Month: April 2023

NATO allies Greece and Turkey came to the brink of war just a few years ago over competing energy rights in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean seas. Now, as both sides near key national elections, the government in Athens is extending an olive branch, saying it is open to Turkey joining in on lucrative energy projects. In a television interview with Greece’s national broadcaster, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said it was imperative for Athens and Ankara to capitalize on their thawed relations. After national elections are held in both countries next month, both sides can sit down and talk seriously. …

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China won’t sell weapons to either side in the war in Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister said Friday, responding to Western concerns that Beijing could provide military assistance to Russia. China has maintained that it is neutral in the conflict, while backing Russia politically, rhetorically and economically at a time when Western nations have imposed punishing sanctions and sought to isolate Moscow for its invasion of its neighbor. Qin Gang is the highest-level Chinese official to make such an explicit statement about arms sales to Russia. He added that China would also regulate the export of items with dual civilian …

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French President Emmanuel Macron has stunned allies by saying that Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, a position experts say is calibrated to persuade China to mediate the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. At a news conference during a state visit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Macron emphasized that France’s position on Taiwan has not changed, and Paris favors the status quo for the island. “It’s the One China policy and a Pacific resolution of the situation. That’s what I said in my one-to-one …

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Russia on Thursday said there would be no extension of the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal beyond May 18 unless the West removed a series of obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizer. The Ukraine grain Black Sea export deal was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July last year to help alleviate a global food crisis worsened by conflict disrupting exports from two of the world’s leading grain suppliers. “Without progress on solving five systemic problems … there is no need to talk about the further extension of the Black Sea initiative after May 18,” …

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A Moscow court on Thursday again fined Wikipedia for a Russian-language article it refused to remove about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the latest in a series of government moves to silence objective reporting or criticism of the war and restrict the Russian public’s access to information.  The court fined Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs the free, publicly edited online encyclopedia, 2 million rubles ($24,464) for not removing a Wikipedia article titled “Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia region,” a reference to one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russia annexed last September. Most countries have condemned the annexation, as well as …

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Continuing his three-day visit to the Republic of Ireland, President Joe Biden on Thursday spoke to the Houses of the Oireachtas in Dublin, becoming the fourth American leader after John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to address a joint sitting of the Irish parliament. Biden reminisced about his Irish heritage and focused on the enduring strength of the bond with Ireland that began with the very founding of the United States. “The Irish hearts that helped kindle the torch of liberty in my country and fire its revolutionary spirit,” he said. “The Irish blood from across this island …

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The Berlin Zoo celebrated the 66th birthday of Fatou, the world’s oldest-known living gorilla, with a special dinner that included fruit, vegetables and a watermelon with her age carved into it. Fatou, a Western lowland gorilla, enjoyed her birthday meal Thursday as zoo visitors snapped pictures. Her keeper, Ruben Gralki, said her species would live 45 to 50 years in nature. While zoo animals tend to live longer, he said that reaching an age beyond 60 years is a special feat. The zoo said in a press release that Fatou’s exact age is not known. She came to the zoo …

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