Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven flatly rejected the information that the decision to deploy troops on the Swedish Baltic Sea island Gotland was dictated by the immediate threat from Russia. Deployment of troops took place last week. The statement issued by the Prime Minister was the response to media reports. On Monday, the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) reported that Sweden is aware of an increasing threat from Russia. “I’ve said it before and it remains unchanged: there is no direct military threat to Sweden,” told Löfven.
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A Brazilian ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will stand for a trial for bribery and money laundering scandal during his presidency in years 2003 – 2011. The main charge is about 3.7 million Brazilians Reais bribery referred to schemes state-owned oil company Petrobras. The corruption case will also put on trial Lula's wife, Marisa Leticia Lula da Silva; OAS Chief Executive Jose Aldemario "Leo" Pinheiro; PauloOkamotto, the president of the Lula Institute, and four others.
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US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang agreed to intensify cooperation within the UN Security Council due to new nuclear tests that North Korea conducted, - is reported by Reuters referring to the statement of the White House. Meeting of the Parties was held at the UN General Assembly. "Both leaders condemned North Korea for conducting a nuclear test on September 9, and decided to strengthen cooperation in the framework of the UN Security Council", - said in a White House statement.
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On Tuesday, 20th September, Britain’s new Prime Minister Theresa May gave her first speech at UN General Assembly in New York. She presented the UK as a ‘confident, strong and dependable partner internationally’ despite June’s vote to leave the European Union. In her speech, the PM focused on the issues of terrorism, international governance, migration and modern slavery. She also called for increased humanitarian aid while touting Britain’s accomplishments in this matter.
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In a statement on Monday, 18 months after the end of the case, the International Criminal Court declared that "the Republic of Kenya had failed to comply with its obligations to cooperate with the ICC and referred the matter". As a matter of fact, the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (still in office), appears to be connected with ethnic violence which erupted in 2007-08, and led to 1,200 people dead and around 600,000 displaced. The case against Kenyatta lasted four years, and the charges were finally "withdrawn due to insufficient evidence" in 2014.
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Late yesterday North Korea has tested its new rocket engine to launch satellites. It is believed that the technology was developed in cooperation with specialist from Iran. Kim Jong Un is once again staging a show of his power, which the world watches with great concern. Earlier this month North Korea conduced its fifth nuclear test, and over the course of the summer the country has been testing its ballistic capabilities on a scale much higher than ever before.
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United Russia party (ER) won the Sunday's elections to the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. According to the results, United Russia received 44,5 percent of the votes. It is followed by the parties - the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) - 13,45%, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) - 13,24%, and Fair Russia (SR, also known as A Just Russia) - 6,17%. The remaining parties did not exceed the required 5-percent electoral threshold. The turnout in Sunday's elections was around 48 percent. The opposition parties did not obtain the right amount of votes to enter their candidates from electoral lists to the parliament. The two main liberal parties Yabloko and PARNAS (People's Freedom Party) received only 1.89% and 0.7% of the votes.
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On Monday, September 19, government forces resumed military actions and announced an end to a week-old ceasefire. Syrian air force bombed Aleppo, killing at least 32 people and destroying an aid convoy, while the army started an offensive in and around Damascus. The ceasefire began to broke down after severe tensions during the weekend, when anti-ISIS coalition air force accidentally bombed a Syrian army base in Deir az Zor in Eastern Syria, killing 62 soldiers.
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On the sidelines of the 71st UN General Assembly, Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi met with several world leaders, including both major US presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Although both candidates stressed US-Egypt strategic partnership, there were considerable difference in their messages. Clinton reiterated Egypt’s importance in the fight against terrorism, but criticised human rights violations and demanded the release of social activist Aya Hegazy. Trump, on the other hand, failed to mention human rights, praised Sisi’s policies and expressed hopes that Egypt and the US together would eradicate ‘radical Islamic terrorism’.
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Among other topics on the agenda of the 71st regular session of the United Nation General Assembly is the Summit for Refugees and Migrants, which is set to take place on September 19. President Barack Obama plans to use his last UN appearance to delve into the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Some are critical of the fact that not only is this the first ever summit held on the refugee crisis but that the issue has surfaced in the General Assembly after a considerable amount of time. In any case, the member states are expected to address the large influx of migrants and to coordinate a safe and humanitarian solution. The cooperation made by the UN General Assembly should bring about a global approach to addresses the crisis.
