Month: October 2023

Sweden moved one step closer to entering NATO Monday when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan submitted a bill to parliament seeking approval for the Nordic nation’s bid to join the military alliance. Thirty-one other NATO member nations have already ratified Sweden’s membership bid, leaving Turkey and Hungary as the final nations that have not yet done so. Erdogan had promised his NATO allies he would introduce a bill to ratify Sweden’s membership when parliament reopened on October 1 and the bill was finally submitted on Monday. Previously, Turkey had cited accusations of Sweden harboring terrorists as a reason for the …

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Malawi has made its first successful large-scale harvest of wheat after years of attempts to find a variety of grain suitable for its soil. Wheat farming is seen as a solution to mitigate the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on grain imports to the African continent. Ronald Ngwira, chief executive officer of Malawi-registered U.S. company Pyxus Agriculture Limited, which operates a farm in central Malawi for the diversification of wheat seeds, said about four varieties of wheat have been found suitable for Malawian soil out of about 80 varieties which had been tried since 2019. Speaking during the start of …

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Starting next month, on November 1, Thailand will allow Russian tourists to stay visa-free for up to 90 days. The move comes as tourists from the country have had increasingly few options for travel, given Moscow’s war on Ukraine, the impact of sanctions, travel restrictions, and a weakening ruble. News that Thailand was extending visa-free stays from 30 to 90 days came late last week just before the country’s Prime Minister Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing last week. Thailand has already seen nearly one …

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A Russian court on Monday extended the detention of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva until December. Kurmasheva was detained by police last week on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent. Kurmasheva is believed to be the first person taken into custody for failing to comply with the registry. On Monday, a court in the Russian city of Kazan rejected a bid by Kurmasheva’s lawyer to allow Kurmasheva to be freed pending trial, RFE/RL reported. The journalist will be detained until at least December 5. “We are deeply disappointed by the outcome of today’s hearing,” RFE/RL …

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A charismatic leader of Germany’s populist left wing on Monday laid the foundation for a new party, expected to poach support from the resurgent far right and further splinter the political landscape.    Sahra Wagenknecht, a firebrand MP from far-left Die Linke party and a stalwart of opposition politics since the fall of the Berlin Wall, said she was starting a new political association named after herself.    The Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), which includes nine other deputies, would be leaving the Linke to focus on forming its own party by early next year, she told reporters.    “The way things are going …

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Denmark’s Deputy Prime Minister and Economic Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen said Monday that he is retiring from politics. The move will take effect immediately.  Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen will take over Ellemann-Jensen’s posts.   “I am taking this decision because it is the right thing for the Liberal Party,” Ellemann-Jensen said. Elleman-Jensen was on a months-long sick leave following a medical exam earlier this year. Support for the Liberal Party has fallen dramatically and Denmark’s coalition government holds only a narrow majority in the 179-member parliament. However, political analyst Jarl Cordua, told Reuters about Lunds Poulsen, “There is greater confidence …

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