Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi speaks during the inauguration of the Business Forum at the International Conference Center in Algiers on July 18, 2022. (AFP) ROME – Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi will address the upper house Senate on Wednesday on a political crisis that could bring down his government and trigger early elections at a time of international tumult and economic upset. Senators have …
UN meeting urges bold, effective solutions to global food crisis
In this file photo dated July 3, 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the 43rd Heads of Government Meeting of the Caribbean Community, at Assuria High Rise in Paramaribo, Suriname. (RANU ABHELAKH / AFP) UNITED NATIONS – Participants in a high-level event held at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday called for bold, coordinated and effective actions to tackle the global food …
After warmest night, Britain braces for record temperature
A road sign reads "Extreme Heat, Plan your journey, Carry water", warning motorists about the heatwave forecast for July 18 and 19, on the M11 motorway north of London on July 17, 2022. (DAMIEN MEYER / AFP) LONDON – Britain was bracing for temperatures to hit 40C for the first time on Tuesday after it recorded its warmest night on record, forcing train services to …
US reports over 6m child COVID-19 cases in 2022
A healthcare worker prepares a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Times Square, New York, the United States on June 22, 2022. (MICHAEL NAGLE/XINHUA) FRANKFURT / HELSINKI / BRUSSELS / LA PAZ / LOS ANGELES – Over 6 million child COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States in 2022, with nearly 287,000 cases added in the past four weeks, according to …
UK braces for record temperatures as heatwave ripples across Europe
A road sign reads "Extreme Heat, Plan your journey, Carry water", warning motorists about the heatwave forecast for July 18 and 19, on the M11 motorway north of London on July 17, 2022. (DAMIEN MEYER / AFP) MADRID/LISBON – Britain was heading for its highest temperatures on record and firefighters battled blazes across southern Europe as a heatwave sent people hunting for shade and compounded …
UK govt wins confidence vote in parliament, dodges snap election
A handout photograph released by the UK Parliament shows Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking during a debate ahead of a confidence vote in the ruling Conservative government, in the House of Commons in London on July 18, 2022. (ANDY BAILEY / UK PARLIAMENT / AFP) LONDON – Lawmakers in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British parliament, backed outgoing Prime Minister …
EU agrees additional 500m euros in military aid for Ukraine
High representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, speaks to the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on, July 18, 2022. (VIRGINIA MAYO / AP) BRUSSELS – The foreign ministers of the European Union member states on Monday agreed to grant Ukraine an additional 500 million euros ($507.7 million) in EU military aid. …
Prisons agency: Thirteen killed in Ecuador prison riot
Handout photo released by the Ecuadorean Police of a police operation at the Bellavista prison in Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Ecuador, on May 11, 2022. (STAFF / AFP) QUITO – Thirteen prisoners were killed at a prison in the Ecuadorean city of on Monday, Ecuador's prison agency said, the latest incident of deadly jail violence in the Andean country. Unfortunately, personnel from the center …
EU reviews Pfizer COVID shot in children as young as 6 months
This file photo taken on June 11, 2021 shows the entrance of the European Medicines Agency headquarters in Amsterdam. (FRANCOIS WALSCHAERTS / AFP) FRANKFURT / HELSINKI / BRUSSELS / LA PAZ – The European Medicines Agency on Monday started reviewing a low-dose version of BioNTech and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children between the age of six months and four years. Last month the US Centers …
Pentagon: US successfully flight-tests Raytheon hypersonic arms
A flag flies in front of the facade of Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems facility on June 10, 2019, in Woburn, Massachusetts. (ELISE AMENDOLA / AP) WASHINGTON – The United States has successfully tested a Raytheon Technologies Corp air-breathing hypersonic weapon capable of speeds faster than five times the speed of sound, making it the third successful test of that class of weapon since 2013, the …
Increasingly bitter UK PM race narrows to four
