Month: September 2024

China’s Xi, Russia’s Putin send greetings to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, KCNA says

Seoul, South Korea — Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin sent greetings to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the occasion of North Korea’s founding anniversary, state media KCNA said on Monday. “I am sure that the comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and the DPRK will be strengthened in a planned way thanks to our joint efforts,” Putin said, according to KCNA. DPRK is short for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name. Xi called for deeper strategic communication and cooperation with North Korea in his message, KCNA said. Last year, Kim marked the …

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Germany’s Scholz calls for faster progress ending Russia’s war on Ukraine

FRANKFURT, Germany — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agree that Russia should be included in a future peace conference aimed at ending Russia’s war against Ukraine. He called for stepped up efforts to solve the conflict. A previous peace conference June 15-16 in Switzerland ended with 78 countries expressing support for Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” but otherwise left the path forward unclear. Russia did not participate. “I believe that now is the moment when we must discuss how we get out of this war situation faster than the current impression is,” Scholz said in an …

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Greek opposition leader Kasselakis ousted by his Syriza party

Athens, Greece — Greek opposition leader Stefanos Kasselakis was ousted by his party’s central committee Sunday via a motion of no confidence, just a year after his election to the post by party cadres who accused him of being an authoritarian and not fully ideologically aligned with the party.  After an often tense and acrimonious two-day session, the central committee of the left-wing Syriza party approved the no-confidence motion 163-120, with three members voting blank. Another eight abstained.  It was not a single event that precipitated Kasselakis’ ouster but a buildup of discontent over the past year, which caused many who …

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Sinner, of Italy, sweeps US Open title for second Grand Slam triumph

New York — Jannik Sinner beat Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 with a relentless baseline game to win the U.S. Open men’s championship on Sunday, less than three weeks after being exonerated in a doping case. The No. 1-ranked Sinner, a 23-year-old from Italy, won the second Grand Slam trophy of his nascent career — the other was at the Australian Open in January — and prevented No. 12 Fritz from ending a major title drought for American men that has lasted 21 years. Andy Roddick’s triumph at Flushing Meadows in 2003 was the last Slam title for a man from …

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As Volkswagen weighs its first closure of a German auto plant, workers aren’t the only ones worried 

FRANKFURT, Germany — Volkswagen is considering closing some factories in its home country for the first time in the German automaker’s 87-year history, saying it otherwise won’t meet the cost-cutting goals it needs to remain competitive. CEO Oliver Blume also told employees Wednesday that the company must end a three-decade-old job protection pledge that would have prohibited layoffs through 2029. The statements have stirred outrage among worker representatives and concern among German politicians. Here are some things to know about the difficulties at one of the world’s best-known auto brands: What is Volkswagen proposing and why? Management says the company’s core …

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NATO member Romania says Russian drone violated its airspace

Kyiv, Ukraine — A Russian drone violated Romania’s airspace during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, the NATO member reported Sunday, urging Moscow to stop what it described as an escalation. The incident occurred as Russia carried out attacks on “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube River in Ukraine, Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said. Romania deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace, and NATO allies were kept informed, the ministry said. Romanian emergency authorities also issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. Preliminary data indicates there may be an “impact zone” in an uninhabited area near the …

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‘Digital pause’: France pilots school mobile phone ban 

Paris — Tens of thousands of pupils in France are going through a slightly different return to school this autumn, deprived of their mobile phones. At 180 “colleges,” the middle schools French children attend between the ages of 11 and 15, a scheme is being trialed to ban the use of mobile phones during the entire school day. The trial of the “pause numerique” (“digital pause”), which encompasses more than 50,000 pupils, is being implemented ahead of a possible plan to enforce it nationwide from 2025. Right now, pupils in French middle schools must turn off their phones. The experiment takes …

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