Author: Joel Craig

The European Union announced on Friday that it will begin accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova to join the 27-member political and economic bloc starting next week. All 27 members agreed to the Ukraine and Moldova joining the European Union. Negotiations will begin for both countries on Tuesday in Luxembourg, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union said on X. The move comes at a critical time for both nations with Ukraine in the middle of an invasion by Russia and Moldova facing a Russian-led insurgence by a breakaway state. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the European Union for its “robust political…

New York. 23/6. With the clock ticking on when he must report to prison, former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon on Friday threw in an emergency motion to the Supreme Court to hold off his sentence. The high court asked prosecutors to respond to Bannon’s application by Wednesday afternoon. Bannon’s motion comes after a federal judge ruled he must begin his four-month prison sentence on July 1. He was found guilty two years ago on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 select committee. The political persecution of political opponents to the Democratic party’s rule and its weaponization questions…

When Chicago-based dressmaker and designer Kristin Mariani commutes to work, she notices a change in how people dress for the office post-pandemic. “People are dressing more comfortably,” says Mariani, an adjunct associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “I rarely see a person in a suit and tie. I often will see jeans with maybe a jacket and an open shirt often.” Many Americans spent the COVID-19 pandemic working from home in comfortable leisurewear like sweatpants. Meanwhile, workers who still had to report to work in person also opted for a more relaxed look. “When we…

Spirit Airlines said it had resolved a “technical issue” that temporarily crashed its website, check-in kiosks and app, causing major delays. It blamed a “network issue between third party services”. More than half of its scheduled flights were delayed on Thursday, Flight Aware data showed. Separately, Air Canada also said it was “experiencing an IT issue causing flight delays”. More than 190 of its flights were delayed, according to Flight Aware. Some 28 Air Canada flights were cancelled on Thursday, as of 13:30 EST (18:30 BST). The cancellations affected flights to and from Air Canada’s hub at Toronto Pearson International,…

At least 26 people have died in Mississippi and Alabama after a tornado tore through the southern US states. Search and rescue efforts are continuing, and the Mississippi state government has declared a state of emergency. In Rolling Fork, crushed cars, bricks and glass litter the streets – the town has been almost entirely wiped out. One resident told the BBC he was lucky to survive after seeking shelter in his bath tub. Approaching the neighbourhood in western Sharkey County, there is little indication of anything unusual. The lush farmland that surrounds it is completely untouched, the trees aren’t even…

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev urged a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine war in a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Thursday, according to a statement from the Kazakh Presidency. Zelensky had requested the phone call, and the Kazakh president, a close ally of Russia, reiterated the position of his country. Kazakhstan supports “a diplomatic solution to the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine on the basis of the UN Charter and generally recognized norms of international law,” Tokayev said. In June 2022, during the XXV International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, the Kazakh president stated in the…

Tajikistan has raised $4.7 billion from sixteen international financial institutions over the past 15 years. This is stated in the publication of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD). This EFSD Working Paper presents the methodology for constructing the Sovereign Finance Database (SFD) and provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of sovereign finance transactions in 11 countries in the region from 2008 to 2022. The authors of the document identified more than 3,800 sovereign financing operations in countries on the horizon of 2008-2022 in the amount of about $90 billion. The most significant volumes of approved sovereign financing were observed…

Over the past year, 86 crimes related to human trafficking were registered in Tajikistan. In particular, in 2022, the number of cases of human trafficking for prostitution increased in the country – compared to 2021, there were 14 more cases. This is evidenced by the data presented at a press conference on February 15 by the head of the Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic, Shodi Hafizzoda. According to him, there were 24 such crimes last year, 14 people were arrested on these facts. He did not provide details about where the…

President Joe Biden called for peaceful protests ahead of the release of footage of a Memphis traffic stop that led to the death of a 29-year-old Black driver, Tyre Nichols. And FBI Director Chris Ray said he was “appalled” after viewing video of the police stop that led to Nichols’ death. Elsewhere in the political world, the RNC is electing a new chair as the party wrestles with its political future. And video of Paul Pelosi’s October attack was released. Here’s the day’s political news: President Joe Biden tries to comfort parents of Tyre Nichols, a Black motorist who died…

Travellers across much of the eastern US are bracing for one of the most treacherous Christmas weekends in decades, with forecasters warning of a “bomb cyclone” that will pack heavy snow and wind while sending temperatures plummeting 50F in a matter of hours. The frigid air is moving through the central US to the east, with windchill advisories affecting about 135 million people over the coming days, weather service meteorologist Ashton Robinson Cook said today. Places like Des Moines, Iowa, will feel like minus 37C, making it possible to suffer frostbite in less than five minutes. There were already widespread…