Month: October 2022

In marking World Polio Day, advocates for a polio-free world are urging nations to commit to a new five-year strategy to eradicate this crippling disease and consign it to the trash bin of history. An estimated 350,000 children were paralyzed by polio when the World Health Organization launched its Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. In the world today, polio is endemic only in Pakistan, and Afghanistan. So far this year, 29 cases have been recorded, putting the possibility of a polio-free world within reach. The WHO notes the final stretch is the most difficult and cautions nations against letting …

READ MORE

Tensions between Turkey and Greece are escalating over a number of territorial disputes. Analysts say the countries have a long history of managing such tensions. They say that expertise will be tested with the approaching Greek and Turkish elections, where both leaders are expected to play to nationalist sentiments. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

READ MORE

The European Union is aiming to clinch deals on three new laws to fight climate change in time for the annual United Nations climate negotiations next month, in a bid to boost its political clout at the talks. Nearly 200 countries agreed at last year’s U.N. COP26 negotiations to upgrade their climate pledges by this year’s summit, to bridge the gap between their current plans and the far faster reduction in greenhouse gas emissions needed to avert disastrous climate change. But two weeks away from the COP27 summit in Egypt, only around two dozen countries have done so. The 27-country …

READ MORE

Rishi Sunak ran for Britain’s top job and lost. Now he has another shot — and the chance to say “I told you so.” The former U.K. Treasury chief was runner-up to Liz Truss in the contest to replace the scandal-plagued Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and prime minister. But Truss quit after a turbulent 45-day term, and Johnson has abandoned a comeback attempt, leaving Sunak a strong favorite to finally assume the office he missed out on less than two months ago. Victory in the Conservative leadership contest would be vindication for Sunak, who warned in the last …

READ MORE

Ukraine rejected Russian allegations that Ukrainian forces might detonate a radioactive device, and accused Russia of planning to carry out such an act and blame it on Ukraine. “Russian lies about Ukraine allegedly planning to us a ‘dirty bomb’ are as absurd as they are dangerous,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during his nightly address Sunday that Russia was the only one in the region capable of using nuclear weapons. “If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this,” Zelenskyy said. “I …

READ MORE

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made veiled comparisons Sunday between the Soviet troops that attacked Hungary during the 1956 revolution and the institutions of the European Union today. Marking the 66th anniversary of that crushed uprising, Orban suggested that the EU, which has sought to rein in democratic backsliding in Hungary, would end up like the Soviet Union, which dissolved more than three decades ago. “Let’s not bother with those who shoot at Hungary from the shadows or from the heights of Brussels. They will end up where their predecessors did,” Orban said in a speech to a select group …

READ MORE

A right-wing politician and a centrist independent candidate will face each other in a runoff presidential election in Slovenia after no candidate achieved an outright victory in the first round of voting Sunday, partial results showed. Former Foreign Minister Anze Logar was leading the race with 34% of the vote, followed by lawyer Natasa Pirc Musar with nearly 27%, state election authorities said after counting 85% of the ballots. Trailing third was Social Democrat Milan Brglez, the candidate of the ruling liberal government, who garnered some 15% of the vote, according to the official tally. Since none of the seven …

READ MORE

Former British Treasury chief Rishi Sunak was frontrunner Sunday in the Conservative Party’s race to replace Liz Truss as prime minister, as he garnered the public support of over 100 Tory lawmakers to forge ahead of his two main rivals — ousted former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ex-Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt. But widespread uncertainty remained after British media reported that Sunak had held late-night talks with Johnson Saturday, and speculation mounted that the pair could strike a deal to unite the fractured governing party after it was left reeling from Truss’ rapid downfall. The Conservative Party hastily ordered a …

READ MORE