Author: Daily Sabah With DPA
British actor and campaigner Adam Pearson, who stars in the dark comedy “A Different Man,” has urged the movie industry to stop seeing disability as a “risk”. Pearson, who stars in the film, which follows an actor with neurofibromatosis who undergoes an experimental procedure to change his face, said the industry can be very risk-averse when exploring disability. “Nowadays, for some reason, disability is seen as a risk. I don’t know where that comes from,” the 40-year-old actor, who has neurofibromatosis, told the PA news agency on the red carpet of the Bafta Film Awards. “Maybe people struggle to separate…
A demonstration for democracy and against right-wing extremism brought 30,000 onto the streets of Berlin in chilly winter weather on Sunday, precisely a week before parliamentary elections, police reported. The organizers of the “Brave. Human. Together” protest held on Bebelplatz in the heart of the German capital, put the number at 38.000. The square and the Unter den Linden promenade were crowded, with many bringing their children to hear performances at the event. Looking ahead to next Sunday’s elections, a demonstrator said: “I see great danger that democracy will be the loser and that parties will gain power that undermine…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the creation of an “armed forces of Europe” as he addressed the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, pointing to the altered relationship with Washington under President Donald Trump. Zelensky urged Europe to shape its own future in view of the threat emanating from Russia alongside Washington’s weakening commitment to the continent’s security. “The time has come, the armed forces of Europe must be created,” he said. Such troops should not replace NATO, but level European defence contributions with those made by the United States, he said. “Yesterday here in Munich, the US vice president…
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday that he welcomed efforts to end the war in Ukraine, but that Beijing was unwilling to put pressure on Moscow by stopping Russian gas purchases. “If China does not buy gas from Russia, which country can meet the needs of the Chinese people with enough gas?” he asked at the Munich Security Conference. “We must be responsible to our people.” The foreign minister described relations with Russia as a “strategic partnership based on mutual trust.”
Leading politicians, diplomats and security experts are meeting on Friday at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) amid the shockwaves caused by dramatic shifts in US policy regarding the Ukraine conflict and in the Middle East. A speech by US Vice President JD Vance on Friday is set to be one of the most carefully watched at the three-day gathering, which also being attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, one of the 60 leaders registered for the conference, on Thursday warned against any peace talks between the US and Russia without including the Ukrainians and Europeans. His…
US Vice President JD Vance said Europe is facing many challenges but that there is “nothing more urgent than mass migration.” Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Vance referred to the attack in the city a day earlier by a 24-year-old Afghan man who intentionally slammed his car into a crowd, injuring 36 people. He called it a “terrible story” that we’ve heard “way too many times in Europe and, unfortunately, too many times in the United States as well.” “How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course and take our shared civilization…
The Kremlin has confirmed that Saudi Arabia could be a possible location for a planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Thursday that the heads of state had not yet made a firm decision, nor could he say when the meeting would be held. “It could be weeks or months or several months,” he told Russian state news agency TASS. The Saudi capital Riyadh was mentioned in the phone call between Putin and Trump, Peskov said. “Saudi Arabia is a country with which we have very…
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday has defended US President Donald Trump’s planned negotiations with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on peace in Ukraine despite criticism by NATO allies. This is “certainly not a betrayal,” Hegseth said on the sidelines of a NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels. On Wednesday, Hegseth said that restoring Ukraine’s former borders is unrealistic, that Ukraine should give up aspirations to join the NATO alliance and that US troops would not serve as peacekeepers. At the same time, Trump announced that he would meet Putin to seek a solution to end Russia’s war…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has again firmly rejected talks about peace in Ukraine without the participation of Kiev. “We will not accept any bilateral negotiations about Ukraine without us,” Zelensky told journalists on a trip to a nuclear power plant in western Ukraine. He said that lasting peace could not be achieved without the participation of his government. Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for almost three years with Western help. US President Donald Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine by holding direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, possibly at a summit in Saudi…
During his first visit to Kiev, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent presented a draft agreement to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky regarding the mining of rare raw materials in the country by US investors. “We will do everything to ensure that our teams can get down to work, agree on something very quickly and sign the document,” Zelensky said after the meeting. After taking office on January 20, US President Donald Trump had declared that he wanted his country’s military aid to Kiev to be paid for with raw materials. “We are talking about the joint development of deposits,” Zelensky emphasized.…