This combination of file pictures shows, from Left, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in Manchester, northwest England, on Oct 5, 2021; Foreign Minister Liz Truss in Prague on May 27, 2022; a handout photo of Conservative MP for Saffron Walden, Kemi Badenoch, posing for an official portrait photograph in London; and Secretary of State for Defense Penny Mordaunt in Singapore on May 31, …
Estonia’s new coalition government takes office
Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas addresses media representatives during a press conference at the NATO summit at the Ifema congress centre in Madrid, on June 30, 2022. (GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP) TALLINN – The members of Estonia's new government coalition of the Reform Party, the conservative Isamaa (Fatherland) Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDE) were sworn in in front of the Parliament (Riigikogu) on …
Putin: West cannot isolate Russia and send it back in time
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting of the Presidential Council for Strategic Development and National Projects via a video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, on July 18, 2022. (MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV / SPUTNIK / AFP) MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that it was impossible to cut Russia off from the rest of the world, and that sanctions imposed …
Kremlin: Putin, Erdogan to discuss Ukrainian grain exports Tuesday
Farmer Andriy Zubko checks wheat ripeness on a field in Donetsk region, Ukraine, June 21, 2022. (EFREM LUKATSKY / AP) MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan will discuss the export of Ukrainian grain at their meeting in Tehran on Tuesday, a Kremlin aide has told reporters. Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are expected to sign a deal …
UK: Increasingly bitter race to replace Johnson set to narrow down
This combination of pictures created on July 14, 2022 shows the five candidates running to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and Britain's prime minister. From left: Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, former finance minister Rishi Sunak,Conservative MP Olukemi Badenoch, Conservative politician Tom Tugendhat, and International Development Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities Penny Mordaunt. (TOLGA AKMEN, DANIEL LEAL, CARLOS JASSO, CHRIS MCANDREW / …
Ex-Trump adviser Bannon on trial for defying congressional subpoena
An image of former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon is shown on a screen during a full committee hearing on "the January 6th Investigation," on Capitol Hill on July 12, 2022, in Washington, DC. The House committee probing the 2021 assault on the US Capitol is examining connections between associates of former US President Donald Trump and far right-wing extremist groups at its seventh …
Southern Europe battles wildfires as heatwave spreads north
Commuters walk under a message board warning people of disruption over extreme heat at Victoria Station in London on July 18, 2022. (NIKLAS HALLE'N / AFP) MADRID/LISBON – A heatwave sweeping southern Europe that has caused hundreds of deaths and huge wildfires in past weeks showed some signs of abating on Monday but continued to move north, including towards Britain where authorities issued an extreme …
Beer for sunflower oil? Munich pub finds way to beat frying crunch
File photo shows people toast with their beer mugs at the 'Taxisgarten' beer garden in Munich, Germany, May 15, 2021. (MATTHIAS SCHRADER / AP) BERLIN – A Munich brewpub has found a novel way to beat Europe's cooking oil shortages – letting customers pay for their beer with sunflower oil to ensure plentiful stocks for frying schnitzels. With Ukraine and Russia accounting for about 80 …
Scholz: EU can no longer afford national vetoes on foreign policy
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a speech during the inauguration event at German carmaker Volkswagen's (VW) first own battery cell factory "SalzGiga" in Salzgitter, central Germany, on July 7, 2022. (RONNY HARTMANN / AFP) BERLIN – The European Union can no longer afford to keep national vetoes when deciding on European Union foreign and security policy if it wants to maintain a leading role in …
Gunman kills three in Indiana mall before being shot by bystander
Shoppers leave the Greenwood Park Mall on May 4, 2020, in Greenwood, where Indianapolis Metropolitan Police said several people were killed and others injured in a shooting on July 17, 2022. (DARRON CUMMINGS / AP PHOTO) WASHINGTON – A gunman killed three people when he opened fire in the food court of a shopping mall outside Indianapolis on Sunday before a bystander fatally shot the …