Skip to main content

What the new EU ambassador told WTOP's JJ Green on a recent hike in Rock Creek Park

[connatix_element_embed script_id=8c5f882415ff4882842dac84ab630cbd player_id=7bc491b4-922b-4e8d-b1b1-150648e80442 video_id=7f0eaa95-18af-45c3-bd36-d953b01692ed align=right]

Walking through scenic Rock Creek Park in D.C. on an early, cool morning in late May, Jovita Neliupšienė paused along a trail and proudly pointed to her T-shirt. It had a blue background with red and white writing. It read, “Whatever victory takes.”

It refers to Ukraine’s desperate fight for survival in the brutal war Russia is waging for control of that country.

Neliupšienė, who became the new European Union ambassador to the U.S. in January, described the slogan, saying, “We have to make sure that Ukraine wins and Russia loses, because the Ukrainians are fighting not only for their country, their democracy and their freedom, but they are fighting for the values which we all care about.”

She, along with other EU diplomats and officials, has visited countless cities across the U.S. in recent months to learn about the diverse patchwork of people, cultures and values that make up America. They also are sharing valuable lessons they’ve learned from more than a century of Russian malign influence campaigns, propaganda and newly emerging strains of disinformation.

Neliupšienė, a fan of hiking in American parks, talked with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green on Wednesday as they walked on a trail not far from the Rock Creek Park Golf Course.

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Once shaped by court rituals, China’s imperial cuisine lives on today

BEIJING (AP) — It is said that Empress Dowager Cixi once dreamed of a pastry during the final decades of imperial China. The same treat was served to her at breakfast the following morning. Delighted, she summoned her chef and rewarded him with a silver ingot. “It was originally called ‘minced pork pancake,’ but because it had fulfilled her dream, it later became known as ‘dream pastry,’” said Zhou Tong, a chef at Fangshan Restaurant in Beijing. Fangshan specializes in imperial cuisine, preserving dishes like the one associated with Cixi and other culinary traditions from China’s imperial court. The restaurant was founded in 1925 by former chefs from the Qing Dynasty at Beihai Park, a garden where royals from several dynasties rested, handled government affairs and performed ritual sacrifices.
Read Next Story