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One of the architects of the Uluru statement from the heart, Alyawarre elder Pat Anderson, says she remains confident of a successful yes vote in the referendum on enshrining a voice to parliament in the constitution, despite many speakers at Thursday’s Invasion Day rallies publicly rejecting it.An Ipsos poll of about 300 Aboriginal and Islander people conducted in the days before Thursday’s rallies showed about 80% were in favour, 10% undecided and 10% firmly voting no. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Anderson, the Uluru Dialogue co-chair, said she was “buoyed up and confident” that there was still a lot of support around the country from First Nations people and other supporters for the voice.“But we’ve got a long way to go,” she said. “It’s a very, very active campaign with a lot of opinions.”Quick GuideWhat is the Indigenous voice to parliament and how would it work?ShowWhat has happened already?The Albanese government has put forward the question: "Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice?" The PM also suggested three sentences be added to the constitution:There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice.It may make representations to parliament and the executive government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.The parliament shall, subject to this constitution, have power to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice.How would it work?The voice would advise the Australian parliament and government on matters relating to the social, spiritual and economic wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.The voice would be able to table formal advice in parliament and a parliamentary committee would consider that advice. But all elements would be non-justiciable, meaning that there could not be a court challenge and no law could be invalidated based on this consultation.How would it be structured?The Indigenous voice co-design report recommended the national voice have 24 members, encompassing two from each state, the Northern Territory, ACT and Torres Strait. A further five members would represent remote areas and an additional member would represent Torres Strait Islanders living on the mainland.Members would serve four-year terms, with half the membership determined every two years.For more detail, read our explainer here.Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPAnderson said there was “disinformation and misinformation” given to people at the rallies.“It was a big megaphone yesterday, and it was used by those people who were organisers for their own purposes,” she said.Thousands of people attended Invasion Day rallies across Australia on Thursday, where First Nations speakers called for action on deaths in custody, an end to the removal of Aboriginal children and – in many locations – made a case against an Indigenous voice to parliament being enacted before a treaty.Anderson said the Uluru statement does call for a treaty, but a voice should come first. She said the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria was essentially a voice to the Victorian government, set up by traditional owners to negotiate on their behalf.The assembly will negotiate a statewide treaty which could include improving political representation for First Nations Victorians via a permanent Indigenous decision-making body, or reserved seats for Indigenous representatives, similar to New Zealand’s parliament.Traditional owners will also be able to enter into separate negotiations with the state.“They had to set up the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria because you need a body to oversee all of those discussions,” Anderson said. “We still have to decide: are we talking about one treaty? Or are we talking about over 360? There’s a lot of work to do, and we need to do that ourselves.”Anderson is a member of the Albanese government’s referendum working group and has spent decades working in Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory. She co-authored the Little Children Are Sacred report on the abuse of Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory, which was used by the Howard government in 2007 to justify the military intervention in territory communities.Anderson said she was distressed to hear calls by the federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and the Alice Springs mayor, Matt Paterson, to send in the army or federal police to quell social unrest in town, which prompted a rapid visit by the prime minister and new alcohol restrictions.Aboriginal organisations say they had repeatedly warned all levels of governments that alcohol-related harms would rise if alcohol bans were lifted, but nothing was done.Anderson said she firmly believed that, if there was a voice, the situation in Alice Springs could have been avoided by forcing governments to listen to what Aboriginal people say they want and need.“How do you get them to listen? You lock it into the constitution,” she said. “By what our mob call the ‘big law’. They have to follow their own law. That’s why they have to listen because we will have the protection of the constitution, which comes to us from the Australian public, not the politicians.” | Australia Politics |
BERLIN, June 25 (Reuters) - A far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate won a vote on Sunday to become a district leader in Europe's biggest economy for the first time, a breakthrough for the party which has hit record highs in national polls.
The 10-year old AfD, with which Germany's mainstream parties officially refuse to cooperate due to its radical views, won a run-off vote in the Sonneberg district in the eastern state of Thuringia with its candidate garnering 52.8% of the vote.
It is the latest success for the party which is riding a wave of popular discontent with Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz's awkward coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) which is dogged by infighting over policy and the budget.
Polling at 19%-20%, behind the opposition conservatives, the AfD is tapping into voter fears about recession, migration and the green transition, say analysts. It even plans to nominate a chancellor candidate in the 2025 federal election.
While far-right parties have gained ground around Europe, the strength of the AfD is particularly sensitive in Germany due to the country's Nazi past.
The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, expressed deep shock.
"This is a watershed that this country's democratic political forces cannot simply accept," he told RND media.
Particularly strong in the former Communist East, polls suggest the party may win three eastern state votes next year.
A clear victory for the AfD's Robert Sesselmann in the district, which has a population of only around 56,000 people, sends a signal to Berlin, say analysts, especially as all other parties in Sonneberg joined forces in a front against him.
Sesselmann was forced into a run-off against a conservative candidate after a vote two weeks ago. The conservative candidate won 47.2% on Sunday.
The party opposes economic sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine war and disputes that human activity is a cause of climate change.
The domestic intelligence agency said this month that far-right extremism posed the biggest threat to democracy in Germany and warned voters about backing the AfD.
Formed a decade ago as an anti-euro party, its popularity surged after the 2015 migrant crisis and it entered parliament in 2017, becoming the official opposition.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Europe Politics |
QUITO -- Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed Wednesday by an unidentified gunman while at a political rally in the country's capital of Quito, President Guillermo Lasso said.
The killing comes amid a startling wave of violence in the South American nation, with drug trafficking and violent killings on the rise.
“I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” Lasso said in a statement. “Organized crime has gone too far, but they will feel the full weight of the law.”
Videos on social media appear to show the candidate walking out of the event surrounded by guards. The video then shows Villavicencio entering a white truck followed by gunfire.
The politician, 59, was the candidate for the Build Ecuador Movement. He was one of eight presidential candidates for the late August election.
He was one of the most critical voices against corruption, especially during the government of former President Rafael Correa from 2007 to 2017. He filed many judicial complaints against high ranking members of the Correa government.
Early accounts show that several others were injured in the attack, though authorities did not confirm how many.
He was married and is survived by five children. | Latin America Politics |
- Summary
- Official says struck vessels likely beyond repair
- Ukraine says it attacked Sevastopol port in annexed Crimea
- Moscow says two vessels undergoing repairs were damaged
- Attack seen as biggest on Sevastopol since 2022 invasion
KYIV, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Ukraine said it struck Russian naval targets and port infrastructure early on Wednesday in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, in what appeared to be the biggest attack of the war on the home of the Russian navy's Black Sea Fleet.
A Ukrainian intelligence official said a large vessel and a submarine struck in the attack were so badly damaged as to be likely beyond repair.
The strike on Crimea, seized and annexed by Russia in 2014, was confirmed by Moscow. It highlighted Kyiv's growing missile capabilities as Russia continues to bombard Ukraine from afar with long-range missiles and assault drones.
"We confirm a large landing vessel and submarine were hit. We do not comment on the means (used) for the strike," Ukrainian military intelligence official Andriy Yusov told Reuters, giving no further details on the scale of the damage.
Yusov later told national television: "Those are significant damages. We can now say that with a high probability they are not subject to restoration."
Russia's defence ministry said in statement that Ukraine had attacked a Black Sea shipyard with 10 cruise missiles and three uncrewed speedboats in the early hours, damaging two military vessels that had been undergoing repairs.
It said it downed seven of the incoming missiles and that the attack boats had been destroyed by a Russian patrol ship.
An image circulated online and verified by Reuters showed a docked vessel that had sustained serious damage.
Yuri Ihnat, spokesperson for Ukraine's air force, was wary on the Russian assertion that its units had downed most of the incoming missiles.
"It's hard to say how many they were capable of downing," Ihnat told national television. "It is important not to underestimate their anti-aircraft units. Perhaps they destroyed them. Perhaps not."
BIGGEST ATTACK
Retired Ukrainian navy captain Andriy Ryzhenko, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said: "It really is the biggest attack on Sevastopol since the beginning of the war."
The city is home to the Black Sea Fleet which the Kremlin uses to project power into the Middle East and Mediterranean and - during the war in Ukraine - to impose a de facto blockade on Ukraine's seaborne food exports via the Turkish straits.
Ukraine has tried to push back against the fleet's naval power by attacking with sea drones packed with explosives, but Russia has continued to use its warships for missile attacks on Ukraine throughout the more than 18-month-old war.
It was not clear what kind of missile was used by Kyiv in the attack on Sevastopol, which lies about 300 km (185 miles) from Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa.
Russia's Defence Ministry, quoted by news agencies, later said it had detected and destroyed three Ukrainian uncrewed boats in the Black Sea.
Ryzhenko said Ukraine may have used domestically made Neptune anti-ship missiles that had been modified to work against ground targets. British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles were another possibility, he said.
Britain's Sky News cited unnamed sources saying Storm Shadows were used in the attack.
The West has poured weapons worth billions of dollars into Ukraine to help it fend off Russian forces that have occupied swathes of territory in the south and east since their full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Ukrainian military, which launched a counteroffensive in early June, took the unusual step of publicly claiming responsibility for the strike, something it does not typically do for attacks on Russia or the Crimea peninsula.
"On the morning of Sept. 13 the Ukrainian armed forces conducted successful strikes on naval assets and port infrastructure of the occupiers at the docks of temporarily occupied Sevastopol," it said on Telegram.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and a major Black Sea port, said on Telegram that at least 24 people had been injured.
He posted a night photo of flames engulfing what appeared to be port infrastructure. Russian Telegram channels posted videos and more photos of flames at a facility by the water.
On the streets of Sevastopol on Wednesday afternoon, residents said the attack had woken them up.
"My child was woken up as well. It was about 3 in the morning. We got very scared. Everything was shaking," said Nadezhda Lunyova.
Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Anna Pruchnicka, Julia Dysa, Felix Light and Reuters TV; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Alison Williamsm, Ron Popeski and Sharon Singleton
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Europe Politics |
An American mom, 67, spent her life advocating for Palestinian rights. Now she's a Hamas hostage.
SHEFAYIM KIBBUTZ, Israel − They exchanged text messages and emojis. Brief status updates with words of encouragement. A picture of the beloved family dog, Tutsi.
Until no more messages came.
And then, Cindy Flash, an American, and her Israeli husband, Igal, vanished into the violence, presumed kidnapped by Hamas.
Four days after Hamas attacked Israel, more than 100 Israelis and possibly dozens of foreign nationals are thought to be held captive in the Gaza Strip. At least 14 U.S. citizens have been killed and an unknown number are still unaccounted for.
Flash, 67, originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, is one of them. She lives in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel near Gaza, where some of the most harrowing and grisly stories have been emerging over the past few days.
"They are breaking down the safe room door," Flash said in one of her final messages to her daughter Keren, 34. "We need someone to come by the house right now." Keren had been communicating with her parents from a few houses away.
Keren described her mother, an administrator in a local college, as someone who had the "sweetest biggest heart," whom everyone knew and loved, and who had spent a lifetime advocating for the rights of Palestinians, including those who live in Gaza, where she may now be held.
She emigrated to Israel decades ago after a visit during college, when she fell in love with Israel's system of kibbutzim − collectives traditionally centered on agriculture but which have evolved to accommodate myriad interests, tastes and even businesses.
"They didn't deserve this,'' her daughter said Tuesday on the grounds of a sprawling hotel and resort on a coastal kibbutz northeast of Tel Aviv, where hundreds of people were evacuated after the attack. "No one deserves this."
It was filled with volunteers bringing sandwiches and sweetcakes. Sobbing teenagers, reunited after days of having their worst fears confirmed, hugged one another tightly. Small groups of people sat at tables hunched over laptops compiling lists of the missing. A manager said about 300 people from Kfar Aza were staying at the hotel.
Before the attack, Kfar Aza had a population of about 800. Nobody knows for sure how many survived.
An Israeli home next to the Gaza security fence
Cindy and Igal's home in Kfar Aza sits right next to the security fence Hamas militants broke through Saturday morning as they attacked Israel by land, sea and air.
The couple had recently renovated it, which had required that they move away from the kibbutz for a few months.
"They were so happy to be back," Keren said.
And their daughter said that despite their proximity to Gaza, everyone in the family had always felt secure and reveled in their area's lush vegetation, tranquility and sense of community.
In fact, the extended Flash family had expected a very different Saturday from the one they got.
They had planned a family picnic. And later that afternoon they were going to make and fly kites in the local soccer field as part of an annual community event. Maybe, they thought, they'd have a little ice cream and relax after a hectic week of family life and work. A DJ was going to play.
Instead, Keren, a Pilates instructor, and her husband, Avidor Schwartzman, 37, a media consultant, woke abruptly around 6:30 a.m. to a blaring alarm system and heard what appeared to be the sound of bombs going off. They leaped out of bed and dashed down the hall to grab their 1-year-old baby, Saar, and her bottle, diapers, water and a little food. Then they locked themselves in a room of concrete and reinforced steel.
