Senate

Skënder Gjinushi, (left) and Edi Rama on a conference about the 50th anniversary of the Congress of Language in Tirana on 10 November 2022. Photo: LSA

The reviews are starting to come in as details emerge about the debt ceiling agreement reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Even before seeing those details, some lawmakers were criticizing the deal as not doing enough to tackle the nation's debt, while others worried it's too austere and will harm many low-income Americans.

The Kosovo-Serbia dialogue remains one of the main issues of concern in the Western Balkans, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday heard.

State Department Counsellor Derek Chollet warned: "We are not seeing great effort on the implementation of this agreement by either party."

Voters in Thailand were heading to the polls on Sunday in an election touted as a pivotal chance for change, eight years after incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha first came to power in a 2014 coup. He is now running against the daughter of the politician who is the military's top nemesis.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that unless Congress acts soon to raise the nation's debt ceiling, "financial and economic chaos would ensue."    

Republicans have been pressing President Joe Biden to strike a deal to provide spending cuts in exchange for lifting the national borrowing limit.    

Supporters of Romania's nationalistic Alliance for the Union of Romanians, AUR, protested in Brussels against a draft law on the efficient urbanisation of Romanian cities, claiming it will limit people's freedom of movement.

A spokesman for Mike Pence said Wednesday that the former vice president will not appeal a judge's order compelling him to testify in the Justice Department's investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Political analysts have criticised moves in Romania to make wiretappings carried out by the secret services usable once again as evidence in corruption cases.

The moves comes as Romania is to receive billions of euros from the EU funds, which are seen as likely to boost the temptation of corruption and embezzlement.

A funeral will be held this weekend for former Democratic US Representative Nick Galifianakis, who represented central North Carolina for several years before two unsuccessful Senate bids - the first against archconservative Jesse Helms.

The Senate of Sarajevo University revoked the teaching contract of Sebija Izetbegovic, director of the Sarajevo Clinical Centre and professor at the Faculty of Medicine in the Bosnian capital, removing her as a full professor at the Faculty of Medicine on Wednesday.