Month: October 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Friday, in what is branded as a personal and political audience, ahead of the G-20 leaders’ summit in Rome about the global economy, followed by a summit on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland.  The president and first lady Jill Biden were welcomed by …

The Belarusian interior ministry on Friday classified three of the country’s most popular opposition social media channels as extremist organizations, meaning that people can face up to seven years in prison for subscribing to them. Social media channels such as Telegram messenger were widely used during mass street protests against President Alexander Lukashenko last year …

Efforts by Chinese diplomats to stop cultural events deemed critical of the government in Beijing have met with mixed results in Europe, succeeding in Germany but being rebuffed by a city government in Italy. The incident in Germany concerned a new book, Xi Jinping — The Most Powerful Man in the World, by two veteran …

On a sunny afternoon near the hamlet of Bidnija in Malta, a small crowd gathered by the side of a rural road to remember one of the country’s best-known journalists.  It has been four years this October since Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a bombing just a short distance from her home.  But despite …

It is only a matter of time before China’s plan to replace the United States as the world’s preeminent military becomes reality, a top U.S. general warned, calling on the Washington and its allies to speed efforts to counter Beijing’s bid for dominance. General John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and …

U.S. President Joe Biden is used to scrutiny over how he reconciles his strong Roman Catholic faith — particularly around issues of gender, sexuality and reproduction — with his duty to lead an explicitly secular government.  On Friday, he will face those questions anew in a meeting at the Vatican with Pope Francis, the Catholic …

The Vatican on Thursday canceled the planned live broadcast of U.S. President Joe Biden meeting Pope Francis, the latest restriction to media coverage of the Holy See that sparked complaints from White House- and Vatican-accredited journalists. The live broadcast of Biden’s Friday visit was trimmed to cover just the arrival of the president’s motorcade in …

Russia is warning Turkey over arms sales to Ukraine after a Turkish-made drone attacked Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine. A Kremlin spokesman has warned that Turkey’s ongoing arms sales to Ukraine threaten to destabilize the region. The warning follows Kyiv’s release of the video Tuesday showing a Turkish-made drone used for the first time against Russian-backed …

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry spoke in London Thursday ahead of next week’s climate summit in Glasgow, saying that addressing the climate crisis is the only choice, and the cost of not doing so is far greater than the cost of taking action. Kerry said the effects of climate change are being felt now. He …

British sailors will begin training aboard Canadian icebreakers in a new agreement that reflects the United Kingdom’s heightened interest in developing a more robust Arctic military capability.  Britain is just the latest nation to focus fresh attention on the far north as climate change opens the region to new opportunities for navigation and resource exploitation. Countries as diverse and distant as China, …

Here’s a look at what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top diplomats have been doing this week:    Sudan  The United States called on Sudanese military forces to release all civilian leaders in detention, amid growing international condemnation of the military takeover. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the U.S. support …

Iran said Wednesday it would resume talks with world powers about its nuclear development program by the end of November.  The U.S. State Department is aware of the reports but did not have “any further details,” a spokesman said, about new negotiations from the other parties to the 2015 international pact aimed at curbing Tehran’s …

Eyes in Beijing and Moscow are trained on Central Asia, prompted by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The security threat in Afghanistan and the desire to shut off Central Asia from other powers, such as the U.S., is motivating Beijing and Moscow to cooperate and gloss over their differences, according to Emil Avdaliani, director of …