Around the same time, Cindy and Igal, 66, locked themselves in their own safe room. The sounds of bombs gradually turned into the sounds of automatic gunfire as Hamas militants encircled Kfar Aza and began going house to house to hunt people down.
"We started losing contact with so many people on various WhatsApp groups," said Keren, who along with Avidor and Saar was eventually rescued by Israeli security services. ''We would hear that they were wounded, and then they would just drop off completely."
Israel media reported Tuesday that the bodies of 40 children and babies were found in Kfar Aza, some of whom had been beheaded. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said Kfar Aza was a "massacre." The bodies of civilians and militants were found scattered throughout the kibbutz. He declined to comment on the beheadings. One report, which USA TODAY could not independently verify, said that multiple people had been beheaded and that charred bodies had been found. The Israeli death toll from the Hamas attack has passed 1,200.
Not giving up hope that her family will be found
Neither the U.S. nor Israeli authorities had been able to provide them with any information about where her parents might be, Keren said.
But she had not lost hope they would be found.
"Anytime someone calls us, any authority from the kibbutz or anywhere, our hearts sink down, and then they say, 'We don't have any new information.'"
Shaylee Atary, 34, another Kfar Aza resident, spent several days coming to terms with this feeling as well.
She last saw her husband, Yahav Winner, 37, on Saturday as he barricaded a window of their home to allow time for Shaylee and their 1-month old daughter, Shaya, to flee.
'A signal that I should run'
"He kept saying to me, 'This is not the day we are going to die,'" Atary said.
"We could hear the attackers walking on the grass outside the window. There was a crunching sound because the leaves have started to fall down because of the season. We couldn't talk because we didn't want them to hear our voices, so we were signaling silently to each other. And then, as they were breaking through the window, Yahav looked at me for a quarter-second. He didn't say goodbye, but I understood that it was like a kind of signal that I should run."
She fled first to some nearby bushes, and then to an empty garden shed.
And running, for Atary, is hard because of a car accident that has made it difficult for her to walk. She also was carrying Shaya.
As she hid in the shed, Atary found a hammer and screwdriver, which she put in her pockets. She put some old pots on her and Shaya's head, who was − miraculously − asleep.
But then the baby woke up and began to cry, which attracted the attention of the attackers. She could hear them walking toward her. She feared they would shoot into the shed indiscriminately.
"I knew I had to run again," she said. "But this time, it was a decision, not so much an instinct. So again I fled, and when I reached a large grassy area that is in the middle of our kibbutz, I thought 'Well, maybe this is how I die, despite what Yahav said.'"
'Don't be a hero'
Moments later, a family with children sheltering in their home saw her and ushered her inside, risking their lives. She stayed in this safe room for the next 27 hours, without food or water, and as the oxygen in the sealed safe room dwindled, before they were rescued by Israel's military.
"Yahav is a very protective," she said of her husband. "He's also smart. I believe he probably surrendered to allow us to escape."
Late Tuesday the news finally came. Yahav's body had been found.
"In my head now, I tell myself that when he looked at me what he was saying was: 'Shaylee, you are with the child. I'm holding the door. Go'," she said.
"Then I think, why didn't I say: 'Don't be a hero. Come with me.'"
Keep up with developments from Gaza: Sign up for our Israel-Hamas War newsletter.
Is Iran behind Hamas terrorist attacks?What it would mean for US and Middle East security | Middle East Politics |
Gaza’s Queer Palestinians Fight to Be Remembered
Through the online platform Queering the Map, stories of queer Palestinians can live on forever, asserting to the world that they do, in fact, exist.
As Israel’s attack on Gaza carries on, Palestinian history is being ripped from existence. Entire family trees are being uprooted and scorched. This kind of annihilation doesn’t just harm the physical body of a people; it attacks their ability to pass on their knowledge, their stories, their customs, and their culture to future generations. As in other genocides, a central intent of this erasure is to eliminate not only lives but a collective memory as well. The loss is incalculable. For queer and trans people in Gaza, already existing on the margins of society, the erasure is tenfold.
Israel’s far-right government, despite aligning itself with homophobic powers around the globe, insists that the Israeli state is a haven for LGBTQ people—in contrast with Palestine, where, it is implied, no queer person could last even a day. This “pinkwashing” is part of Israeli propaganda that erases the existence of queer Palestinians.
Reporting from the Queer Bloc of the recent National March on Washington to Free Palestine, Steven Thrasher writes in Mondoweiss:
But this faux-moral superiority pinkwashes the ways LGBTQ Palestinians are not welcome in Israel (nor, increasingly, in the United States), and it tries to hide the brutality of their lives under apartheid even before October 7. And as if their own governments and religious zealots don’t enact lethal homophobia and transphobia, Israel and the United States’s pinkwashing condemns Palestine as inherently homophobic and transphobic.
Israel’s pinkwashing not only implies that there are no LGBTQ Palestinians but also that they cannot possibly be accepted as they are, where they are. In other words, they must flee to a more “civilized” society, i.e., a white, European one.
However, LGBTQ Palestinans are finding ways to counter these narratives and make their existence known, even as Israel destroys the world around them. Chief among their outlets is an interactive website, Queering the Map, that allows users to pin stories and memories of their queer and trans experiences all over the world.
Current Issue
In a moment when journalists have been under attack and a blockade on electricity has severely limited the ability of people in Gaza to get their message out, Queering the Map has become an essential tool for queer Palestinians whose stories could have disappeared beneath the rubble altogether.
The entries are equal parts romantic, wistful, and heartbreaking—the testimony of people trying to find love and beauty in a world that wants to erase them from existence.
In one submission, someone wrote:
Idk how long I will live so I just want this to be my memory here before I die. I am not going to leave my home, come what may. My biggest regret is not kissing this one guy. He died two days back. We had told how much we like each other and I was too shy to kiss last time. He died in the bombing. I think a big part of me died too. And soon I will be dead. To younus, i will kiss you in heaven.
Another wrote:
I’ve always imagined you and me sitting out in the sun, hand and hand, free at last. We spoke of all the places we would go if we could. Yet you are gone now. If I had known that bombs raining down on us would take you from me, I would have gladly told the world how I adored you more than anything. I’m sorry I was a coward.
In just a few short lines, these anonymous Palestinians were able to capture all that is lost when people are annihilated. Each of these submissions is pinned to Gaza, though the date they were uploaded to the platform is unknown.
Israel conducted air strikes on the Gaza Strip throughout 2022; a three-day attack in August 2022 killed 46 Palestinians and wounded 350 people.
It’s hard to discern which specific Israeli missile killed the lovers and crushes these submitters write about, highlighting the ongoing trauma from Israeli military bombardments faced by Palestinians in Gaza.
Another post reads:
A place [where] I kissed my first [crush]. Being gay in Gaza is hard but somehow it was fun. I made out with a lot of boys in my neighborhood. I thought everyone is gay to some level.
Unsurprisingly, many struggle to hold the two identities as able to coexist. Commenting on some Palestinian screenshots on Queering the Map’s official Instagram page, some have posed questions like, “How [do] queers support Palestine knowing they will execute them for their identity at the first opportunity?” and “Maybe visit Palestine and check if it’s not punishable by death, Yell ‘Slayyyyy’ when you get there they love it.”
These comments deliberately overlook the more immediate punishment, the collective punishment for being Palestinian in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, or even Israel. More than 11,200 people, including over 4,000 children, have been killed in Gaza since October 7. These comments deflect from the executions that are happening every 15 minutes as Israel continues relentless air strikes on Gaza, with illegal chemical weapons like white phosphorus. Comments like these rely on racist tropes about Palestinians to deflect from the violence all Palestinians are subjected to. Tropes that green-lighted journalistic malpractice when unverified reports of Hamas beheading babies circulated in mainstream media—which were later retracted by the White House. Tropes that are directly responsible for the current ethnic cleansing of Gaza. People are being decapitated in Gaza, not for being queer but for being Palestinian.
In an article about Pinkwashing, Al-Qaws, a Palestinian civil-society organization for Sexual and Gender diversity, writes:
When queer Palestinians are spoken about by Israel’s defenders, it is only to paint a portrait of individual victimization that reinforces a binary between Palestinian backwardness and Israeli progressiveness. These portrayals suggest that Palestinian society suffers from pathological homophobia, and that no dissenting voices could ever survive for long within it. Pinkwashing tells queer Palestinians that personal (and never collective) liberation can only be found by escaping from their communities and running into their colonizer’s arms.
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Israel’s Ludicrous Propaganda Wins Over the Only Audience That Counts Israel’s Ludicrous Propaganda Wins Over the Only Audience That Counts
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By painting Palestine and Palestinians as intrinsically homophobic, Palestinian resistance is framed as antithetical to queer liberation, while Israeli occupation is a form of queer salvation. In fact, Israeli security forces have admitted to deliberately threatening and outing queer Palestinians as a tactic to intimidate them into working as informants.
Communities of color in the US know the ramifications of transphobic and homophobic scapegoating. People of color are often depicted as innately more homophobic than their white counterparts. Yet, when Black trans people are murdered across this country with impunity, or when state governments pass policies that force families with trans children to leave their homes for safer cities, we don’t insist that these places be decimated for their violent views. When it’s not the Global South we’re talking about, we tend to be better able to understand that transphobic and homophobic violence are not reflective of the whole.
Witnessing Queering the Map in a time of war, brings to mind another map created from a need for self-definition against US war propaganda. In 2010, Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal created a performance piece “and Counting…,” where his back was tattooed with dots for each Iraqi killed by the US, and to challenge American desensitization to the catastrophic loss of Iraqi life during the height of the Iraq war. The piece was performed over the course of 24 hours in a New York City gallery. He was not able to tattoo all 100,000 dots representing Iraqi’s killed (a conservative estimate—some say the toll is closer to 1,000,000) before running out of space on his back. Bilal sought to commemorate the dead as well as challenge American audiences to interrogate their relationship to the people they typically saw as simply statistics. He did not have the luxury of distance from these numbers; his own brother, Haji Bilal, was killed by a US air strike in 2004.
Wafaa Bilal’s tattooed map was in direct conversation with another kind of tattooing that had been taking place across Iraq. As a result of the sheer carnage brought by the American military, Iraqis, especially young men tattooed parts of their bodies with their names and various forms of identification, in hopes of making it easier for their loved ones to identify their bodies when the time came.
In October, videos circulated of small Palestinian children mapping their own bodies with permanent markers, taking a cue from the young people of Iraq who used tattoo guns to alleviate the psychic suffering their family members would endure when they went searching for body parts to bury. The videos of the children, gathered in groups, writing their names as their young minds are forced to reckon with the end of their short lives, are heartbreaking. The images of children’s dead bodies with their names stretched across their still limbs are harrowing.
It is vital to unravel the misinformation that keeps people consenting to wars where thousands of children are deemed acceptable “collateral damage.” It is vital that these children stop being forced to write their names and their little siblings’ names on their arms, so they may live long enough to feel their own heart flutter after meeting a new crush. So they can know the uncertainty of tingling fingertips as you try to decide whether or not to reach for their hand. So they might someday experience all of the ways one can love, and some can even write their own memories into queer archives.
Queering the Map can be seen as a digital version of this act of memory-keeping for queer people as their loved ones are killed and the end of their own life feels imminent. More than the shocking horror of seeing their bodies mutilated by Israeli missiles, the memories of Palestinians in Gaza become a connective tissue for people like myself, who have also had first crushes, and been in love, and had to hide it for a myriad of reasons.
I read these stories and grieve the people whose desperate fingers typed them. I think about them and wonder if they have survived the US-funded Israeli airstrikes. If they will be able to leave new notes on this Queer Map. If they will be able to rebuild Gaza in their image, with their love and memories. If they will one day be free of occupation travel restrictions to wander the globe and experience the different pulses of queer communities, and come back home to Gaza, sharing their stories with dear friends. Reminiscing over the parties they went to, the people they kissed, the meals they shared, the queer memories they made. Or if they have already joined the loves they wrote of in the next realm. If they are together, fingers intertwined, walking the shoreline of a Gaza that isn’t mapped by bombs.
In a way, the anonymous Gazans’ whose stories are pinned on Queering the Map, are asking us to do more than bear witness. They are asking us to love their loves with them. To hear our own stories in their stories. To love them. Adore them. And thus, be haunted by what we have allowed them to become. | Middle East Politics |
- Summary
- S. Korean newspaper cites government sources on agreement
- Seoul and Washington have yet to comment on the deal
- South Korea says it cannot provide lethal weapons to Ukraine
- Seoul concerned about evolving threats from North Korea
SEOUL, April 12 (Reuters) - South Korea has reached an agreement to lend the United States 500,000 rounds of 155mm artillery shells that could give Washington greater flexibility to supply Ukraine with ammunition, a South Korean newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The DongA Ilbo newspaper cited unidentified government sources as saying South Korea decided to "lend" the ammunition instead of selling, to minimise the possibility of South Korean shells being used in the Ukraine conflict.
