United States

The increasing realization that the general elections will probably take place earlier than scheduled and the continued slide in bond yields powered bank stocks to major gains on Monday, driven by National and Piraeus. Trading volume improved too.

Team Giannis's captain, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, dunks the ball against Team LeBron during the second half of the NBA All-Star basketball game on All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Antetokounmpo, known as the Greek Freak, scored a game-high 38 points but Team LeBron rallied in the end for a 178-164 victory.

Russia intends to complete the delivery of its S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Turkey by the end of this year, Rostec CEO Sergei Chemezov reportedly said at the 14th IDEX-2019 international defense show on Monday, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has turned down a call by the U.S. to scrap a deal to buy the Russian S-400 missile defense systems, saying Washington should not conflate the issue of Ankara's procurement of defense systems with the two NATO allies' cooperation in Syria.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declined on Feb. 18 Monday to say if he had nominated U.S. President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, though he also emphasized he did not deny doing so.

The chairman of the GERB  and vice-president of the party Tsvetan Tsvetanov held a working meeting with Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj. Haradinaj hosts a Regional Friendly Breakfast, which gathers politicians and public figures from the region and the United States in the spirit of open dialogue and commitment to the service of society, reported NOVA TV. 

But he added that this would be exceptionally difficult.

VVucic poke for the US agency during the Munich Security Conference, to say that task will be harder than the Greece-Macedonia deal, and will first have to see cancellation of Pristina's taxes on Serbian goods increased by 100 percent, and a free flow of people and goods.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz classified US president's foreign policy as very successful. Kurz's statement is on the eve of his visit to Washington, where he will be on February 20th.

The Chancellor stated as the main purpose of his visit to help prevent a trade war.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has been nominated for Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year 2019 award, which will be presented at the 2019 Laureus World Sports Awards scheduled for Monday evening in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Halep is competing with American gymnast Simone Biles, Czech skier Ester Ledecka, German tennis player Angelique Keber and American skier Mikaela Shiffrin.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and former US Vice-President Joe Biden met for over an hour on the sidelines of the Security Conference in Munich.

State ANA-MPA news agency reports that the two discussed relations with Turkey and energy issues in southeast Europe, as well as Greek-US relations and US developments, and that there was a broad agreement on issues.