Category: General

Over 40 of the top policymakers involved in the formulation of US policy toward Cyprus, Turkey and Greece will be participating in the 38th Annual PSEKA Cyprus Conference that will take place in Washington DC on May 9-11. More than 30 Senators will be present, among them Robert Menendez, Philhellenic and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as Greek-American congressmen Gus Bilirakis, John Sarbanes, Dina Titus, Chris Pappas and Nicole Malliotakis. PSEKA President Philip Christopher said among others: ‘PSEKA takes great pride in the extraordinarily high-level of Congressional leaders from the Senate and House of Representatives participating in our conference. Such access to so many top leaders give us the invaluable opportunity to make them aware of important facts about Cyprus. We look forward to making them aware that Vladimir Putin’s brutal violations of law, humanity, and civilization that these leaders are so admirably opposing are precisely the violations Turkey is imposing on America’s ally Cyprus, and that we encourage them to give it appropriate attention,’ he added. The key members of the leadership of the two branches of Congress focusing on Cyprus include US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as well as Deputy Leaders, Senator Dick Durbin, and Congressman Steve Scalise. This year the meeting will also feature two former Republican Chairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who will participate in a panel discussion about Cyprus. Christopher emphasized that Cyprus benefits from the rare fact that the Presidents and Ranking Minority Members of the committee of each body that leads in foreign policy will participate in the conference of the PSECA. From the Senate, in addition to Robert Menendez, the member of the minority, Jim Rees, will also participate. Christopher also expressed his disappointment regarding the progress on the Cyprus issue: ‘Although we are frustrated and disappointed with the lack of progress on Cyprus, we remain strong and united to the struggle of the Cypriot people for freedom and justice,’ he noted The President of PSEKA thanked all the organizations that coordinate with them (AHEPA, AHI, HALC, FCAO, HANC and the Cyprus-USA Chamber of Commerce).

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Intense rainfall, heavy thunderstorms probably with hail are expected to affect areas of Cyprus on Sunday, according to a new yellow warning issued by the Department of Meteorology on Saturday. The warning is valid from 11:00 local time until 18:00. During this period isolated thunderstorms, probably with hail, are expected to affect mainly inland areas of the island, the Department said. ccording to the Department, precipitation rate is expected to range between 35 and 55 millimeters per hour.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Celtic on Sunday won the 2023 Scottish Premiership title with four matches to spare. The Glasgow club beat Hearts 2-0 with second-half goals scored by Kyogo Furuhashi and Oh Hyeon-gyu to be the back-to-back Scottish champions, and Celtic won it for the 53rd time in history. Hearts were down to 10 men after Alex Cochrane was shown a red card in the 45th minute. Winners Celtic have 95 points in 34 matches to go 13 points clear of Rangers. Celtic’s archrivals Rangers are the record holders, winning 55 Scottish titles. In the next fixture, Celtic will visit Rangers at Ibrox Stadium on May 13, but next weekend’s derby will be irrelevant for this season’s Scottish champions.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Israeli army forces on Sunday demolished a Palestinian school in the occupied West Bank for lack of a building permit, according to a local official. Hassan Brijieh, the head of the so-called Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission in Bethlehem, said Israeli forces and bulldozers moved into the town of Jibb Al-Deeb, east of Bethlehem city, and demolished the donor-funded school. The school is located in Area C of the West Bank, which is under the Israeli army control and was first demolished by Israel in 2017. Brijieh said the school contains five classrooms and houses nearly 66 students between the first and fourth grades. The Palestinian Education Ministry condemned the school demolition and called on international and legal institutions to shoulder their responsibility towards Israeli violations. Israel widely uses the pretext of lack of construction permits to demolish Palestinian homes, especially in Area C. Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was divided into three portions – Area A, B, and C.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Sunday boycotted a weekly Cabinet meeting in protest of government policies. Ben-Gvir, along with two ministers of his hardline Jewish Strength Party, said he will not attend Cabinet meetings to protest a decision by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to return the bodies of three Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks against Israeli forces, according to Yedioth Ahronoth daily. The far-right official also rejected a decision by the Israeli government to release Jordanian lawmaker Imad Adwan, who was arrested last month for allegedly attempting to smuggle weapons by his car into the West Bank. “This government is a right-wing government and the public did not give us a mandate to return the bodies of terrorists or to refrain from bombing Gaza. It is not too late to lead a powerful and offensive security policy,” Ben-Gvir said. Ben-Gvir’s absence from the government meeting was the latest development of the crisis between the far-right minister and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Thursday, Ben-Gvir announced that his party, which has six lawmakers in the 120-member Knesset, will not vote on the government decisions as a sign of protest against the Cabinet policies. Ben-Gvir was particularly angry with what he considered a weak response by the Israeli army to rocket fire from Gaza following the death of a Palestinian hunger striker in an Israeli prison last week.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Carrying a Soviet flag or sporting any other symbol deemed offensive by the authorities could cost Estonians dearly on Victory Day, the local police have warned. Any gatherings that could be interpreted as “supportive of aggression,” which Tallinn says Russia is waging against Ukraine, are also outlawed.

Speaking to the media outlet Postimees on Thursday, Elena Miroshnichenko, a lieutenant colonel of the Police and Border Protection Department in the Pyhja prefecture, said that while people are allowed to lay flowers at graves and WWII memorials on May 9, they should not have on them “any symbols and shouldn’t listen to aggressive music on their cellphones.”

The official reminded the public that any rallies featuring Russian or Soviet flags, or those of Russia’s Donbass republics, are strictly prohibited. Also off limits are any flags or placards emblazoned with the Latin letters Z and V, which have come to symbolize Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine.