South Korea's defence ministry said the allies have been exploring ways to support Ukraine but declined to confirm specific discussions.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately offer comment.
The report came after leaked highly classified U.S. military documents highlighted South Korea's difficulties dealing with pressure from Western allies to help with the supply of military aid to Ukraine.
South Korea, a key U.S. ally and major producer of artillery ammunition, says it cannot provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, citing its own security situation amid evolving nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.
The newspaper said the shells would be used primarily by the United States to fill its stockpile.
Having bought 100,000 such shells last year, the U.S. government had asked to buy the same amount or more in February, but the South Korean government sought another way to supply the ammunition.
"We've opted to significantly increase the volume of shells but take the rental method, after exploring how to respond to the request of the blood ally in good faith while sticking to the government principle of not providing lethal weapons to Ukraine," one source was quoted as saying.
The article did not provide details on the workings of the "rental menthod".
Both Seoul and Washington have confirmed they were negotiating an artillery supply deal, but there has been no official word on whether an agreement was finalised. The newspaper said the agreement was reached last month.
Foreign Minister Park Jin told reporters that he could not confirm the newspaper report, but added that the government position against providing lethal aid to Ukraine remained unchanged.
'GRAPPLED WITH REQUEST'
South Korea's Yoon, who is visiting Washington this month for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, has said Seoul had not provided any lethal weapons to Ukraine but would expand humanitarian assistance instead.
The country's assistance to Ukraine was included in classified documents that were leaked online this year and spotlighted in reporting during the last week.
In the documents, top South Korean presidential officials worried about a plan to sell shells to Washington, saying they might be diverted to Ukraine despite Seoul's position that the U.S. military should be the "end user".
One leaked bulletin, marked "Top Secret" and seen by Reuters, said Seoul as of early March "grappled with the U.S. request to provide artillery ammunition to Ukraine".
Former national security adviser Kim Sung-han "suggested the possibility of selling the 330,000 rounds of 155mm munitions to Poland, since getting the ammunition to Ukraine quickly was the ultimate goals of the United States", it said.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the documents. U.S. officials have said some appeared to have been modified.
Seoul and Washington were scrambling to contain the fallout of the leak, amid suspicions the U.S. could have been spying on South Korea, one of its most important allies.
Speaking at a parliamentary session, Foreign Minister Park said unauthorised wiretapping would be considered "problematic" but declined to comment when asked if the U.S. confirmed to South Korea that there was no spying on its presidential office.
"We have asked the U.S. via diplomatic channel to share with us exactly what happened and what has been confirmed," the foreign minister said.
Park said he was first briefed on the suspected leak of U.S. documents on the weekend following media reports.
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Boris Johnson guns for Rishi Sunak: Ex-PM demands his successor cuts taxes and puts 'growth back into the economy' while sending even more British tanks to Ukraine in cosy TalkTV appearance with supporter Nadine Dorries
- Boris Johnson has done an interview with Nadine Dorries for new Talk TV show
- Gave a glimpse into how he has been spending time since leaving Downing St
Boris Johnson laid into Rishi Sunak today as he demanded tax cuts and policies aimed at going all out for economic growth before the next election.
The former PM, who quit in the summer after a scandal-dogged three years in office, used a television interview with close ally Nadine Dorries to put pressure on his successor in No10.
In a wide-ranging interview on TalkTV he said the government needed to get 'on the front foot' over the economy with tax cuts 'when the time comes'.
Mr Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who will present his Budget next month, have said they will only bring in tax cuts when inflation has been brought under control.
In the cozy sit down with Ms Dorries, one of his most vocal cheerleaders, he also said that the UK should increase the number of tanks it is sending to Ukraine from the current 14.
He also insisted that the Tories could still be win the next election, despite trailing Sir Keir Starmer's Labour party massively in the polls, because the public would reward the party for 'for cutting their taxes'.
After a week in which he has conducted a plethora of media interviews, mainly in the United States, he also mocked the PM for how many times he had been on television, claiming: 'He's been on TV a lot more than me lately'.
opened up on how he has been filling his time in an interview with close ally Nadine Dorries for her new Talk TV show
In the Talk TV appearance - being broadcast at 8pm tonight- Ms Dorries asked him whether he was now able to spend more time with the two small children he share with wife Carrie
In an interview broadcast this evening, Mr Johnson discussed the economic problems facing the UK.
'The fiscal position was pretty robust when I left office, we had scope to do all sorts of things and we were going to do them and I have no doubt that when the time comes, the Government will make sure that they start to reduce the tax burden and get the economy growing again and that is what needs to happen,' he said.
'We need to be on the front foot out there talking about the benefits of Brexit, not being shy about it, not being bashful and getting some growth back into the economy.'
He suggested that the tax cuts should come before the next general election, expected late next year or in early 2025.
'The fact is that the Conservative Party can certainly win the next election,' Mr Johnson said.
'[Keir Starmer] thinks that he's going to get people to vote Labour just by standing there and doing nothing. It's not going to happen.
'The economy will start to improve, inflation will come down, people will reward the Conservative party, they will reward the Government for being sensible, for cutting their taxes and for getting things done that they need done.
'Fixing the things that Rishi has said that he's going to fix and never forget when it comes to it, it's going to be a very clear choice.
'Do you want the Conservatives who are going to manage the economy, not put taxes up any further? In fact, cut taxes.
'Of course the taxation situation has been very, very difficult because of Covid. The huge expense that we had to go to, 480 billion we had to spend on looking after people during Covid, it was massively expensive. It had a big fiscal impact but Labour, everything they say makes it perfectly obvious that the taxes would be even higher.'
Mr Johnson's remarks are likely to raise some hackles in No10, which sees inflation, currently running at more than 10 per cent, as a bigger problem than the tax rate, though it is the highest it has been since the war.
He also appeared to make trouble for Mr Sunak by demanding more tanks be sent to Ukraine. The UK has agreed to send 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks.
'I was making the case last week for the tanks and I'm delighted to say that the British Government once again is in the lead in sending tanks to Ukraine,' Mr Johnsoin said.
They're going to need about 300 tanks so we need a big international effort.
'The Germans have said that they're lifting the ban on export of the Leopard tanks, the Americans are giving tanks - I'm not saying it's anything to do with my article. The key thing is that other countries have got to do the same thing. I tell you this, Nadine, it wouldn't be a bad thing if we gave some more tanks ourselves.'
In an interview that ranged across a wide plethora of subjects he also gave a glimpse into his post-Downing Street life - reading to his children more, doing DIY and painting cows.
The former PM opened up on how he has been filling his time in an interview with close ally Nadine Dorries for her new Talk TV show.
Mr Johnson has kept a relatively low profile since leaving No10 last summer, while many MPs still hope he will make a comeback to the front line.
However, this week he did a series of interviews on a visit to the US, berating Vladimir Putin and urging the UK to send fighter jets to Ukraine.
After a week in which he has conducted a plethora of media interviews, mainly in the United States, Mr Johnson mocked the PM (pictured in an interview with Piers Morgan last night) claiming: 'He's been on TV a lot more than me lately'.
Boris Johnson has hailed Brexit for 'literally saving lives' as he was interviewed by close ally Nadine Dorries
In the Talk TV appearance - broadcast at 8pm tonight- Ms Dorries asked him whether he was now able to spend more time with the two small children he share with wife Carrie.
'What's it like being at home with the kids? Are they seeing more of dad?' she said in clips released today.
Mr Johnson replied: 'They are. Yes, and it's fantastic because you know, I've got a very full day...
'I'm doing lots of writing. Unless I specifically tell you otherwise, I'm doing stuff for Uxbridge and doing a lot of political work but yeah, it means I can do reading to them… building things. It's great.'
Mr Johnson - who has previously spoken about his love of model buses - explained that his DIY activity involved constructing a garage for a mini-quad bike.
'I'm building a garage for the quad bike. Not a big quad bike, it was a miniature quad bike. They're too small for quad bikes,' he said.
Sunak says it is a 'good thing' Boris is still speaking out
Rishi Sunak has dismissed fears that Boris Johnson is 'on manoeuvres' for a comeback.
The PM said it was a 'good thing' that his predecessor is still sharing his 'experience' in public life.
In an interview with Piers Morgan on Talk TV last night, Mr Sunak said: 'It's great that we've got former Prime Minister's and I speak to you know all former leaders actually…
'I think all of our leaders have a way of continuing to contribute to public life and that's a good thing. That's not a bad thing actually, they've got experience that they want to share.
Pressed on whether he had any problem with Mr Johnson speaking out, Mr Sunak said: 'No, gosh, as I say we've got a long list of previous Prime Minister's and the fact that they still want to contribute.'
Mr Johnson also said he was enjoying doing more painting in his spare time. 'I've got a project which is to master the form of the cow,' he said.
Mr Johnson revealed during the Tory leadership campaign in 2019 that he had a hobby of making buses out of old wine crates.
He described how he would paint them red, populate the decks with small 'happy' figures, and add plastic wheels - although he acknowledged they were 'not terribly good'.
Mr Johnson is also known to dabble in painting, emulating his hero Churchill, whose oil canvasses can command significant prices.
During a quickfire series of questions on Talk TV, Mr Johnson was pressed on whether he would rather be stuck in a lift with Keir Starmer or Nicola Sturgeon.
'Oh brother. Oh actually, it's like all these things, and I'm sure viewers will understand this, both individuals are actually far nicer and more amusing than you might otherwise imagine,' he said.
'The kind of hostility you see between politicians on screen is often not reflected in real life. I think, provided it wasn't like 50 floors, I wouldn't mind either of them.'
Mr Johnson has been urging Brits to ignore 'gloom-mongers' as senior EU players in the Brexit saga weighed in on three-year anniversary of Brexit.
The most left-field claim came from wacky former Belgian PM and arch federalist Guy Verhofstadt, who suggested Brexit was to blame for Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile former EU negotiator Michel Barnier suggested that the UK had seen 'no added value' from leaving. He also lauded Keir Starmer as 'a European', something the Labour leader may not appreciate as he tries to keep his party happy.
Speaking to Ms Dorries, MrJohnson said: 'Thank goodness that era is behind us but one thing people forget - now let's pray it's behind us - but one thing people forget, thinking about the vaccine rollout is there we've got the, I think the third anniversary of Brexit, coming up, or the third anniversary of the day when we actually came out of the EU.
'You don't hear it much these days, but it is absolutely the case, that had it not been for our ability to do our own regulation, had it not been for the fact that we'd come out of the European Medicines Agency, the MHRA, the medical health regulation agency, was now totally free to decide how fast to approve the vaccine - we wouldn't have been able to do that vaccine rollout so fast.
'And you know, it is literally true that Brexit helped save lives. And people's eyes bulge a bit when you say that, but it happens to be true… I'm proud of that. I'm proud of all the work that those people did.'
Mr Johnson also addressed the ongoing investigation by the Privileges Committee into his Partygate conduct.
He insisted he will be 'respectful' of the process, but said anyone who thought he had deliberately covered up lockdown parties in No10 was 'out of their mind'.
Boris Johnson on...
Family time
'It's fantastic because you know, I've got a very full day...
'I'm doing lots of writing. Unless I specifically tell you otherwise, I'm doing stuff for Uxbridge and doing a lot of political work but yeah, it means I can do reading to them… building things. It's great.'
Mr Johnson - who has previously spoken about his love of model buses - explained that his DIY activity involved constructing a garage for a mini-quad bike.
'I'm building a garage for the quad bike. Not a big quad bike, it was a miniature quad bike. They're too small for quad bikes,' he said.
Painting
'I've got a project which is to master the form of the cow,' he said.
Brexit
'One thing people forget, thinking about the vaccine rollout is there we've got the, I think the third anniversary of Brexit, coming up, or the third anniversary of the day when we actually came out of the EU.
'You don't hear it much these days, but it is absolutely the case, that had it not been for our ability to do our own regulation, had it not been for the fact that we'd come out of the European Medicines Agency, the MHRA, the medical health regulation agency, was now totally free to decide how fast to approve the vaccine - we wouldn't have been able to do that vaccine rollout so fast.
'And you know, it is literally true that Brexit helped save lives. And people's eyes bulge a bit when you say that, but it happens to be true… I'm proud of that. I'm proud of all the work that those people did.'
Political rivals
During a quickfire series of questions, Mr Johnson was pressed on whether he would rather be stuck in a lift with Keir Starmer or Nicola Sturgeon.
'Oh brother. Oh actually, it's like all these things, and I'm sure viewers will understand this, both individuals are actually far nicer and more amusing than you might otherwise imagine,' he said.
'The kind of hostility you see between politicians on screen is often not reflected in real life. I think, provided it wasn't like 50 floors, I wouldn't mind either of them.'
Partygate
Mr Johnson insisted he will be 'respectful' of the process with the Privileges Commitee, but said anyone who thought he had deliberately covered up lockdown parties in No10 was 'out of their mind'.
