<p><strong>Serbia-Kosovo to resume talks</strong>: EU-sponsored talks between longtime foes Kosovo and Serbia will <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-serbia-kosovo-dialogue-to-resume-this-week-avdullah-hoti-aleksandar-vucic/" target="_blank">resume</a> this week, almost two years after a disagreement over territorial exchanges prompted Kosovo to slap 100 percent tariffs on Serbian products. The aim of the talks is to reach a peace deal between Serbia and Kosovo, the majority-Albanian region of Serbia that suffered a campaign of Serb-directed ethnic cleansing in the late 1990s and then <a href="https://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_kosovos_path_to_independence" target="_blank">declared independence with US and EU backing</a> in 2008. Though the EU has long brokered talks between the rivals in the hopes of stabilizing the Western Balkans and strengthening their ties with the EU, the US has recently tried to play a more prominent role in overseeing a détente between the two sides, presenting a<a href="https://euobserver.com/foreign/147706" target="_blank"> rival plan</a> that riled the EU. Meanwhile, Kosovo's President Hashim Thaçi was forced to abandon a meeting with President Trump last month when the Hague announced they had filed war crimes charges against him. </p><strong>The Dominican Republic has a new president</strong>: Opposition candidate Luis Abinader is poised to become the next president of the Dominican Republic after amassing an insurmountable lead over the incumbent, Gonzalo Castillo. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/businessman-wins-dominican-presidency-in-virus-marked-vote/2020/07/06/bccf0db6-bf86-11ea-8908-68a2b9eae9e0_story.html" target="_blank">Abinader</a>, a US-educated businessman whose second surname is, as it happens, <em>Corona</em>, won despite having to briefly suspend his campaign to recover from the coronavirus himself. The vote had originally been planned for May but was postponed due to the pandemic. Abinader will be just the second member of the Lebanese diaspora to lead a Caribbean country after <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-28-mn-28772-story.html" target="_blank">Robert Malval</a>, who was prime minister of neighboring Haiti from 1993-1994. In addition to addressing the devastating economic blow of <a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/28832/as-covid-19-wreaks-havoc-on-tourism-caribbean-faces-long-path-to-recovery" target="_blank">losing tourism</a> inflows, Abinader will also have to manage a delicate issue with neighboring Haiti: the spread of COVID-19 in Haiti attributed to <a href="https://www.gzeromedia.com/coronavirus-politics-daily-burundi-boots-the-who-vaccine-squabbles-haiti-braces-for-an-outbreak" target="_self">migrants</a> returning home from the Dominican Republic.
Read Now
Show less