Congress

By George Gilson

Fewer than ten days after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis received repeated standing ovations from a Joint Session of the US Congress, the State Department is keeping an equal distance between NATO allies Greece and Turkey, even as Ankara is ratcheting up tensions in the Aegean and allowing migrant boats to reach the shores of the Aegean islands of Samos.

At the state level, while all EU countries have unanimously approved the five rounds sanctions against these Russian/Belarusian entities and individuals, they have done so with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday met with the general secretary of the European People's Party (EPP) Antonio López-Istúriz on the sidelines of ruling New Democracy's (ND) 14th Congress.

The talks focused on the developments in Ukraine, the energy crisis and the Greek government's plan against the price hike.

US President Joe Biden announced another package of military assistance for Ukraine, as dozens of civilians were evacuated from Mariupol's besieged steelworks, the last pocket of resistance against Russian troops in the port city.

If Turkey "plays its cards right," it can convince the U.S. Congress to allow a roughly $6 billion purchase of 40 Block 70 F-16 fighter jets and approximately 80 modernization kits from Lockheed Martin to upgrade its existing fleet, the Defense News reported referring to comments by Congress members.

Yet the State Department in a March 17 letter to Congress said that a potential sale of F-16s to Turkey would be “in line with US national security interests”

Nearly a third of the Turkish population, or 32.1 percent, comprises obese people, whereas 66.8 percent of the population is either overweight or obese, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released during the 29th European Congress on Obesity in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Rockets hit the Ukrainian capital Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the city

US President Biden has asked Congress to provide billion in military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden has asked Congress for $33 billion in support of Ukraine. NATO is determined to help Ukraine, even if the war lasts for years. Earlier, the Kremlin warned that arming Ukraine posed a risk to European security and promised a firm military response to attacks on Russian territory.

Israel, which withdrew from the UN cultural agency UNESCO with the United States over alleged bias in 2019, has no objections to a US return, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.