Volodymyr Zelensky
'I was lucky to meet Volodymyr Zelensky very early on in his time, he came to London, we got on very well. But the fundamental thing is that the UK just saw it very clearly and very early, and we saw that it was absolutely black and white. It was good and evil. It was right and wrong.'
Vladimir Putin
'I went to Ukraine a few days ago and I saw the continuing barbarism of what Putin is doing. I went out, like so many others have done, it was incredible to see it for myself. I saw blocks of flats that had been obliterated by 500 kilo bombs, of no conceivable military value to Putin.
'He does it purely as an act of terrorism. This is still going on, you know, across the front line. He's continuing to wipe out towns. He's absolutely merciless. He has no respect for the laws of war, or human life.'
'I would never say never about Boris Johnson': Ex-PM may yet find a way back to No10, says ally
Boris Johnson could find a way of becoming prime minister again, a former aide has claimed.
Lord Udny-Lister said he would never rule out a comeback by Mr Johnson who was ousted from power after three years last September.
It comes as Rishi Sunak flounders in the polls, with the Tories up to 25 per cent behind Labour. One survey suggested only 27 per cent of voters think he has done well since becoming Prime Minister in October.
And seven in ten believe he will not be PM after the next election, according to the poll for The Times.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson straightens his tie as he arrives at Parliament with Sir Edward Lister, his Chief of staff
Lord Udny-Lister predicts it is possible Boris Johnson could return to power
Lord Udny-Lister, who worked for years with Mr Johnson in No10 and when he was London Mayor, said: 'I would never say never about Boris Johnson... because I think he has such tremendous skills. And I think there is a route back for him.' He told radio station LBC that Mr Sunak can win the next general election – due in 2024 – but warned: 'The path to victory is a very narrow one.
'I think it is going to be quite difficult for him – he's not a Boris Johnson. He can't get out there and tell the story in the way Boris Johnson could.'
He hailed Mr Johnson as 'probably the best campaigner we've ever seen', adding: 'Rishi Sunak hasn't got those skills, but what he has got – and I've seen him at work – is he is a very analytical man, who does go through things in detail, is very cautious, is going to do the right thing.'
He stressed: 'We have a prime minister who really is the chief financial officer rather than the chief executive... now can Rishi Sunak make the transition? Can he actually get out there and start telling the story?'
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson was asked about his political future in an interview with America's ABC News Live. He said: 'You never say never in politics. But the reality is that I am living a happy productive life.
'I have got to write two books – and if you ask me what my passion at the moment it is making sure we... help the Ukrainians.'
Pressed again on his future, he added: 'I'm thudding away on my computer... You know what it is like – books don't write themselves.' | United Kingdom Politics |
SEOUL, April 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States held joint air drills, involving at least one B-52H strategic bomber, on Friday, Seoul's defense ministry said, a day after North Korea test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The North's state media has confirmed the country conducted its first test of a solid-fuel Hwasong-18 ICBM on Thursday, raising tensions already heightened by its earlier weapons tests, including those of underwater nuclear attack drones.
The South Korean Air Force mobilized its F-35A radar-evading fighters and F-15K jets for the drills, while the U.S. side deployed F-16 fighters in addition to the bomber, according to the ministry.
It did not specify in which part of the Korean Peninsula the drills took place.
"It is assessed that (the drills) represented a close-knit, coordinated response demonstrating the powerful 'strength of the alliance' and the United States' will to provide extended deterrence against the recent series of North Korean provocations," the ministry said in a press release.
The drills reaffirmed the capability to swiftly deploy U.S. strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula as well as the allies' enhanced combined operational capabilities and interoperability, it added.
The ministry also said the allies will demonstrate "through action" their resolve not to accept any nuclear attack from the North by strengthening the frequency and intensity of the deployments of U.S. strategic assets.
Strategic assets usually refer to high-profile military assets, such as nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, submarines and strategic bombers.
The latest deployment of the B-52H bomber followed its earlier dispatch to the Korean Peninsula for allied drills on Wednesday last week and on March 6.
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More than 60 Australian federal politicians have explicitly called on the US to drop the prosecution of Julian Assange, warning of “a sharp and sustained outcry in Australia” if the WikiLeaks founder is extradited.
With a small cross-party delegation due to fly to Washington next week, the Guardian can reveal the lobbying trip has won the open support of 63 members of Australia’s House of Representatives and Senate.
In a letter, the 63 MPs and senators said they stood in support of the trip to the US and were “resolutely of the view that the prosecution and incarceration of the Australian citizen Julian Assange must end”.
They said the matter had “dragged on for over a decade” and it was “wrong for Mr Assange to be further persecuted and denied his liberty when one considers the duration and circumstances of the detention he has already suffered.
“It serves no purpose, it is unjust, and we say clearly – as friends should always be honest with friends – that the prolonged pursuit of Mr Assange wears away at the substantial foundation of regard and respect that Australians have for the justice system of the United States of America,” the letter said.
Assange remains in Belmarsh prison in London as he fights a US attempt to extradite him to face charges – including under the Espionage Act. The charges are in connection with the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables, in 2010 and 2011.
Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 and remained there until 2019. The Australian citizen was arrested when Ecuador revoked his diplomatic status and has been in jail since then, amid a series of legal challenges against the US extradition bid.
The Australian MPs and senators said they agreed with comments by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, that “enough is enough … and that nothing is served from the ongoing incarceration of Julian Assange”.
They also welcomed the recent backing of the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, saying this bipartisan position was “matched by the wide cross-party and independent support within the Australian parliament itself, which in turn reflects the strongly held views of the Australian community”.
“Let there be no doubt that if Julian Assange is removed from the United Kingdom to the United States there will a sharp and sustained outcry in Australia.”
The letter was organised by the co-conveners of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group: the independent MP Andrew Wilkie, the Labor MP Josh Wilson, the Liberal MP Bridget Archer and the Greens senator David Shoebridge.
The total number of signatories – 63 Australian federal politicians – reflects an increasing cross-party consensus on the issue. It compares with 48 who signed a letter to the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, in April.
New backers of the cause include Shayne Neumann and Louise Pratt of the governing Labor party, and Melissa Price of the opposition Coalition.
The Australian politicians noted “with gratitude the considerable support in the United States for an end to the legal pursuit of Mr Assange from members of Congress, human rights advocates, academics, and civil society, and from within the US media in defence of free speech and independent journalism”.
“On that basis we ask Congresspeople, members of the press, and other relevant civil society stakeholders in the United States to speak up now in supporting an end to the prosecution and detention of Julian Assange,” they wrote.
The Australian politicians said they believed the “right and best course of action” would be for the US Department of Justice to cease the prosecution.
Alternatively, they said, “a decision to simply abandon the extradition proceedings would have the sensible, just, and compassionate effect of allowing Mr Assange to go free from a prolonged and harsh period of high-security detention”.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has previously pushed back at the Australian government’s complaints that the pursuit of Assange had dragged on too long.
During a visit to Australia in July, Blinken said he understood “the concerns and views of Australians”.
But he added that it was “very important that our friends here” in Australia understood the US concerns about Assange’s “alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country”.
Blinken said Assange was alleged to have “risked very serious harm to our national security”.
The White House has previously said Joe Biden is committed to an independent Department of Justice. Albanese is due to meet the president during an official visit to the US, including a state dinner, on 25 October.
Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, said: “Australians are told that we are great mates with our American friends, but Julian’s treatment says otherwise. It’s up to the prime minister to take this message and use the support from within the electorate to free Julian.” | Australia Politics |
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's coalition government collapsed after just a year and a half in office on Friday in a row over measures to curb the flow of migrants.
Rutte, the Netherlands' longest-serving leader, presided over crisis talks between the four coalition partners but failed to reach a deal.
The resignation was broadly reported in the Netherlands for a couple of hours on Friday evening before Rutte confirmed the resignation in a statement.
"This evening we have unfortunately reached the conclusion that the differences are insurmountable. For this reason, I will shortly present my written resignation to the king in the name of the whole government," Rutte told a press conference.
What was the dispute about?
Rutte, the leader of the center-right VVD party, the largest in the four-party coalition, had wanted to tighten curbs on reuniting families of asylum seekers, following a scandal last year about overcrowded asylum centers.
He called for the number of relatives of war refugees allowed into the Netherlands to be capped at 200 per month, and had threatened to topple the government if the measure did not pass.
Two junior partners, including the Christen Unie — a Christian Democratic party that draws its main support from the protestant "Bible Belt" in the central Netherlands — were staunchly opposed to the proposal.
Both Christen Unie and D66, the left-leaning party in the rainbow coalition, saw the issue as less of a problem than Rutte's VVD.
The four parties had held crisis talks on Wednesday and Thursday as well in a bid to save the shaky government, which only took office in January 2022.
Rutte said late on Friday that it was "no secret" that the coalition had its differences on the issue,d describing it as "very regrettable, but a political fact."
Asylum applications in the Netherlands jumped by a third last year to more than 46,000, and the government had projected they could increase to more than 70,000 this year, which would top the previous high from 2015.
Asylum and migration is a difficult issue for Rutte and has been for years because of the strength of far-right parties in the Netherlands, most famously that of Geert Wilders, and the threat this poses to center-right parties like his VVD.
What happens next?
The most likely outcome seems to be new elections, far earlier than the next scheduled 2025 date.
Opposition parties were quick to call for a vote on Friday. Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Party for Freedom (PVV), called on Twitter for "Quick elections now."
Jesse Klaver, leader of the Green Left party also called for elections and told Dutch broadcaster NOS: "This country needs a change of direction."
It's also possible that the king ask another political leader to try to set up a coalition, but given the parliamentary arithmetic that seems highly unlikely.
The vote in late 2021 in the Netherlands was spread extremely broadly. It took around nine months to find a functioning coalition afterwards.
Rutte's VVD was the largest party but won less than 22% of the vote. Only two other parties had support above 10%, while no fewer than 17 groups won at least one seat in the House of Representatives. Practically, it's not clear what other coalition options exist besides the current one.
In the event of new elections, Rutte would hope his party could emerge from a fifth successive vote as the strongest party and try to form a new coalition, possibly with an altered landscape in parliament. He managed this in 2021 after his government resigned over a childcare scandal but went on to fare best at the polls a few months later.
msh/jcg (Reuters, AP, AFP) | Europe Politics |
US ‘strongly condemns’ North Korea’s purported satellite launch
The Biden administration on Tuesday condemned North Korea after the country’s state-run news agency said Pyongyang had attempted and failed to launch a military satellite.
“The United States strongly condemns the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) for its launch using ballistic missile technology, which is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions, raises tensions, and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond,” National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodge said in a statement.
Hodge also said that the apparent satellite launch “involved technologies that are directly related to the DPRK intercontinental ballistic missile program.”
President Biden and his team will monitor the situation “in close coordination” with their allies, according to the statement, and urge other countries to condemn North Korea’s launch and call on Pyongyang to join serious negotiations on the matter.
“The door has not closed on diplomacy but Pyongyang must immediately cease its provocative actions and instead choose engagement,” Hodge said. “The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and the defense of our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies.”
The statement came after North Korea announced earlier in the day that it was planning to launch its first military spy satellite next month, saying the new military equipment was necessary due to the “reckless” military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea.
In a statement, Ri Pyong Chol, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said that the country’s reconnaissance satellite will be used for “strengthening the military preparedness of the armed forces of the DPRK.”
“Under the present situation brought by the reckless military acts by the U.S. and south Korea, we steadily feel the need to expand reconnaissance and information means and improve various defensive and offensive weapons and have the timetables for carrying out their development plans,” Ri added.
“We will comprehensively consider the present and future threats and put into more thoroughgoing practice the activities for strengthening all-inclusive and practical war deterrents.”
South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk urged North Korea not to launch its military spy satellite, referring to the move as “absurd.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Asia Politics |
CBS Mornings January 27, 2023 / 9:32 AM / CBS News Holocaust survivors keep Jewish recipes alive Holocaust survivors create cookbook to share Jewish recipes, stories of perseverance 07:17 At 84-year-old Tova Friedman's house, three generations gather around a dining room table for Shabbat dinner. It is a dream that Friedman never imagined possible as a five-year-old in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, where 1.1 million people died. Friday marks 78 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. Eugene Ginter spent his first six years of life in the same extermination camp. The sights and sounds of genocide have left a permanent mark on both Friedman and Ginter. After liberation in 1945, Friedman and Ginter settled in the United States and have been building their lives through the families they've created. They are also passing on traditions to new generations by having their Jewish recipes featured in the new cookbook, "Honey Cake & Latkes: Recipes from the Old World." The two first met while working on the book, which pairs more than 100 Holocaust survivors' stories and features their family recipes. "Food, it reminds you of your family and the love, like the cheesecake or the babka that my mother would make. You know, it brings back the memories of the love that she was transferring," Ginter said. Among the recipes is Ginter's mother's "chocolate sandwich" which his mother made for him to help him gain weight after liberation. Friedman's kasha varnishkes are also featured. First-hand accounts of Auschwitz are becoming rare as the years go by and survivors grow older. Friedman and Ginter know their stories will soon fade but their hope is that the lessons learned from such an atrocity will not. "My story can be duplicated by a million and a half children who were murdered. I was just lucky. I feel almost obligated to talk about them. It's like I am bringing them back from their ashes because I represent them," Friedman said. The book was published last September by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation. All proceeds go directly to the foundation. In: Holocaust Jericka Duncan Jericka Duncan is a national correspondent based in New York City and the anchor for Sunday's edition of the "CBS Weekend News." Twitter Thanks for reading CBS NEWS. Create your free account or log in for more features. Please enter email address to continue Please enter valid email address to continue | Human Rights |
A Nigerian military attack mistakenly bombed a religious gathering and killed civilians
Nigerian government and military officials say an army attack that used drones to target rebels instead killed an unspecified number of civilians gathered for a religious celebration
ABUJA, Nigeria -- A Nigerian military attack that used drones to target rebels instead killed an unspecified number of civilians gathered for a religious celebration, authorities said Monday. The attack was the latest in recent errant bombings of local residents in Nigeria’s troubled regions.
