US would welcome any Iranian steps to slow nuclear program
By Humeyra Pamuk and Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON (Reuters) -US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday he could not
2023-08-16 01:51
US says ‘the time is now’ for Sweden to join NATO and for Turkey to get new F-16s
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the “time is now” for Turkey to drop its objections to Sweden joining NATO but said the Biden administration also believed that Turkey should be provided with upgraded F-16 fighters “as soon as possible.” Blinken maintained that the administration had not linked the two issues but acknowledged that some U.S. lawmakers had. President Joe Biden implicitly linked the two issues in a phone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday. “I spoke to Erdogan and he still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden. So let’s get that done," Biden said. Still, Blinken insisted the two issues were distinct. However, he stressed that the completion of both would dramatically strengthen European security. “Both of these are vital, in our judgement, to European security,” Blinken told reporters at a joint news conference in the northern Swedish city of Lulea with Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. “We believe that both should go forward as quickly as possible; that is to say Sweden’s accession and moving forward on the F-16 package more broadly.” “We believe the time is now,” Blinken said. He declined to predict when Turkey and Hungary, the only other NATO member not yet to have ratified Sweden’s membership, would grant their approval. But, he said, “we have no doubt that it can be, it should be, and we expect it to be” completed by the time alliance leaders meet in Vilnius, Lithuania in July at an annual summit. Fresh from a strong re-election victory over the weekend, Erdogan may be willing to ease his objections to Sweden’s membership. Erdogan accuses Sweden of being too soft on groups Ankara considers to be terrorists, and a series of Quran-burning protests in Stockholm angered his religious support base — making his tough stance even more popular. Kristersson said the two sides had been in contact since Sunday’s vote and voiced no hesitancy in speaking about the benefits Sweden would bring to NATO “when we join the alliance.” Blinken is in Sweden attending a meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council and will travel to Oslo, Norway on Wednesday for a gathering of NATO foreign ministers, before going on to newly admitted alliance member Finland on Friday. Speaking in Oslo ahead of the foreign ministers' meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the goal was to have Sweden inside the grouping before the leaders' summit in July. "There are no guarantees, but it’s absolutely possible to reach a solution and enable the decision on full membership for Sweden by the Vilnius summit,” Stoltenberg said. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide
2023-05-31 02:48
Sword of Indian ruler slain by British sells for more than $17 million at auction
The bedchamber sword of Tipu Sultan, an 18th-century king famous for the commanding role he played in wars in southern India, has sold for £14 million ($17.4 million) at auction in London.
2023-05-24 19:46
Russia Ukraine – live: Kyiv shoots down drones after first aerial attack in 12 days
Ukrainian air defence system thwarted attacks by Russian drones, in first aerial attack on capital after 12 days, Kyiv officials said. The country’s air force said that the attack included eight Iranian-made Shahed drones and three cruise missiles which were shot down by Ukraine’s air defence system. Three private houses were damaged as a result of falling drone debris in the Kyiv region, injuring one person, the military head of the region, Ruslan Kravchenko, said on his Facebook page. Kyiv and a number of central and eastern Ukrainian regions were under air raid alerts for about an hour after 2am local time. “Another enemy attack on Kyiv,” Serhiy Popko, a colonel general who heads the city’s military administration, said in a post on the Telegram channel. No information on casualties or damages has been made available yet, Mr Popko said. Read More Ukraine holds drills in Zaporizhzhia to prepare for radiation leaks from Russian-held nuclear plant Ukraine’s push to smash Russian defences on the battlefield: ‘Small advances have colossal meaning’ Mystery surrounds fate of Russia’s ‘General Armageddon’ in wake of Wagner mutiny
2023-07-02 16:58
New York, New Jersey Offshore Wind Farms Imperiled by Writedowns
The crisis engulfing the US offshore wind industry escalated as Orsted A/S and BP Plc became the latest
2023-11-01 21:51
What happened to Vivid headliner Ethel Cain? Worried fans 'hope she's OK' after onstage collapse
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2023-06-04 15:18
White's putback as time expires lifts Celtics past Heat, forces Game 7 in East finals
Derrick White scored on a putback with 0.1 seconds left and the Boston Celtics moved to the brink of the greatest comeback in NBA playoff history, holding off the Miami Heat 104-103 to force a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals
2023-05-28 11:20
Kim Jong Un to visit fighter jet plant in Russia as Putin accepts invite to North Korea
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continued his days-long visit to Russia Friday, heading to an aircraft plant in the eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, according to Russian state media, after the two sides said military cooperation was a possibility.
2023-09-15 12:21
Turkey's Erdogan tells Algeria's Tebboun aim is to solve Israel-Hamas conflict with talks
ANKARA Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Wednesday that his aim was to
2023-10-12 02:46
Megyn Kelly admires Donald Trump for answering 'tough questions' during interview, says she 'didn't go easy on him'
In a behind the scene clip from her interview with Donald Trump, Megyn Kelly revealed that mainstream journalists don't ask ex-POTUS tough questions
2023-09-16 14:52
Spot Rudolph Among All of the Other Reindeer in This Holiday Brainteaser
Rudolph is famous for standing out, but his red nose blends into this holiday-themed brainteaser.
2023-12-03 01:22
Video shows school employee hitting 3-year-old nonverbal autistic child in the head and knocking him to the floor, attorney alleges
Video from an Ohio school's hallway camera shows a school employee chasing a 3-year-old down the hall and hitting him in the head from behind, knocking him to the ground, an attorney for the boy's family alleges.
2023-09-15 11:24
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