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GLOBAL DIARY
“The enlargement must be quicker ... It would be great if more or less all the countries of the region could enter the EU together” – BORUT PAHOR,
PRESIDENT OF SLOVENIA
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JOE BIDEN VISITS EUROPE ON FIRST OVERSEAS TRIP AS US PRESIDENT
US President Joe Biden embarks on his first overseas trip where he met European partners and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. His eight-day visit to Europe - which has included a G7 leaders’ meeting in the UK, an audience with the Queen and his first NATO summit as president - concludes by meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva. G7 leaders seeking to rival China have adopted a plan to support lower- and middle-income countries in building better infrastructure. President Biden said he wanted the US-backed Build Back Better World (B3W) plan to be a higher-quality alternative to a similar Chinese programme.
SERBIAN SCIENTIST GORDANA VUNJAK WON EUROPEAN INVENTOR AWARD 2021
Serbian-American biomedical engineer and university professor Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic won the Award’s Popular Prize, having received the most votes from the public in an online poll. Vunjak-Novakovic, who had been nominated in the “Lifetime achievement” category, opened new horizons in regenerative medicine by developing a way of growing new tissue ex vivo (outside the body) using the patient’s own cells.
COLOMBIA OFFERS REWARD AFTER PRESIDENTIAL HELICOPTER SHOOTING
Colombia has offered a reward of three billion pesos ($796,000; £573,000) for information about an attack on the president’s helicopter. Iván Duque was nearing Cúcuta airport near the border with Venezuela when his aircraft was hit by gunfire on 25 June. Photos released later showed bullet holes in the rotor and tail of the helicopter. Nobody on board was injured. The UN, EU and US have all condemned the attack.
“It’s about building the country’s talent, but also access to the world” –
ANA BRNABIĆ, PRIME MINISTER OF SERBIA
SERBIAN SPORT DELIVERS HISTORIC RESULTS
Recent results have confirmed that Serbia continues to shine and dominate the worlds of basketball and tennis. The country’s national women’s basketball team defeated France 63:54 in the Women’s EuroBasket final in Valencia, Spain, while the squad’s top player, Sonja Vasić, received a personal award to add to the title of European champion when she was declared EuroBasket MVP. Meanwhile, tennis’s World No. 1, Novak Đoković, completed a huge turnaround in the French Open’s Roland Garros final, coming back from two sets down to overcome Stefanos Tsitsipas and lift his second Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy. Apart from earning his 19th Grand Slam title, the victory also sealed an historic first for Đoković, who has become the only player in the history of the Open Era to have won all four Grand Slam tournaments at least twice. Returning to basketball, this time the men’s game, Serbia earned two major individual honours and recorded a world first when the titles of MVP of the world’s two strongest basketball leagues went to players from the same country for the first time. Nikola Jokić was declared MVP of America’s NBA, while his compatriot and Anadolu Efes ace, Vasilije Micić, was declared MVP of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
UAE BAN ON ENTRY FROM INDIA STILL ON
A United Arab Emirates ban on entry from India, South Africa and Nigeria remains in place, the federal aviation authority said, after Dubai had announced it would ease entry restrictions from those countries. Dubai, a business and tourism hub, is the most populous of the UAE’s seven emirates. Throughout the pandemic, the UAE’s seven emirates have set some of their own COVID-19 policies. In a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) on Sunday, the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) referenced a 21 June GCAA document stating entry from 13 countries, including Pakistan, was banned due to the coronavirus pandemic.
TRUDEAU SAYS POPE FRANCIS SHOULD APOLOGIZE ON CANADIAN SOIL
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had urged Pope Francis to come to Canada to apologize for church-run boarding schools where hundreds of unmarked graves have been found, and he said Canadians are “horrified and ashamed” by their government’s longtime policy of forcing Indigenous children to attend such schools. “I have spoken personally directly with His Holiness, Pope Francis, to impress upon him how important it is not just that he makes an apology but that he makes an apology to indigenous Canadians on Canadian soil”, Trudeau said. “I know that the Catholic church leadership is looking and very actively engaged in what next steps can be taken.”
