He also won the Olympic gold medal in singles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.”The goal is to prolong my career and continue to do what makes me happy, that is to compete at the highest level and keep fighting for those professional and personal goals at the maximum level of competition,” Nadal said.He …

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UK, US Strike Deal Over Airbus-Boeing Dispute

Britain on Thursday said it had agreed on a truce with the United States over a 17-year long tariffs dispute involving European planemaker Airbus and US rival Boeing.   It comes in the wake of a similar deal between the European Union and U.S. announced Tuesday.   The dispute, the longest-running in the history of the World Trade Organization, has seen damaging retaliatory tariffs levied on products on both sides of the Atlantic owing to disagreements over support for large civilian aircraft, the U.K. government explained in a statement Thursday.   But both sides have finally agreed “to suspend retaliatory …

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France Arrests ‘High-Ranking’ Islamic State Fighter in Mali

French forces in Mali have captured a man they describe as a “high-ranking fighter of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” (EIGS), the French military said Wednesday.  Dadi Ould Chouaib, also known as Abou Dardar, was arrested June 11 in the flashpoint “tri-border” region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, the site of frequent attacks by extremist groups, the military said in a statement. He was carrying “an automatic weapon, a night vision telescope, a combat vest, a telephone and a radio,” but surrendered without resistance. He was located during a helicopter sweep as part of a joint mission between troops …

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Biden Strikes Realistic Tone After Meeting With Putin

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have ended their summit in Geneva, with Biden describing it as “good” and “positive.”     But he further described the summit in a realistic tone, saying the next several months would serve as a “test” of whether relations between the two countries can improve.   “I am not sitting here saying because the president and I agreed that we would do these things that all of a sudden it’s going to work,” Biden said during the press conference after his more than three-hour meeting with Putin. “I’m not saying that. …

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Putin: Jailed Opposition Leader Navalny Got What He Deserved

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny got what he deserved when he was sentenced to prison. Putin, speaking at a news conference in Geneva after his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, said, without mentioning Navalny’s name, “He deliberately moved [back to Russia] to be arrested.” Navalny, Putin’s most prominent political foe, was arrested in January when he returned from Germany, where he had been treated at a Berlin hospital for five months while recovering from a poisoning. Navalny contends Russian agents applied the nerve agent Novichok to his underwear in August, a claim Moscow has …

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Putin Characterizes Summit with Biden as ‘Constructive’

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have ended their summit in Geneva, chosen as a location for the talks for its history of political neutrality.      In a press conference after the summit, Putin, speaking through an interpreter, described the meeting as “constructive” and said there were “no hostilities,” calling the U.S. leader a “constructive person, well balanced and experienced, a seasoned politician.” Putin said that in a bid to lower tensions, he and Biden agreed to return their ambassadors to their posts. U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan and Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov returned home earlier this year amid worsening U.S.-Russia relations. Both of them participated in the P+5 part …

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Spain’s Leaders to Pardon Catalan Separatists, Despite Protests

“There is no king in Catalonia!” cried the protesters as they burned pictures of King Felipe VI.   As the monarch visited Barcelona Wednesday, the strength of feeling was apparent among separatists who want to rid the turbulent region of any trace of Spain.   Despite the bitter divisions in Catalonia over the issue of independence, Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is about to take what analysts say is an audacious gamble which he hopes will diffuse tensions that have divided the country for years.   By early July, Spain’s leftist government is expected to order the partial pardon …

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Biden, Putin Begin Highly-anticipated Summit

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have begun their highly anticipated summit in Geneva, the Swiss capital chosen as a location for the summit for its history of political neutrality.   The leaders thanked each other during the brief, and chaotic press opportunity at the beginning of their meeting where American and Russian media jostled each other. “Mr. President, I’d like to thank you for your initiative to meet today. I know that you’ve been on a long journey,” said Putin via an interpreter. “The U.S. and Russian relations have a lot of issues accumulated that require the highest-level meeting. And I …

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UN Calls for Better Remittance Services at Lower Cost

The United Nations is urging reforms that make it easier for migrants to send money back to their home countries, as it observes its annual International Day of Family Remittances.   “Migrants have shown their continued commitment to their families and communities during the pandemic with more remittances transfers made digitally than ever before,” Gilbert Houngbo, president of the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, said in a statement.  “Unfortunately, families in rural and remote areas — where remittances are a true lifeline — battle to access cash outlets or even more convenient alternatives such as mobile money accounts. Governments …

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