Bepress

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that Finland and Sweden would be embraced with open arms should they decide to join the 30-nation military organization and could become members quite quickly. Stoltenberg’s remarks came as public support in Finland and Sweden for NATO membership mounts in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Media speculation in the two countries suggest the two might apply in mid-May. “It’s their decision," Stoltenberg said. "But if they decide to apply, Finland and Sweden will be warmly welcomed, and I expect that process to go quickly.” He gave no precise time frame, but did say that the two could expect some protection should Russia try to intimidate them from the time their membership applications are made until they formally join.   Stoltenberg said he’s “confident that there are ways to bridge that interim period in a way which is good enough and works for both Finland and Sweden.” NATO’s collective security guarant...

WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - Russia's invasion of Ukraine has delivered a further "huge negative shock" to sub-Saharan Africa, driving food and energy prices higher and putting the most vulnerable people at risk of hunger, the head of the IMF's Africa Department told Reuters. The food security crisis had piled pressure on countries already grappling with a protracted COVID-19 pandemic, disrupted education, loss of income and serious debt problems, Abebe Aemro Selassie said in an interview. That is making it difficult for those countries to mitigate the impact of inflation, he said. All those factors also stoked the chances of social unrest, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its biannual regional economic outlook for sub-Saharan Africa, published Thursday. "It's a recipe for very, very difficult policymaking, but also the social environment," Selassie said. "This is a crisis, which is almost laser-focused on hitting the most vulnerable p...

  London:   An independent ministerial ethics advisor to the UK government on Wednesday cleared Chancellor Rishi Sunak of any wrongdoing over his wife Akshata Murty's tax status and his possession of a US permanent resident's Green Card while in office. The Indian-origin finance minister had referred himself to Lord Christopher Geidt to investigate any alleged ministerial conduct breaches after revelations that his wife, the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, did not pay UK tax on her Indian income under her legal non-domicile tax status. The probe also covered further revelations around Sunak having a Green Card two years after being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK Cabinet. I advise that the requirements of the Ministerial Code have been adhered to by the Chancellor, and that he has been assiduous in meeting his obligations and in engaging with this investigation, Lord Geidt's advise to Prime Minister Boris Johnson reads. In reaching these judg...

  Washington:   Even the king cobra is “vulnerable.” More than 1 in 5 species of reptiles worldwide are threatened with extinction, according to a comprehensive new assessment of thousands of species published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Of 10,196 reptile species analyzed, 21% percent were classified as endangered, critically endangered or vulnerable to extinction — including the iconic hooded snakes of South and Southeast Asia. “This work is a very significant achievement — it adds to our knowledge of where threatened species are, and where we must work to protect them,” said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, who was not involved in the study. Similar prior assessments had been conducted for mammals, birds and amphibians, informing government decisions about how to draw boundaries of national parks and allocate environmental funds. Work on the reptile study – which involved nearly 1,000 scientists and 52 co-authors – started in 2005. The project was slowed by challe...