The attack on Sunday night in Tudun Biri village of Kaduna state’s Igabi council area took place as Muslims gathered there to observe the holiday celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, Mawlid al-Nabi. The local governor, Uba Sani said civilians were “mistakenly killed and many others were wounded” by a drone “targeting terrorists and bandits.”
Officials didn’t provide the number of casualties but Amnesty International’s Nigeria office said 120 people were killed in the attack, citing reports of its workers and volunteers in the area.
“Many of them were children (and) more dead bodies are being discovered,” Isa Sanusi, the group's director in Nigeria, told The Associated Press.
At least 50 bodies were recovered, according to Igabi resident Mustapha Rufai. “They said they mistakenly threw a bomb on them,” he said.
Extremist and rebel attacks have ravaged parts of Nigeria's northwest and central regions. The country's forces frequently target the hideouts of armed groups with aerial bombardment but have sometimes bombed villagers.
The latest bombing caused outrage among citizens, reminding many of the rampant allegations of human rights abuses by Nigerian security forces that have raised concerns from Western allies, including the United States.
The head of the Nigerian army division in charge of operations in Kaduna was quoted by the state government as saying during a security meeting on Monday that the drone operation was a routine one.
“The Nigerian army was on a routine mission against terrorists but inadvertently (its actions) affected members of the community,” a statement issued by the Kaduna State Ministry of Internal Security quoted Maj. Gen. Valentine Okoro, head of the army division, as saying.
“Search-and-rescue efforts are still ongoing, as dozens of wounded victims have been evacuated” to hospital for treatment, Kaduna Security Commissioner Samuel Aruwan said.
The Nigerian air force issued a statement saying it did not carry out any operations in Kaduna on Sunday night but that it it is not the only one "operating combat armed drones” in the region. A Nigerian army spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Local media reported that villagers fled the area, fearing more drone attacks. Activists have said that similar incidents were not investigated in the past, leaving victims and survivors without adequate compensation or justice.
Sani, the state governor, said officials were sent to the village to meet with the families of victims and that an investigation was underway.
“We are determined to prevent a repeat of this tragedy and reassure our people that their protection would be prioritized in the sustained fight against terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements,” he said. | Africa politics |
PATRICK Harvie has said the Scottish Greens will be turning down their invitations to the coronation as the party prepares to hold an event to discuss alternatives to the “unearned wealth and privilege” of the monarchy.
The Scottish Greens co-leader said his party had received invites for the ceremony to crown King Charles III in line with an allocation by numbers for all parties at Holyrood.
But he said no-one from his party was “remotely interested” in attending, adding “I think all of us will be able to think of better things to do with our day”.
Harvie’s comments come ahead of a Greens event on Scottish Republicanism, which is being held in Edinburgh on Sunday and is now sold out.
He will be making a speech along with co-leader Lorna Slater and a panel discussion will take place on the day with Nelson Cummins of the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights and Assa Samake-Roman, journalist and columnist for The National.
Harvie said it had been appropriate to mark the death of the Queen, but the coronation of a new monarch brought the opportunity to talk about “unearned wealth and privilege”.
He said: “It is an appropriate time to be talking about the history of the monarchy and its association with slavery and exploitation - but also the present modern day reality of the monarchy and its extraordinary wealth-generating operation, a lot of which uses resources that belong to all of us.
“Compared to the affordability of modern elected head of states in some other European countries, it’s really eye-watering - especially in the context of the cost of living crisis.
“We felt this period in the run up to the coronation was an appropriate and really important time to be setting out and reminding people that there are alternatives to the current UK arrangements for what should be a functional office within government.
“The head of state should be a functional office within government which operates within a reasonable financial limit.”
Harvie said it would be particularly interesting to see how those who don’t have strong views on the monarchy react to the coronation during a cost of living crisis.
“They might even be broadly speaking okay with the idea of the monarchy and not feel particularly angry about it, but they are struggling to put food on the table, struggling to pay energy bills, struggling to get about with the cost of public transport, for example,” he said.
“How are they really going to feel seeing these golden coaches and huge amounts of extra pomp and ceremony lain on at the public purse for people who are some of the wealthiest in the world?
“It genuinely puzzles me how people are going to react to that and I suspect the UK Government might find there is more reaction against it than they anticipate.”
Harvie said he hoped the Scottish Greens event on Sunday, which is open to everyone, would trigger a discussion on opportunities and a path to achieving an elected head of state or “even some accountability for those in the Royal Family and the institutions around them”.
He said: “The fact it is sold out does demonstrate there is some appetite, so I hope it won’t be the only or the last event of this kind that we do.”
When asked what he planned to do on the day of the coronation, Harvie said: “We obviously got a party allocation of invitations, but I think all of us will be able to think of better things to do with our day.
“All the parties in parliament got an allocation by numbers, but I don’t think we have anyone who is remotely interested in attending it.” | United Kingdom Politics |
(Reuters) - A senior Ukrainian official reported heavy fighting in the northeast of the country on Sunday, with Kyiv's forces holding their lines and making gains in some areas.
Russia's military said it had halted Ukrainian forces in the northeast. The military also said it brought down down three Ukrainian drones which had tried to strike Moscow and damaged a high-rise building reported to house government offices.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Sunday as "a good day, a powerful day" at the front, particularly near Bakhmut, where Ukrainian forces say they are retaking ground lost when Russian forces took the city in May.
Ukraine did not directly claim responsibility for the drone attacks but Zelenskiy said the war was "gradually returning to Russia's territory - to its symbolic centres".
Russian forces launched the latest in a series of night-time air attacks, striking what officials said was a "non-residential building" in the northeastern city of Kharkiv. The hit started a fire but there were no reports of casualties.
Zelenskiy reported that the death toll in a Russian strike on a school in the northern town of Sumy on Saturday had risen to two after rescue teams cleared rubble from the site.
Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Russian forces were "trying to drive us out" of elevated positions in the northeast occupied by Moscow after its February 2022 invasion, but retaken later by Ukrainian troops.
The Russians' key task, she told national television, was to "divert our forces from the Bakhmut area, where we have a successful offensive".
"They have attacked endlessly this week. But our troops resist the attacks and sometimes push them back with heavy losses," she said.
Maliar said the Russians had suffered "no fewer losses than during the heated battles in Bakhmut", which fell to Russian forces after more than 10 months of fighting.
Ukraine last month launched a counter offensive focusing on a southward campaign to drive a wedge between Russian forces holding territory in the east and the annexed Crimean peninsula, and on winning back ground around Bakhmut.
But fierce fighting has also flared around the Ukrainian -held northeastern towns of Kupiansk and Lyman.
Maliar said Russian forces were also "tenaciously trying to seize back" areas on the southern front taken by Ukraine.
Ukraine, she said, had recaptured 200 sq. km. (77 sq. miles) in the south, but advances were limited by entrenched Russian positions and mines.
Russia's Defence Ministry, in its daily account of military activity, said its forces had spotted and deployed rockets to destroy an аrmoured brigade of Ukrainian troops near Svatove, a key Russian-held town in the northeast.
Russian forces, it said, had also repelled four Ukrainian attacks near the town of Lyman, further south.
The battlefield accounts could not be independently verified.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Nick Starkov; Editing by Stephen Coates) | Europe Politics |
SEOUL, Nov 30 (Reuters) - About 200 South Korean farmers who breed and raise dogs for human consumption held a rally on Thursday near the presidential office in the capital Seoul, demanding the government scrap a plan to ban the controversial centuries-old practice.
Dozens of farmers, who had tried to drive into the street in front of the presidential office by truck with dogs in cages that they intended to release at the scene, were turned away by the police who inspected the cargo covered with blankets.
The ruling party of President Yoon Suk Yeol has introduced a bill to ban the breeding and sale of dogs for consumption and offer financial compensation for those in the industry forced to shutter their business within a three-year grace period.
The time is now to put an end to the controversy around eating dog meat, party members have said, adding there was broad support from the opposition party, which currently controls parliament, and from the public.
More than 6 million South Korean households now own dogs as pets in a country of about 51 million people, and Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee are owners of six dogs, including a retired guide dog and a rescue dog.
A Gallup Korea poll last year showed almost two-thirds of respondents opposed eating dog meat, with only 8% saying they had eaten dog within the past year, down from 27% in 2015.
Ju Yeong-bong, who represents an industry group and led Thursday's rally, said politicians had no right to close down an industry or decide what people chose to eat.
"We can't agree with the idea that it is barbaric, because all countries that have the tradition of animal husbandry have at some point eaten dogs and there are still countries where it's done," he said.
The farmers had been completely excluded from discussion on the bill and proposed financial compensation was completely inadequate given they would lose their livelihoods, Ju said.
The farmers scuffled with police who outnumbered them and set up barricades to stop them from crossing the street to move closer to the presidential office. Three protesters including Ju were detained by police in a chaotic scene, the organisers said.
While the practice of eating dog meat has declined in popularity, the farmers and restaurant owners who serve the meat have been fighting to keep it legal.
The farmers have accused First Lady Kim, a vocal critic of dog meat consumption, of exercising what they call improper pressure on the government and the ruling party to bring in the ban.
"The First Lady has spoken out about this issue with keen interest, and both in the country and abroad there is support and consensus, as well as from the opposition party," the presidential office said.
Reporting by Jimin Jung, Dogyun Kim and Hongji Kim, Writing by Jack Kim, Editing by Ed Davies and Jamie Freed
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Asia Politics |
Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday turned down a mandate to form a coalition government, saying that he was preparing for a second election in June, after a “painful” electoral defeat for his Syriza party.
The conservative New Democracy party stormed to victory with 40.8 pct of the vote in Sunday’s poll which sent the leftist Syriza into a tailspin, polling 20.1 pct, the result of many voters' disenchantment with its radical, anti-establishment style.
On Tuesday, Tsipras told President Katerina Sakellaropoulou that it was impossible to form a coalition government.
“I have no reason to hide that the election result came as a painful shock to us, unexpectedly painful,” Tsipras told reporters outside the presidential palace, apologizing to Syriza supporters. ”I personally take full responsibility for this result, but in my ethical dictionary taking responsibility means you stand and fight,” he said.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of New Democracy, declined to seek a coalition on Monday, paving the way for a second vote on June 25 that he hopes his conservative party will win outright.
Without New Democracy, opposition parties do not have enough seats to form a ruling alliance, and all party leaders have indicated they will not hold exploratory talks. Syriza refers to the second vote as a “final battle” yet to come.
Tsipras said that Syriza’s primary responsibility was to “prevent the prospects of an almighty and uncontrollable ruler-prime minister” and ensure the presence of the left in Greece’s political landscape.
During the pre-election period, Syriza tried to persuade the Socialist PASOK party, which finished third in Sunday’s election, and leftist parties, including the Communist KKE, to back it in a coalition government.
But after its defeat, Syriza accused them of turning their back on its efforts to form a broader alliance against the conservatives.
That election will take place under a system of semi-proportional representation, with a sliding scale seat bonus, increasing the chances of an outright win for Mitsotakis’s party. All parties are eligible to run again. | Europe Politics |
The BBC has launched a new education programme for children in Afghanistan who are banned from school.
It is aimed at children aged 11 to 16, including girls whose secondary education has been stopped by the ruling Taliban.
The weekly programme is called Dars, which means lesson in Dari and Pashto, Afghanistan's official languages.
It is hosted by BBC Afghan female journalists who were evacuated from Kabul during the 2021 Taliban takeover.
Each new weekly half-hour episode of Dars will air four times a day, Saturday to Friday, on the newly launched BBC News Afghanistan channel.
Aalia Farzan is one of the Dari language presenters.
"Every day I speak to a lot of Afghan girls who are still in the country and they tell me they cannot go to school," she says. "They are very helpless and sometimes they seem hopeless."
The Taliban have said that schools for girls are temporarily closed until a "suitable environment" is created.
They have also said the international community's decision to freeze aid payments means they do not have the money to spend on female-only classrooms.
