Month: September 2022

Liz Truss is set to become Britain’s new prime minister Tuesday, replacing Boris Johnson at a time of economic upheaval and escalating energy bills.  Johnson is expected to formally tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II at her Balmoral estate in Scotland, after which the queen is expected to appoint Truss as prime minister.  The 47-year-old Truss will become the third woman to lead the country and Britain’s fourth prime minister in six years.  She prevailed in an intraparty vote, defeating former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.  After her victory was announced, Truss told a party gathering, “I campaigned …

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Frances Tiafoe ended Rafael Nadal’s 22-match winning streak at Grand Slam tournaments by beating the 22-time major champion 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the U.S. Open’s fourth round Monday. Tiafoe is a 24-year-old from Maryland who is seeded 22nd at Flushing Meadows and reached the second major quarterfinal of his career. He is the youngest American man to get that far at the U.S. Open since Andy Roddick in 2006, but this was not a case of a one-sided crowd backing one of its own. Nadal is about as popular as can be in tennis and heard plenty of support …

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Eight suspects went on trial Monday over the harrowing July 2016 attack in the Mediterranean city of Nice, where an Islamist extremist killed 86 people by driving a truck into thousands of locals and tourists celebrating France’s national day. The attacker, a 31-year-old Tunisian named Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, was shot and killed by police after a four-minute rampage down the seaside embankment of the Promenade des Anglais. The seven men and one woman standing trial in Paris are accused of crimes ranging from being aware of his intentions to providing logistical support and supplying weapons. Only one suspect, Ramzi Kevin Arefa, …

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A former journalist was convicted of treason and handed a 22-year prison sentence on Monday after a trial that has been widely seen as politically motivated and marked a new step in a sweeping crackdown on the media and Kremlin critics. The sentence handed to Ivan Safronov, who worked as a military affairs reporter for leading business daily Kommersant before becoming an adviser to the head of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos, has been harshly criticized by his colleagues as utterly unfounded. A few friends and co-workers of Safronov who attended Monday’s hearing at the Moscow City Court chanted “Freedom!” …

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Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya plans to attend United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings in person for the first time since the disputed Belarusian presidential election in August 2020, according to diplomatic sources close to her. The sources say Tsikhanouskaya and her delegation will address ongoing political repression by Belarusian authorities under the rule of President Alexander Lukashenko and call for the immediate release of all political prisoners. They say Lukashenko’s facilitation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would also be discussed during Tsikhanouskaya’s participation in UNGA events from September 18-22. The Belarusian opposition leader spoke to a virtual informal …

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Britain’s Conservative Party announced Monday that Foreign Secretary Liz Truss emerged from the party’s voting as the leader of the Conservative Party and the new prime minister. Truss and former Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak had been vying for the top spot in the party. When she takes office, Truss will be facing fallout from Britain’s recession and escalating energy bills. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in July he was stepping down after his government was awash in scandals, such as violating some of his own government’s COVID-19 lockdown rules. On Tuesday, Truss will travel to Scotland, where Queen Elizabeth will …

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Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Sunday was on the campaign trail a week before Sweden’s national election to tackle fears over gang violence and rising electricity bills. Andersson traveled by bus to communities near Stockholm to try to reassure voters. The election on Sept. 11 comes amid a sense of rising insecurity, with a spate of shootings in Sweden making crime a key campaign issue. Russia’s war against Ukraine led Sweden, along with Finland, to take the historic step of applying to join NATO. That step has reassured many and is so uncontested it hasn’t been an issue in the …

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Liz Truss, who is widely expected to become Britain’s new prime minister this week, has pledged to act within a week to tackle a cost-of-living crisis fueled by soaring energy bills linked to the war in Ukraine. But Truss, speaking to the BBC Sunday, refused to provide any details on the actions she would take, suggesting it would be wrong to discuss specific policies until she takes the top post. She stressed, however, that she understands the magnitude of the problems facing Britain. The government has been unable to address soaring inflation, labor strife and strains on the nation’s creaking …

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning European countries to expect a difficult winter as Russia cuts its oil and natural gas exports to retaliate for their support of the Kyiv government in its fight against Russia’s invasion.  “Russia is preparing a decisive energy blow on all Europeans for this winter,” he said in his Saturday night video address after Moscow earlier in the day shut down a main gas pipeline to the continent.   Moscow has blamed technical issues, along with economic sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies against Russia, for the energy disruptions. European countries that have …

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