IRC Rome's List: ItalyPolicyMain

February 9, 2016 -- "It’s a familiar sight in many countries: rallies at which political candidates shower the crowd with T-shirts, food or gifts of cash. The practice has gone on in some parts of the world for centuries, the candidates thinking well-placed money will earn them loyalty at the ballot box."

February 8, 2016 -- "It is my pleasure to welcome President Mattarella and his delegation to the Oval Office. The President has an extraordinarily distinguished career as an academic, as a jurist, as a public servant. He has the honor of being the first Sicilian to become President of Italy."

February 8, 2016 -- "Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for being here. It’s my pleasure to welcome the foreign minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Adel al-Jubeir, an old friend of mine. We have been working at this for a long, long time together. And now, ironically, we met when he was first in the foreign service and I was first in the Senate, and now he is the foreign minister, as am I."

February 4, 2016 -- "Well, your excellencies all, I'm cutting down significantly because we were originally given a little more time, but I'm very happy to try to fit it all in as quickly as I can. After almost five years of fighting, it's pretty incredible that as we come here to London in 2016, the situation on the ground is actually worse, not better. And the suffering in Syria grows; it's not diminishing."

February 2, 2016 -- [...]"Well, good morning, everybody. And Paolo, thank you very, very much. First of all, on behalf of everybody, we thank you for hosting us here today. We thank the Government of Italy. We thank the people of Rome for putting up with whatever disruptions come with this many ministers from so many countries coming together. This is the Small Group, but as you look around the table, it doesn't look so small and I think that's because ministers are joined by members of their team, which is appropriate."

January 31, 2016 -- "For almost five years, the world has watched in horror as Syria has disintegrated into a brutal conflict, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions both within and outside the country. Syria today is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe, unmatched since World War II."

January 2016 -- "On January 27, 2016, countries that have endorsed the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) will gather in Washington, DC, for a political conference. This conference will afford PSI endorsing states a chance to reaffirm their commitment to the PSI and build greater momentum leading to the group’s 15th anniversary and high-level meeting in 2018."

January 27, 2016 -- [...]"Well, Mr. President, thank you very much. Thank you, first of all, for this meeting and for the very productive and in-depth conversations I had earlier. Your foreign policy team and state councilor have done an excellent job of helping us to make some progress today."

January 26, 2016 -- "Before the Holocaust, during which at least 6 million Jews were murdered at the hands of the Nazis, there was no term to describe the systematic destruction of a people."
A Polish refugee to the United States named Raphael Lemkin invented the term “genocide” in 1944, when Nazi atrocities reached their height.

January 25, 2016 -- "In many of the world’s poorest countries, mobile phones are more common than clean water or electricity. Today, more than three billion people worldwide enjoy Internet access.

This technological progress is remarkable.

However, for the 60 percent of the world’s population that still lacks Internet access, reaping the benefits of the digital revolution is difficult or impossible."

January 25, 2016 -- "Well, thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. I’m very happy to be back. I have been a here a number of times through the years and we appreciate very much the cooperation of Laos on a number of issues. I particularly thank you for the help on the accountability for the missing in action and the – addressing the issues of the impacts of the war."

January 23, 2016 -- [...]" Thank you very much and good morning, everybody. Assalamu alaikum. I’m honored to be here again, one of many visits, and I’m particularly appreciative to His Majesty King Salman’s welcome, and I look forward to seeing him shortly. And I’m very grateful to my counterpart and longtime friend, Adel al-Jubeir, for his hosting this meeting here today and making arrangements on short notice for us to be able to discuss some very important issues."

Annual Meeting 2016

January 21, 2016 -- "After nearly two decades in the United States, Sudanese American Mihyar Osman has learned a lot about his country — and himself.

“To be American means to have the freedom to read, to work, to start a family and to settle in America in a way you can design by yourself,” Mihyar says."

January 20, 2016 -- [...]"One grassroots organization that emerged out of the devastation is Haitian-run Economic Stimulus Projects for Work and Action (ESPWA), which rose to the challenge of rebuilding in difficult circumstances."

January 20, 2016 -- "I have not only seen the impact instability has on societies: I have lived through them.

As a student from Guatemala who migrated to the United States, I have experienced firsthand how injustice, violence, and corruption harm lives.

Witnessing those facets of life and society in my home country is a part of my journey that I will never forget."

January 20, 2016 -- "The United States strongly condemns today’s attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda. We offer our deepest condolences to the victims and their families during this time of grief. It is particularly appalling that these terrorists continue to attack educational institutions, targeting Pakistan’s future generations."

January 19, 2016 -- "Despite the daunting challenges facing the world today, groundbreaking agreements reached by the nations of the world in 2015 are cause for optimism. Three global agreements, in particular, give us the frameworks and tools to change mankind’s future for the better. "

January 18, 2016 -- "Legislation was signed in 1983 creating a federal holiday marking the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday as a national day of service and charged the Corporation for National and Community Service with leading this effort."

January 18, 2016 -- [...]"We really almost had an agreement – I thought we did have an agreement – well before implementation day, and it got caught up in a snag on interpretation and we had to work it through. And then it simply dovetailed in and it dovetailed in fairly easily, but it was not linked distinctly."