The BBC show is tailored to children aged between 11 and 16 and makes the most of the BBC's existing teaching content, adapting maths, history, science, and Information and Communications Technology modules from BBC Bitesize, the BBC's free online resource for pupils in the UK.
Mariam Aman is one of the programme's producers and says that adapting BBC Bitesize content for an Afghan audience went beyond translation. "Do a boy or girl living in rural Afghanistan know what pizza is when we are talking about fractions in maths or should we keep it as big round bread?"
The team also wanted to make the programme feel like home. "Afghans are fond of chess and you would often find a chess set in most family homes," she says. "We wanted to add that cultural heritage to our programme and have things like that on set."
When BBC Afghan presenter Shazia Haya was growing up, school attendance was a source of tension.
"I had just finished 12 years of school and my older brother and father were saying: 'That's enough for you. You should get married.'"
The Pashto presenter lives with their disapproval to this day. "Even now, if you ask my father what I studied at university or what was my favourite subject in school, he doesn't know because he wasn't interested in my education, just because I'm a girl," she says.
It was the women in Shazia's family, including her mother, who encouraged her to attend university.
"That's why this new BBC programme means a lot to me," she says. "I know what the value of education is, and I know how hard it is when you don't have support."
Aalia was born in 1996, the year the Taliban first took control of Afghanistan.
Despite an official ban on girls' education at the time, there was a glimmer of hope for her. She grew up in the northern province of Takhar where girls continued to attend class, and her father was a teacher.
But like so many Afghans, tragedy hit her family.
"My father was killed 16 years ago," she says. "He wanted me to be a journalist and I wanted to be a teacher because my father was a teacher.
"So by joining this programme, I'm fulfilling both my father's dream and my own dream."
Aalia says she often thinks of members of her extended family, especially young school-age girls, who are still in Afghanistan.
"Sometimes I put myself in their shoes, and I think that if I was in the country and I was a teenage girl who cannot go to school, who cannot go outside the house alone, who does not have any basic rights, what should I do?" she says.
"I would be very happy if someone helped me and taught me something." | Asia Politics |
QUITO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A shoot-out erupted on Saturday near a restaurant where Ecuadorean presidential candidate Otto Sonnenholzner was eating with his family, police and the candidate said, though the violence was not directed at him.
"We just suffered a shoot-out in front of the place where I was breakfasting with my family," Sonnenholzner, a pro-market candidate and former vice president said on X, previously called Twitter. "Thank God we're all well but we demand an investigation into what occurred."
A video on social media showed Sonnenholzner greeting a supporter in a sunny restaurant in Guayaquil and preparing to take a selfie, before shots sound outside.
The national police said in a press conference the shoot-out was the result of a chase after a robbery in an exercise clothing store and that five people have been arrested.
Sonnenholzner has hardened his discourse around crime since the murder of Villavicencio, repeatedly promising his supporters that should he be elected, criminals who use violence against citizens will be shot by police.
Fellow presidential candidate Daniel Noboa on Thursday said there was an attack on his campaign caravan in Duran, but police later said the shooting was not directed at Noboa, son of prominent banana businessman and former presidential candidate Alvaro Noboa.
Meanwhile, Francisco Tamariz, the mayor of the coastal city of La Libertad, said on X on Saturday that shots were fired by police on Friday at a truck in which he and his wife were riding.
Police in Santa Elena province said in a press conference three armored cars without official logos avoided a police stop and officers eventually shot to stop the vehicles.
Three people from one of the cars were arrested and two unlicensed firearms were found, police said.
Tamariz said he would complain to the attorney general's office.
The mayor of the Pacific port city of Manta, Agustin Intriago, was murdered in July. The police said on Friday morning they detained four people in his killing.
Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Grant McCool
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Latin America Politics |
ORIKHIV AREA, Ukraine, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Ukrainian forces believe they have broken through the most difficult line of Russian defences in the south and will now be able to advance more quickly, a commander fighting in the south told Reuters.
Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in June, but well-prepared Russian defence lines reinforced by minefields have slowed their southward advance towards the Sea of Azov.
Ukrainian forces said on Wednesday they had raised the national flag in the settlement of Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, about 10 km (six miles) south of the frontline town of Orikhiv.
"We don't stop here," said a commander who led some of the troops into Robotyne and who uses the callsign "Skala," eponymous with the battalion which he leads.
"Next we have (the town of) Berdiansk, and then more. I made it clear to my fighters at once: our goal is not Robotyne, our goal is (the Sea of) Azov."
Robotyne is about 100 km from Berdiansk, a port on the shores of the Sea of Azov, and 85 km from the strategic city of Melitopol. Both are occupied by Russian forces following Moscow's full-scale invasion in February last year.
Moscow has not confirmed that Ukraine has advanced into Robotyne.
A U.S. official said last week that Ukrainian forces did not appear likely to be able to reach and retake Melitopol in their counteroffensive, intended to split Russian forces in the south.
Defending Ukraine's strategy this week, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed suggestions that his country's troops were spread too thinly and repeated his belief that Kyiv would regain all Ukrainian territory that has been seized by Moscow.
"We have passed the main roads that were mined. We are coming to those lines where we can go (forward). I'm sure we'll go faster from here," Skala said.
He said two houses were still under Russian control in Robotyne: "We're fighting for them, and then we'll have full control (of Robotyne)."
Skala said Ukrainian troops had now entered territories where there were only "Russian logistics" groups, and where he made clear he did not expect Russian defences to be as difficult to break through.
"We are moving on to liberate all our territories," he said.
(This story has been corrected to change the commander's callsign to Skala in paragraphs 4, 10 and 12)
Reporting by Vladyslav Smilianets Writing by Pavel Polityuk Editing by Timothy Heritage, David Gregorio and Frances Kerry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Europe Politics |
Three men have been arrested in connection with a violent riot following a Quran burning in Sweden.
Unrest erupted after an Iraqi anti-Islam activist Salwan Momika set fire to a copy of the Islamic holy book on Sunday.
Police said they detained 10 people for disturbing public order in the city of Malmo.
Several vehicles were set on fire after about hundred people gathered in response to the burning.
Mr Momika set fire to a Quran in Varnhemstorget, a main square in the city on Sunday afternoon. He has previously desecrated the Quran, in a series of anti-Islam protests, and his actions have caused diplomatic outrage across the Middle East.
A group of angry protesters tried to stop the burning, which resulted in a showdown between them and police.
Officers said they were pelted with stones, while some demonstrators threw electric scooters at police vehicles.
Several police cars were set on fire in Malmo's Rosengard neighbourhood, which has a a large immigrant population, and has experienced other violent protests in the past.
"I understand that a public gathering like this arouses strong emotions, but we cannot tolerate disturbances and violence like the ones we saw on Sunday afternoon," Malmo police area commander Petra Stenkula told local media.
"It is extremely regrettable to once again see violence and vandalism at Rosengard."
Scandinavia has witnessed a spate of Quran burnings this year.
In June, Mr Momika set fire to a copy outside Stockholm's central mosque, as Muslims celebrated the first day of Eid al-Adha - one of the most important festivals in the Muslim calendar.
Swedish police had given Mr Momika a permit for the protest, in accordance with their staunch free-speech laws. It later emerged the incident was being investigated for incitement of hatred.
In January, Rasmus Paludan, a politician from the Danish far-right Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, burnt a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
Last month, neighbouring Denmark, which has also seen a several public burnings of the Quran, said it planned to ban public desecration of holy books.
Sweden has pledged to explore legal means of abolishing protests that involve burning texts in certain circumstances. | Europe Politics |
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.
12:45 p.m.: Adam Kalinin - not his real name decided to go off the grid and live in the forest after Vladimir Putin announced a Russian mobilization of Russian men last September.
Kalinin uses an antenna tied to a tree for internet access and solar panels for energy.
He has endured temperatures as low as -11C (12F) and exists on food supplies brought to him regularly by his wife.
Living off-grid, he says, is the best way he can think of to avoid being called up. If the authorities can't hand him a summons in person, he can't be forced to go to war.
"If they are physically unable to take me by the hands and lead me to the enlistment office, that is a 99% defense against mobilization or other harassment," he told the BBC.
12:15 p.m.: An elderly woman was killed by Russian shelling Sunday, in a village close to the Russian border, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said in a Telegram post.
Some 50 kilometers further east, a man was wounded in the town of Vovchansk, where Russian forces struck upon a five-story residential building and a house, Syniehubov added. The injured man was hospitalized, but his condition is stable, according to the official.
“Occupiers continue to terrorize the civilian population of Kharkiv Oblast,” Syniehubov said.
According to the official, Russian forces also used tanks to fire at a cemetery in another village near the Russian border, damaging graves.
While Ukraine liberated the northeastern Kharkiv Oblast in fall during its surprise counteroffensive campaign, areas near the Russian border and those close to the front line continue to be struck by Russian shelling, The Kyiv Independent reported.
11:32 a.m.: Michael McCaul, the newly installed Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told ABC's "This Week" that if the U.S. offers even a symbolic number of its heavy battle tanks Abrams to Ukraine, it will encourage Germany to send their Leopard 2 as well, Reuters reported.
"Just one" Abrams tank would be enough to prompt allies, notably Germany, to unlock their own tank inventories for the fight against Russia.
"Even saying that we're going to put Abrams tanks in would be enough," he added.
Ukrainian officials have been calling on Western allies for months to supply them with modern tanks as the country fights against a full-scale Russian invasion.
Democratic Senator Chris Coons told ABC that it was time to set aside U.S. concerns about delivering the Abrams.
"I respect that our military leaders think the Abrams is too sophisticated, too expensive a platform to be as useful as the Leopards, but we need to continue to work with our close allies and move forward in lock step."
10:55 a.m.: 10:52 a.m.: 10:17 a.m.: Russian forces have captured Soledar although Ukraine's leadership is still reluctant to acknowledge the loss of the industrial town. However, according to international monitors as well as sources used by The Kyiv Independent, Ukraine doesn’t control the town.
As a result of a localized offensive operation in January, Russian forces managed to weaken Ukrainian defenses and seize the town, the first noticeable Russian success since their forces captured Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk after fierce fighting in June and July.
It is also a massive vanity project for Yevgeniy Prigozhyn, the Kremlin insider in charge of the notorious Wagner Group, who claimed credit for the victory. It also bolsters Putin’s Russian war propaganda.
According to The Kyiv Independent, the loss of Soledar is largely the result of relentless human wave attacks exhausting Ukrainian defenses, as well as of crushing knockout blows by regular forces. The setback also indicates long-lasting Ukrainian issues with chaotic command and control and also the lack of centralized approach and coordination in the area. Ukrainian servicemen fire a mortar toward Russian positions on a frontline near the town of Soledar in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Jan. 14, 2023. The lack of artillery and munitions to cope with endless and massive Russian frontal assaults has also played its role – it’s given Russian forces a window of opportunity for a resolute strike.
But despite the Russian propaganda presenting the capture of Soledar as a major victory, it’s only of tactical significance so far. Russia continues with its attempts to build on the progress and sever the ground lines communications thanks to which Bakhmut keeps holding on.
9:13 a.m.: In a surprise visit to Kyiv Sunday, Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and pledged that Britain would "stick by Ukraine as long as it takes."
Johnson, who left office in September, after a series of scandals, was prime minister when Russia invaded Ukraine last February and he sought to position London as Kyiv's top ally in the West.
During his trip, Johnson visited Borodyanka and Bucha, the suburbs of the Ukrainian capital that became synonymous with atrocities in the West when Russian forces advanced towards Kyiv in the first phase of the invasion before being repelled.
8:32 a.m.: Russia's defense ministry said for the second straight day on Sunday that its forces were improving their positions in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region.
"During offensive operations in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, units of the Eastern Military District took up more advantageous ground and positions," the defense ministry said.
It claimed to have inflicted casualties and destroyed equipment including Ukrainian fighting vehicles, howitzers and two U.S.-made HIMARS rockets.
Reuters was not able to independently verify Russia's battlefield accounts. Ukraine on Saturday countered Russia's claims of progress in Zaporizhzhia saying they were exaggerated.
Fighting in recent weeks has centered around the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where Russia's Wagner mercenaries and Ukrainian forces have been locked in a battle of attrition.
With the war now on its11th month, Ukraine has said it believes Moscow is likely to attempt a new offensive soon.
7:45 a.m.: Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Duma - Russia's lower house of parliament - warned that the United States and NATO's support of Ukraine is leading the world to a "terrible war," Reuters reported.
As a member of Putin's Security Council, Volodin has access to the Russian president.
"Deliveries of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime will lead to a global catastrophe," Volodin said.
"If Washington and NATO countries supply weapons that will be used to strike civilian cities and attempt to seize our territories, as they threaten, this will lead to retaliatory measures using more powerful weapons," Volodin said on the Telegram messaging app.
"Arguments that the nuclear powers have not previously used weapons of mass destruction in local conflicts are untenable. Because these states did not face a situation where there was a threat to the security of their citizens and the territorial integrity of the country," he continued.
