Home Blog Page 22

Saudi Arabia’s Reema bint Bandar: We can’t wait for change to happen

Daughter of an ambassador. CEO of a major corporation. Head of a multi-sports federation. Princess. Mother. Leading Global Thinker, according to Foreign Policy magazine.

Saudi Arabia’s Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud has indeed worn many hats in her life. But what’s it like to be her country’s first woman ambassador to the United States in Saudi history?

Amid outrage over sex abuse cases, #MeToo trend catches on in Kosovo

After the widespread circulation of a video earlier this month that appeared to show two seventh-grade boys forcing their genitals into the mouth of a girl in first grade, Shpresa Shala—education director for the municipality of Prishtinë, Kosovo’s capital—brushed off the incident as “games kids play.” That led even more people to join the street protests under the banner: “It’s not a game, it’s trauma.”

Czech Embassy’s ‘Ride for Gambia’ to help fund bikes for African kids

A distance of more than 3,000 miles separates the Czech capital of Prague from Banjul, capital of The Gambia—mainland Africa’s tiniest independent republic.

Yet cycling enthusiasts who’d like to bridge the gap, at least symbolically, can easily do that on June 3, which happens to be World Bicycle Day 2021.

Phillips marks its centennial by looking ahead to the next century

The Phillips Collection may have hit the grand old age of 100, but its spectacular celebratory exhibition isn’t stuck in the past. Even as the show reflects on the museum’s own history, “Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century” is grappling with the future.

African ambassadors ask diaspora to help promote 54-nation AfCFTA

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which took effect Jan. 1, involves more countries than any other trade bloc on Earth. Of the 55 member states of the African Union, 54—all but Eritrea—have signed on to the treaty, which aims to create a single market through the elimination of tariffs on 90% of all goods by 2022.

Serbia’s Marko Đurić urges ‘just solution’ to bitter Kosovo dispute

March 26, 2018, is a day Marko Đurić, Serbia’s new ambassador to the United States, will never forget. On that Monday, Đurić—at the time chief negotiator for Serbia’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija—was meeting with local Serbs in the town of North Mitrovica when he was violently detained for having crossed into Kosovar territory illegally.

Yemen conflict escalates as peace moves falter

With Saudi Arabia’s March 22 ceasefire offer collapsing within hours of being made, Yemen’s years-long conflict shows no signs of abating, as renewed U.N. peace efforts remain stymied and the specter of colossal humanitarian disaster looms large yet again.

AU Museum marks 60 years of Peace Corps

A new exhibition organized by the American University Museum showcases the indelible mark that the Peace Corps has left on countless lives with objects and stories from 30 volunteers representing a sampling of the 240,000 people who have joined the corps since its inception 60 years ago.

The increasingly crowded field of vaccine diplomacy

As wealthy Western countries carefully guard their national stockpiles of COVID-19 vaccines, raising concerns about “vaccine nationalism,” China and Russia have moved aggressively in the opposite direction — toward vaccine diplomacy.

Danish, Norwegian envoys join panel on Russian threat in Arctic

The Kremlin’s increasing military activities in the Arctic worry many countries, but especially Norway—the only NATO member state that borders Russia north of the Arctic Circle—and Denmark, whose kingdom includes the world’s largest island, Greenland.