Miroshnichenko stressed that the police are not going to “engage in any dialogue with anyone” found in breach of the rules. Violators can expect to be fined to the tune of up to €1,200 euros ($1,345) or even face prison time.

She also revealed that Estonian security forces are closely monitoring activity on social media ahead of Victory Day.

The official advised Estonians to “think what you are sending” before sharing any congratulations.

“The most important [thing] is that there [should be] no aggressive symbols in these messages which support the war,” Miroshnichenko clarified.

Late last month, authorities in another former Soviet republic, Moldova, warned the public against displaying St. George’s ribbons, which have become a symbol of May 9 celebrations in Russia over the past two decades.

Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean emphasized that individuals running afoul of the ban will face fines.

The country’s parliament outlawed the ribbon along with the letters ‘Z’ and ‘V’ last year as promoting “Russian aggression.”

Earlier last month, Moldova’s Constitutional Court issued a ruling that some opposition politicians construed as a lifting of the ban. The judges, however, were quick to clarify that this was not the case.

According to the Moldovan media, more than 300 people were fined for wearing the ribbon last year.

Source: Russia Today

Defending Formula One champion Max Verstappen won the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday from ninth on the starting grid, beating Red Bull teammate and pole-sitter Sergio Perez. In Round 5 of the 2023 Formula 1 season held at the 5.4-kilometer (3.3-mile) Miami International Autodrome, Verstappen took the lead with 10 laps remaining to pass Perez. The Dutch-Belgian driver fought to be victorious in the 57-lap race, finishing it in one hour, 27 minutes and 38.241 seconds. Perez was 5.3 seconds behind Verstappen to be the runner-up in Miami. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso came third as he was 26.3 seconds behind the winner. Verstappen is leading the 2023 drivers’ standings with 119 points. Perez has 105 points to keep chasing his teammate. Alonso has 75 points to be third among 20 drivers. In the coming weeks, Formula 1 will travel to Italy as Round 6, the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, will be held on May 21.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has appealed for urgent humanitarian aid to Sudan amid the ongoing fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group. At least 550 people have been killed and more than 4,900 injured in fighting between the two military rivals since April 15, according to Sudan’s Health Ministry. In a statement, the Jeddah-based grouping said OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha ‘made an urgent appeal to the OIC Member States, financial and humanitarian institutions and international donors to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to Sudan.’ Taha called on the donors and partners to ‘focus on the provision of medical supplies and health services to Sudan.’ He also appealed for support for ‘Sudan’s neighboring countries’ efforts in hosting the numerous Sudanese and foreign refugees.’ The OIC also called for ‘the full respect of the humanitarian principles and standards and invited the parties to facilitate the delivery of the humanitarian assistance to those in need in different parts of the country.’ Representatives of the Sudanese army and the RSF held their first face-to-face talks in Saudi Arabia on Saturday in an effort to resolve their dispute. A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary force over RSF integration into the armed forces, a key condition of Sudan’s transition agreement with political groups. Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a “coup.” Sudan’s transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, had been scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The global supply of natural gas will remain tight this year amid a wide range of uncertainties, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Thursday.

For now, the pressure on global gas markets has eased, as there was a reduced need for storage withdrawals in Europe and the US due to the mild winter, the IEA wrote in its latest Gas Market Report.

In the first quarter of the year, spot prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG), which has served as a replacement for the Russian pipeline gas, fell below the levels seen in the summer of 2021, though they still remain well above their historical averages.

The current situation, however, offers “no guarantee against future volatility,” and measures should still be implemented to mitigate risks, such as adverse weather factors, lower availability of LNG, and a potential further decline in Russian pipeline gas deliveries to the EU, the IEA warned.

Western sanctions on Moscow led to a major gas supply shock in the European and global gas markets last year, causing deliveries of Russian pipeline gas to the EU to drop by 80% over the course of the year.

The bloc has since increased purchases of LNG from the US, which is projected to become the world’s leading LNG exporter this year.

Russia still supplies natural gas to the EU via the gas transit network of Ukraine and through the TurkStream pipeline, which bypasses Ukraine and carries Russian gas to southern Europe.

Hungary, the main importer of Russian gas in the EU, said last month that it has assurances from Moscow that gas shipments via the TurkStream pipeline will continue without disruptions.

Source: Russia Today

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the world is on the edge of geo-economic fragmentation, which she believes could add more “cold water” to already anemic global growth.

Speaking by video-link at the Brussels Economic Forum on Wednesday, Kristalina Georgieva called for cooperation at a time when growth across the globe is extremely weak by historical standards.

“After decades of increasing global integration, there is a growing risk that the world may split into rival economic blocs,” the IMF chief said. “And that’s a scenario that would be bad for everyone, including for people in Europe.”

She warned that growth prospects were increasingly bleak at a time when the global outlook is weak both in the near and medium term. The IMF projects growth to remain around 3% over the next five years, the lowest medium-term forecast in more than three decades.

“And yet, central bankers cannot take their eyes off the ball until stubborn inflation is firmly under control,” Georgieva pointed out. “The required monetary tightening is weighing on growth and exposing some financial vulnerabilities.”

Reviving multilateral cooperation is vital for long-term growth everywhere, according to the official, who warned that trade fragmentation could cost up to 7% to the global economy in the long term.

That’s “roughly equivalent to the combined annual output of Germany and Japan,” she said, adding that some nations could see GDP losses of up to 12% if technological decoupling is added.

“We cannot ignore these costs,” Georgieva stressed.

The IMF boss had previously said that the shocks of the past few years, including the Covid pandemic, Russia-Ukraine conflict, and spike in interest rates after years of loose monetary policy, have been a drag on the global economy.

Source: Russia Today