Western allies pledged billions of dollars in weapons for Ukraine last week, although they failed to persuade Germany to lift a veto on providing German-made Leopard tanks which are held by a number of NATO members but whose transfer to Ukraine requires Berlin's approval.
Volodin's comments followed a similar threat last week by Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former prime minister and president.
5:21 a.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said in its latest Ukraine assessment that Russian forces conducted a small ground reconnaissance into northeastern Sumy Oblast.
Additionally, Russian forces continued limited ground attacks to regain lost positions along the Svatove-Kreminna line and continued to conduct ground attacks around Bakhmut and west of Donetsk City. Russian forces are likely making incremental gains around Bakhmut.
4:19 a.m.: Germany's new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, plans to visit Ukraine soon, he told a German newspaper, as Berlin faces pressure to allow the shipment of German-made tanks to Ukraine.
"What is certain is that I will travel to Ukraine quickly. Probably even within the next four weeks," Pistorius told Bild am Sonntag in an interview published Sunday.
On Friday, Germany and Western allies reached no decision on whether Germany would agree to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, or permit other countries that have them to do so, despite Ukraine's pleas for modern tanks to boost its defense efforts.
Asked about the tanks, Pistorius said in the interview: "We are in very close dialogue with our international partners, first and foremost with the U.S., on this issue."
3:26 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K. defense ministry said Russia has announced plans to boost its armed forces by 11% between 2023 and 2026. That's on top of an expansion intended to increase its ranks to 1.35 million, meaning that the ultimate goal is to have 1.5 million personnel.
2:13 a.m.: Ukraine's western allies might bridge delays in implementing a 10-point peace plan that the country has put forward, if each country takes responsibility for one part, the Ukraine's first lady said in an interview published Saturday, Reuters reported.
Olena Zelenska told Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung quick delivery of weapons would hasten Ukraine's ability to win the war.
For Ukraine, that meant "protecting our land, our talents and our children...," she said. "The frontiers of this war are the frontiers of Ukraine."
But the peace plan introduced by her husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in November at the G-20 summit/ "The plan goes beyond that," she was quoted as saying. "It also entails judicial demands such as for an international war crimes tribunal... and for prisoners of war to be able to return to Ukraine . . .
"There is a role that each country can take responsibility for."
1:09 a.m.: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is considering visiting Kyiv in February and holding talks with Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelenskyy, Reuters reported, citing Japanese government sources.
As chair of the Group of Seven leading economies this year, Japan wants to show it intends to keep providing support to Ukraine while it also aims to release a statement with Kyiv condemning Russia's aggression.
Kishida will make a final decision about whether to go ahead with the visit based on the state of the war in Ukraine, multiple unnamed government sources said.
Japan's foreign ministry was not immediately available to comment on the report.
12:02 a.m.: “We wanted to tell America and the whole world about what is happening in Ukraine,” said 17-year-old dancer Maria Honyukova of the Light Balance Kids dance troupe, describing the group’s recent triumph on a popular new U.S. television talent program. “And we also wanted to convey to the audience that light always wins.”
When the house lights went up after the video-game-themed number in which the performers seemed to defy the laws of physics while dancing in darkness wearing illuminated costumes, the live audience for America’s Got Talent All Stars sprang to its feet and cheered.
“It was your best performance you’ve ever done,” said competition judge and recording executive Simon Cowell. “I cannot tell you how brilliant that was.”
A moment later, fellow judge and comedian Howie Mandel lauded the kids for bringing light from “arguably the darkest place in the world” before pressing the show’s Golden Buzzer, sending them immediately to the finale.
RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service has the report.
Some information in this report came from Reuters. | Europe Politics |
Surveys show that hardcore political beliefs are spreading beyond traditionally right-wing demographic groups.
A new report from a German think tank has detailed a rise in far-right extremism across the country – this as memorials to victims of the Nazis raise the alarm about an uptick in vandalism and threats.
According to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a centre-left research institute, its survey data indicates that as many as one in every 12 Germans now subscribes to some form of extreme right ideology. This is a serious increase relative to the much lower figures recorded in the biannual study, which has been running for two decades.
As foundation researcher Franziska Schröter explained to Euronews, one of the most striking changes in recent years is a detectable spread of extreme beliefs beyond Germany's traditional generational divide.
"The acceptance of far-right attitudes is seen in every age group, depending on which phenomena you look at. What's worrying us is a reversion in the trend," she says.
"It used to be that the young ones were consistent democrats, rooting for equality instead of being revisionist and nationalist, while the older age groups had higher rates [of extremism]. We thought that demographics, globalisation and political education would help us in strengthening that. But now we see higher numbers among middle aged people, and especially young people.
"Young survey panelists who have mostly not experienced a war or the real threat of dictatorship in their lives, but who have endured a lot of crisis, seem to be leaning towards the idea that more dictatorship and less democracy could help get things done."
Schröter also pointed out that there is a marked turn among young people towards sexism, homophobia and transphobia, positions that the far-right has long embraced.
The report comes just days after police broke up the German chapter of the Hammerskins, a long-established international white supremacist organisation that originated in the US.
It has now been banned by the German government, which considers it an extremist group that illegally spreads "racial theory based on Nazi ideology".
Under assault
The rise in right-wing extremism is being felt in different regions of Germany and in different areas of national life.
Far-right political candidates, in particular those standing for Alternativ für Deutschland, are polling well, and there are serious concerns about radicalised, serving members of the armed forces and the police.
As in many other countries, the COVID-19 pandemic saw a large number of Germans becoming newly interested in radical, racist and sometimes violent conspiracy theories, some of which converge on the idea that the country and indeed the world is being taken over by secretive Jewish influence.
Also raising the alarm are those charged with safeguarding Holocaust memorial sites.
A spokesperson for the Foundation of Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centres Commemorating the Victims of Nazi Crimes, which is responsible for the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial and several other remembrance sites, told Euronews that its staff have noted an uptick in 2022 and 2023 – particularly vandalism with Nazi-themed stickers and graffiti.
In May 2023, a Danish visitor who had a tattoo showing an Iron Cross and SS runes was removed from the Neuengamme site by police officers. Other recent incidents have seen known right-wing extremists trying to film there.
In a statement, foundation director Oliver von Wrochem, who also serves as the spokesperson for the working group of concentration camp memorials in Germany, said these and other events are signs of a disturbing trend in German society.
"We and other concentration camp memorials in Germany observe with concern that the social consensus of remembrance culture is increasingly being called into question and becoming fragile due to the normalization of right-wing discourse," he said. "This means that an important moral guardrail in our democracy is falling away.
"For the Foundation of Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centres Commemorating the Victims of Nazi Crimes, this means that we will position ourselves even more strongly in our work against current antisemitism, antiziganism [anti-Romani sentiments], racism, and misanthropy in any form." | Europe Politics |
While many Australians go to great lengths to avoid serving on a jury, Brent Phillips has spent nearly a decade fighting for his right to take part in his civic duty.
Key points:
- Disability advocates are pushing for Australian juries to be made more inclusive
- ACT is the only Australian jurisdiction which has introduced legal reforms to support this
- Victoria’s law reform commission has examined if similar reforms may work here
The 43-year-old father of two is part of the Deaf community and Auslan is his first language.
In 2014, he was selected for jury duty in his home state of Victoria.
"I was quite excited to be honest, I have a legal background, and I have qualifications in criminology," he said.
But once the courts found out Mr Phillips was deaf he was excluded from service, even though he wanted to participate.
"At the moment a deaf person can be a defendant," he said.
"They can be a witness. But they can't sit on a jury, and that's not fair.
"It doesn't allow the deaf person have the right to a fair trial by their peers."
Since Mr Phillips was excluded from jury service in Victoria, nothing has changed.
Advocacy group Deaf Victoria said it had supported a number of Victorians who had been selected for jury service but then excluded because of a lack of available supports.
That's despite advocacy on the issue from all around the country — including a failed High Court challenge from Queensland deaf woman Gaye Lyons.
The United Nations has also found the failure of Australian courts to provide Auslan interpreters violated the rights of deaf people.
Evidence shows that people with sensory disabilities can participate effectively as jurors if the right supports are in place, but most Australian jurisdictions are yet to introduce legal reform to facilitate this.
Anecdotally, many with disabilities are excluded from jury service at an early stage, including people who are blind or have low vision.
"With appropriate supports and reasonable adjustments, people who are blind or have low vision can also serve effectively as jurors in most situations," Vision Australia policy advisor Bruce Maguire said.
"We call on all governments to ensure that these supports are legislated and implemented."
Most Australian courts don't allow an interpreter in the jury room
One of the key issues in Australia is the common law principle that prevents a 13th person — like an interpreter or a support person — from being in the jury room during deliberations.
The ACT became the first Australian jurisdiction to introduce reform in this area in 2018.
The new provisions allow the judge to make directions to provide a juror with reasonable supports and allow an extra person in the jury room.
"Reasonable supports" might include an Auslan interpreter, disability aid, support person or assistance animal.
These provisions were used for the first time in late 2022 during a trial in the ACT Supreme Court.
Overseas in America and New Zealand, deaf people routinely serve as jurors, while the United Kingdom also introduced reforms in 2021.
Australia is now lagging behind Commonwealth countries with comparable court systems on this issue, despite local evidence which has shown that people who are deaf or hard of hearing can effectively participate as jurors.
What's it like to serve as a deaf juror?
In 2014, a group of international and local researchers, including Australian Catholic University law professor David Spencer, set up a mock trial to examine the practicalities of selecting a deaf juror.
Professor Spencer said this trial, and previous research by Australian researchers, had tested the comprehension and logistics of allowing deaf people to serve on juries and proved that it was possible.
"There is this myth that deaf people, you know, can't comprehend complex legal issues, and factual issues, as well as a hearing person. And we just blew that out of the water," he said.
The mock trial had real prosecutors, real lawyers, genuine police informants and was presided over by a recently retired judge in a real courtroom in Parramatta.
Alex Jones, who is part of the Deaf community, served on the jury in the mock trial.
He said he was initially apprehensive the judge or other jurors might be patronising towards him, but it turned out to be a very positive experience.
"After the first day, everything ran really smoothly, there was no doubts, no awkwardness," he said.
"I had value to provide to the deliberations, I was an active part of them."
"I felt empowered as a deaf person, and it just shows that it is possible."
Mr Jones said there were things to learn about how to manage interpreters in the courts, like the importance of the judge giving strict instructions, for example, for other jurors not to speak to the interpreter directly.
"Like you wouldn't go and have a side conversation with the judge, for example, it's just not appropriate," he said.
"A similar concept needs to be applied to the interpreter who's employed."
Mr Jones said another thing to consider was that he was not really able to make notes, because he has to watch the interpreter to avoid missing when something was said.
"We need to look at how we can work with our peers on the jury," he said.
"I was like, would you mind taking notes? Because I need to watch the interpreter."
Victoria's government considers proposed reform
In Victoria, the law reform commission has completed a body of work examining what changes would need to be made to make juries more inclusive to people with disabilities.
It has now finished its report, which has been sitting with the state government for nine months and is still yet to be made public.
The Victorian government said it was reviewing the report before considering any reforms.
In consultations, the Law Institute Victoria was supportive of proposed changes but also stressed any changes to make juries more inclusive must not impact the right to a fair trial.
Barrister Sally Flynn KC, who is also the vice chair of Victoria's Criminal Bar Association, said it would be important for support people, like interpreters, to take an oath or an affirmation that they are not participating in jury deliberations.
"If there was a case where there was visual identification evidence, or audio identification evidence that was important, it may be inappropriate for someone who has either low vision or are hard of hearing to be able to participate in that trial process," she said.
"The judge should have the overarching power to decide whether it is appropriate in those circumstances."
For Brent Phillips, there is growing hope that years of advocacy from the Deaf community and others may see his home state of Victoria allow people like him to serve on a jury.
"It would show how far we've come as a society in having a deaf person on the jury," he said.
Note: The upper case form of Deaf is used to signal a shared community with a shared language. | Australia Politics |
Ali Unal/AP
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Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech at the presidential palace, in Ankara, Turkey, on Sunday after securing five more years in office.
Ali Unal/AP
Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech at the presidential palace, in Ankara, Turkey, on Sunday after securing five more years in office.
Ali Unal/AP
ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's two-decades of dominance over the country's politics will continue after a win in Sunday's election. Known for his combative populism and for reshaping the country's laws to consolidate his power, Erdogan now looks ahead to another five-year term and ongoing concerns about the country's direction and democracy.
Erdogan won 52.14% of the vote while 47.86% went for his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu, according to Ahmet Yener, the head of Turkey's Supreme Election Council.
"It is not only us who won, it is Turkey," Erdogan said, in a victory speech at the presidential palace in Ankara. "It is our nation that won with all of its elements. It is our democracy."
Now the focus is on the state of that democracy and the country.
Turkey has played an increasingly robust and sometimes contentious role on the global stage as a key NATO member and major military power in the Black Sea.
