Breaking - ArchivesPosts of 07/2017
Poland’s president has said he will veto controversial judicial reforms that have sparked days of nationwide street protests and prompted the EU to threaten unprecedented sanctions.
“I have decided to send back to parliament – in which case to veto – the law on the supreme court, as well as the law on the National Council of the Judiciary,” Andrzej Duda said in a televised announcement. “The law would not strengthen the sense of justice in society,” he added.. Read more HERE.
The Gulf states trying to force Qatar to change political course have given their strongest hint yet that they plan to expel Qatar from the Gulf Cooperation Council, the regional trade and security group.
In a speech on Monday, the United Arab Emirates foreign minister, Anwar Gargash, will warn: “You cannot be part of a regional organisation dedicated to strengthening mutual security and furthering mutual interests, and at the same time undermine that. Read more HERE.
The body of a long-haired Islamic State militant lies rotting in the scorching heat. Blast-strewn cars and bullet holes in walls bear witness to a fierce firefight that took place in the Zanjili neighbourhood of west Mosul.
Once a stronghold of Isis, Zanjili is now a ghost town. Life has stopped and nothing moves; even the stray cats and dogs that roam other parts of the city, feeding on the dead, are nowhere to be seen. The eerie silence is punctured by occasional volleys of heavy gunfire. Read more HERE
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, beamed as he looked upon the sea of red Turkish flags nearly a year ago. Millions had gathered in Istanbul’s Yenikapı Square near the shore of the Sea of Marmara for a roaring celebration of the people’s sacrifice and victory against coup plotters who had nearly overthrown the democratically elected government. It was a rare show of unity, with citizens of all stripes overtaken by patriotic sentiment. Read more HERE.
Romania has served a Canadian mining company with a $8.6m back taxes bill days after the company filed a $4.4bn compensation claim over a stalled project in the country. Gabriel Resources tried for more than 18 years to get necessary permits for an opencast mine to extract Europe’s largest gold deposits from beneath the village of Roșia Montană in the Apuseni mountains. But the project was halted in 2013 after tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets for three weeks of mass protests. Read more HERE.