A significant event in the realm of English language education is currently unfolding at ADA University in Baku. The university is hosting a two-day seminar as part of a broader conference, bringing together over 400 English teachers from secondary school
Day: June 28, 2024
Georgia’s path to EU membership is being blocked by the passing of a controversial foreign influence law, European leaders have said at a summit in Brussels, the BBC reports.
The passing of the law represented “backsliding” on steps laid out to enable the country to join the bloc.
“The European Council calls on Georgia’s authorities to clarify their intentions by reversing the current course of action which jeopardises Georgia’s EU path,” the leaders said in a document released on Thursday.
They added that they maintained their “steadfast solidarity with the Georgian people” and expressed a “readiness to continue supporting Georgians on their path towards a European future”.
“The European Council calls on Georgia’s authorities to clarify their intentions by reversing the current course of action which jeopardises Georgia’s EU path, de facto leading to a halt of the accession process,” the statement of their conclusions from the summit reads.
Georgia was granted EU candidate country status in December after being given a list of steps it needed to take to proceed, including justice reform.
However, the bloc has been critical about the passing of the new foreign influence law, which is due to come into effect next month.
Under it, media and non-governmental organisations that receive over 20% of their funding from abroad will have to register as “organisations acting in the interest of a foreign power”, submit themselves to stringent audits, or face punitive fines.
The Georgian government argues the rules will ensure transparency of money flowing to support NGOs and protect Georgia from foreign interference.
US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump levied personal attacks against each other as they sparred over the economy, immigration and more at CNN debate in Atlanta, their first showdown of the 2024 election cycle, the CNN reports.
Some Democratic officials are expressing concerns and raising alarms over Biden’s shaky performance as Trump went on the defensive and steamrolled through multiple falsehoods. The Trump campaign declared victory, while Biden brushed off concerns.
According to CNN, President Joe Biden is three years and seven months older than former President Donald Trump, but during their debate Thursday night on CNN, the gap between the 81-year-old incumbent and his 78-year-old challenger seemed much larger.
Biden, hoarse and displaying little vocal range, was often unable to express his differences with Trump with clarity. At one point, after Biden had trailed off as he defended his record on border security, Trump said: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said, either.”
Trump, meanwhile, at times repeated his frequent election denialism. He said he’d accept the results of the 2024 election if it’s “fair and legal,” but then repeated his lies about fraud in the 2020 election.
“You’re a whiner, and you lost the first time,” Biden said.
It was the first time either man had debated since 2020, and they made history Thursday night: It was the first time a sitting president and a former president had ever debated. The two clashed over abortion, immigration, foreign policy, inflation and more.
Their showdown took a bitter and personal turn. Biden highlighted Trump’s criminal convictions. Trump responded by invoking Biden’s son, Hunter, who was also recently convicted. Then Biden accused Trump of having sex with porn star Stormy Daniels while Trump’s wife was pregnant.
The candidates will hit the campaign trail tomorrow, with Biden holding an event in North Carolina and Trump holding a rally in Virginia.
Azerbaijan is lobbying against Ruben Vardanyan abroad, POLITICO has revealed.
“Eyebrows were raised after POLITICO — and no doubt other media outlets — last week received an email from a PR firm about what it described as Russian influence operations in Europe. While this sounded very juicy, it focused exclusively on one man, my colleague Gabriel Gavin spotted: Russian-Armenian oligarch Ruben Vardanyan,” Elisa Braun writes in an article titled “The spies are coming.”
The article reads, in part:
Vested interests: Vardanyan is currently behind bars in Azerbaijan after the country launched an offensive to conquer Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking the mass exodus of its Armenian residents. While the 56-year-old made his money in Moscow and has been sanctioned by Ukraine for his involvement in Russian infrastructure businesses, he gave up his Russian citizenship in order to go into politics and become the Karabakh Armenian prime minister. There has been speculation he maintained ties with the Kremlin, but Russian peacekeepers stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh ultimately left Vardanyan and other local leaders to be detained by the Azerbaijanis.
Friends in high places in the West: Former Unilever boss Paul Polman and pharmaceutical company Moderna co-founder Noubar Afeyan are among those actively campaigning for Vardanyan’s release. His office also claims he’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize — even if the chances of him winning the coveted prize with his chequered past are virtually zero.
A Russian agent? Nevertheless, Azerbaijan is furious about the nomination, as per several reports from local outlets. That’s where the PR campaign comes in, as it claimed that MEPs had backed a motion calling on the Nobel Prize Committee to recognize Vardanyan as a Russian agent and rule him out as a potential recipient of the award.
So what? Well, according to a press release sent out by a PR company working on behalf of the Center for Analysis and Strategies, Ukraine, MEPs Viola von Cramon-Taubadel and Karen Melchior supported calls for Vardanyan to be blacklisted from the prestigious prize. There’s only one problem: the pair of lawmakers told POLITICO they had done no such thing, suggesting their words had been deliberately taken out of context to support Azerbaijan’s talking points.
Flat-out denial: “I took part in this event on the basis it was about Russian disinformation,” said von Cramon-Taubadel, a German MEP. “It’s shameful it seems to be being used for Azerbaijani disinformation. I did not support any joint declaration, and I wouldn’t have participated if it had any links to the Azerbaijani embassy.” Denmark’s Melchior also told POLITICO she hadn’t signed up to the statement, nor would she.
We just make the sandwiches: A spokesperson for the Brussels Press Club denied it had any involvement in lending credibility to such a lobbying event. “Anyone can book our venue, like any hotel in Brussels, and we have hundreds of events a year,” said a staffer who answered the phone when POLITICO put in a query. “But we aren’t the organizers of these events, we just host them.”
So what is the Center for Analysis and Strategies, Ukraine? Well, it’s not entirely clear. The organization doesn’t seem to have a functioning website in English or Ukrainian, has 88 likes on its Facebook page, and four out of the only five references to the think tank on Google are pro-Azerbaijani articles written by its founder, Ihor Chalenko.
Country of concern: Azerbaijan is already facing criticism over its championing of fossil fuels and its network of influence in the West — but outwardly misrepresenting MEPs’ stances would mark a new rift between the country and the Parliament. POLITICO has reached out to the country’s ambassador to the EU, Vaqif Sadiqov.
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