At home, he still faces soaring inflation, a highly-criticized, sluggish response to massive earthquakes in February and concerns that he's creating one-man rule.
Erdogan won votes by hyping threats to the country's stability
Erdogan, 69, led a divisive campaign in which he tapped into the public's fear of instability following a 2016 coup attempt and multiple conflicts. He accused his opponent of having ties to Kurdish militants, who conduct attacks against Turkish security forces in the southeast. He reminded people of the ongoing civil war next door in Syria. He employed religious, nationalist rhetoric in promising to make the country a global military and industrial power – even working a Turkish-built electric car into his campaign.
That apparently helped counter widespread dissatisfaction with an economic crisis that has seen high inflation and a weakened currency — apparently aggravated by Erdogan's emphasis on maintaining low-interest rates. And the government's poor building code enforcement and slow response to February's earthquakes are still blamed by many for the high death toll — some 50,000 lives lost in Turkey.
Erdogan still benefits from memories of previous governments' elitism
Two decades ago, Erdogan came into office as a champion of working-class people and religious conservatives who felt neglected and repressed by previous secular governments. For many years, women who wore headscarves were banned from attending schools or working in jobs. Erdogan changed those laws and to this day many people, conservative women in particular, see him as someone who looks after them.
At a polling station in Istanbul on Sunday, a mother and daughter cast their votes for Erdogan.
Emrah Gurel/AP
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Supporters of the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday.
Emrah Gurel/AP
Supporters of the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday.
Emrah Gurel/AP
"I don't really think he will make anything better, but I have other reasons. I think he is more respectful of my choices and my freedom," said the mother, Sabiha Dogan, meaning the headscarves she and her daughter wore.
As they entered the polling station, two women who supported the opposition made derogatory comments about their headscarves. Dogan and her daughter Hulya, felt validated in their choice of candidate.
"They only want democracy for themselves and not everyone, they won't respect our freedoms," said 24-year-old Hulya.
The survival of Turkish democracy is still at stake
For the millions who voted against him, Erdogan is seen as an authoritarian. He has stacked the judiciary, monopolizes the media and jails perceived opponents — including journalists and critics on social media. He's accused of allowing corruption to flourish, leading to shoddy, unregulated construction that collapsed in the quakes. He's replaced opposition mayors even though they won local elections.
This election was hardly a fair fight. Erdogan has near-total control of Turkey's broadcast media. And while Erdogan made frequent and lengthy appearances on TV, his challenger, Kilicdaroglu, had to make do with social media and YouTube to get his message across. Erdogan also took advantage of government resources to hand out benefits to millions of citizens and raised the minimum wage several times in the last year.
But the election did seem to energize a surge in the country's democratic culture. Turnout was high — 84% — and many Turks volunteered as citizen witnesses to ensure the safety of ballots. Many vow to continue efforts to push back on any abuses of power.
There are concerns that Erdogan will continue amassing one-man power. And many women and LGBTQ activists worry their freedoms will further decline in the next five years. During his campaign, Erdogan made several comments attacking Turkey's LGBTQ community.
Rights organizations and activists are calling for unity to protect civil freedoms.
Some Syrian refugees see Erdogan's win as cause for relief
Francisco Seco/AP
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Syrian refugee Ahmad Al-Ahmad, center, husband of Naziha Al-Ahmad, comforts his daughter as they bury Naziha in a cemetery after she died during an earthquake, in Elbistan, southeastern, Turkey, on Feb. 10, 2023. Syrians fleeing their country's civil war were once welcomed in Turkey out of compassion. But as their numbers grew, so did calls for their return.
Francisco Seco/AP
Syrian refugee Ahmad Al-Ahmad, center, husband of Naziha Al-Ahmad, comforts his daughter as they bury Naziha in a cemetery after she died during an earthquake, in Elbistan, southeastern, Turkey, on Feb. 10, 2023. Syrians fleeing their country's civil war were once welcomed in Turkey out of compassion. But as their numbers grew, so did calls for their return.
Francisco Seco/AP
Many of Turkey's nearly 4 million Syrian refugees were among those celebrating Erdogan's win. A decade ago he oversaw an open-door policy for refugees escaping war in neighboring Syria — though life for many of the refugees has still been difficult.
As the Turkish economy faltered, many began to see refugees as a burden. Opposition politicians, including Kilicdaroglu, scapegoated refugees and Erdogan's refugee policy, leading to a rise in discrimination and hateful attacks. Kilicdaroglu ran an openly anti-refugee campaign. His promise to send all Syrians back to Syria was one of the most repeated slogans.
Erdogan also gave in to public pressure on the refugee issue. While he condemned Kilicdaroglu for his inflammatory language, the Turkish government has deported hundreds of Syrian men and Erdogan said he would build housing in Turkish controlled parts of Northeastern Syria to "resettle" 1 million refugees voluntarily. But many refugees still see him as being more sympathetic to them.
Erdogan will probably keep playing to East and West in international issues
Turkey is in NATO, sits close to the wars in Ukraine and Syria and often frustrates western powers in how it negotiates those conflicts.
Erdogan has maintained close ties with Russia and refused to participate in Western sanctions, while also supplying weapons to Ukraine. Analysts say Erdogan may eventually approve Sweden's membership to NATO — which is important to the west in order to counter Russia — in exchange for F16 fighter planes from the United States. He showed Turkey's usefulness to the West in helping broker a deal with the United Nations between Ukraine and Russia, to allow Ukrainian grain exports through a Russian blockade.
Vyacheslav Prokofyev/AP
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Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talk to each other on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia summit, in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Oct. 13, 2022.
Vyacheslav Prokofyev/AP
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talk to each other on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia summit, in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Oct. 13, 2022.
Vyacheslav Prokofyev/AP
Meanwhile, he's also expanded the Turkish military's reach and control over areas in northern Syria — a concern to Kurdish groups allied with the U.S. in the ongoing fight against ISIS remnants.
The next five years will likely see a continuation of Erdogan walking a fine line and his transactional approach to foreign policy.
"There's absolutely no reason to think that [Erdogan] would reverse course or soften his approach," said political analyst Selim Koru.
"There is sort of a Western bloc that is broadly geopolitically aligned, and the Bloc wanted Turkey to be in its camp. Turkey essentially has said no, it wants its own camp and isn't interested in participating in any kind of geopolitical alignment where it isn't the boss," said Koru. | Middle East Politics |
LIBREVILLE, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The junta that seized power in Gabon in August said on Monday that it aimed to hold elections in August 2025, two years after the military coup that ousted President Ali Bongo.
The timeframe is part of an "indicative" transition to civilian rule that will need to be approved during a national dialogue involving government officials, civil society groups and others.
The junta also said a new constitution would be presented at the end of October 2024 and a referendum on its adoption would be held around November-December 2024.
It said all those dates were subject to possible revision.
Military officers seized power in Gabon on Aug. 30 after the Central African country's election centre announced Bongo had won a third term as head of state.
Bongo took over in 2009 on the death of his father Omar, who had ruled since 1967.
Opponents say the family did little to share Gabon's oil and mining wealth with its 2 million people.
The coup in Gabon in August was the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020.
Similar takeovers in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger were spurred in part by frustrations over authorities' failure to protect civilians against a spiralling jihadist insurgency that has spread across the Sahel and beyond over the past decade.
All have been widely condemned as regional bodies have pressured the countries' self-appointed military governments to hold elections within reasonable timeframes.
Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian Writing by Sofia Christensen Editing by Alexander Winning
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Africa politics |
World Teachers' Day 2023: 7 Short Speeches In English For Students
World Teachers’ Day is held annually on October 5 to celebrate all teachers around the globe.
World Teachers' Day is an annual international day which is celebrated on October 5 to celebrate the work of teachers.
UNESCO proclaimed October 5 to be World Teachers’ Day in 1994, celebrating the great step made for teachers on October 5, 1966, when a special intergovernmental conference convened by UNESCO in Paris adopted the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, in cooperation with the ILO.
To celebrate World Teachers' Day 2023, various functions and events will be organised in educational institutes globally. To celebrate this special occasion, here are seven short speeches students can refer to pay tribute to the tireless efforts, unwavering passion and profound impact of teachers in shaping the world.
World Teachers' Day: Short Speeches For Students
Speech 1: Appreciation for Teachers
Ladies and gentlemen, students and fellow educators,
Today, as we celebrate World Teachers' Day, it's essential to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the teachers who have dedicated their lives to shaping the future.
Teachers, you are the guiding lights in our lives, leading us toward knowledge and wisdom. Your tireless efforts, patience and love have a profound impact on us. Thank you for being our pillars of support and enlightenment.
Speech 2: The Power of Education
Hello everyone,
On this special day, let us reflect on the transformative power of education. Teachers, you are the key that unlocks the doors to knowledge. Through education, we can change our lives and our communities. Every lesson you impart is a step toward a brighter future. Let us never underestimate the significance of the work teachers do, for you are sculptors of dreams.
Speech 3: A Teacher's Heart
Dear friends,
Teachers not only teach from textbooks but also from the heart. They inspire, nurture, and guide us through life's challenges. A teacher's heart is a wellspring of love and care that shapes us into better human beings. Today, let's honour the kindness and compassion that teachers show every day. You are the heartbeats of our educational journey.
Speech 4: Learning from Each Other
Hello, everyone,
Teachers, you don't just impart knowledge; you facilitate a community of learners. In your classrooms, we learn not only from textbooks but also from each other. You encourage us to share, question and grow together. As we celebrate World Teachers' Day, let's remember the importance of collaboration and unity in our educational journey.
Speech 5: Teachers as Role Models
Ladies and gentlemen,
Teachers, you are not just educators; you are role models. Your dedication, perseverance, and integrity inspire us to be better individuals. You teach us not only subjects but also values that will guide us throughout our lives. As we celebrate today, let's acknowledge the profound influence you have on shaping our character.
Speech 6: The Gift of Knowledge
Dear all,
Education is a gift that keeps on giving. Teachers, you give us the most precious gift of all: knowledge. With this gift, we have the power to change the world. Let us remember that education is a lifelong journey, and your teachings are the foundation upon which we build our dreams.
Speech 7: A Promise to Teachers
Friends and educators,
On this World Teachers' Day, let us make a promise to our teachers. Let's promise to cherish the lessons they've imparted and to carry their wisdom forward. Let's promise to be lifelong learners and to use our knowledge for the betterment of society. Our teachers have sown the seeds of knowledge; it's our duty to make sure they bear fruit. | Global Organizations |
Northern Territory Police Association President Paul McCue has said he warned the government mid-last year of the potential “increased harm” as a result of the lapsed alcohol bans.Alice Springs’ crime wave has been thrust into the national spotlight as the town suffers through an epidemic of violence which many have attributed to the easing of the tough Stronger Futures laws.The 15-year long intervention-era restrictions saw booze banned from many town camps in the territory, but were replaced in July with opt-in mandates.In response to rising crime, 40 police officers were diverted to Alice from communities such as Tennant Creek in December.Stream more on politics with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2023Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has denied there being a need for additional federal officers as a result, but the police association president has hit out at the government and claimed the current situation was entirely avoidable.“Sadly, this was always going to eventuate, we warned the government in the middle of last year that if they were going to allow the Stronger Futures legislation to cease without having a decent plan in place there was no doubt this was going to eventuate in increased harm (and) alcohol fuelled violence,” Mr McCue told Sky News Australia’s Laura Jayes on Wednesday.He said the fact 40 additional police officers were needed demonstrated “obviously there’s not enough down there”.“We warned without a proper plan in place, without decent consultation with our communities that are going to suffer this was going to always be the outcome,” Mr McCue said.“And here we are six, seven months later sadly the subject of a national embarrassment around the management of this process.“This is a failure of the Northern Territory government and here we are trying to clean up the mess again.”Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson has been leading the call for the Federal Government to deploy ADF personnel or federal police officers to fix the scourge of violence in his town.But both Ms Fyles and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected the suggestion on Tuesday.Speaking to Sky News Australia’s Matt Cunningham, Ms Fyles claimed the Northern Territory had the resources to combat the crime in Alice Springs and categorically ruled out requestion commonwealth law enforcement assistance.“We have the resources. We need to talk to the Commonwealth Government about the needs-based funding for certain services.“But I don’t believe we need federal intervention from police or military.”The Prime Minister said the deployment of federal police was “certainly not” advocated during his meeting with Ms Fyles and territory leaders.Mr Albanese also rejected the assertion that an AFP officer had “more improved skills” than a local Territorian officer. | Australia Politics |
First imposed by China in 2020 after years of disputes over Huawei, espionage and COVID, a raft of official and unofficial "trade blockages" worth roughly A$20 billion ($14 billion) are showing signs of loosening under a concerted diplomatic effort that has seen the leaders, foreign ministers and trade ministers of both countries meet since November.
Australian business leaders are following the political signals. Fortescue Metals founder Andrew Forrest, BHP head Mike Henry and Tim Ford, chief executive of tariff-hit winemaker Treasury Wine Estate, have scheduled visits to China in March.
The head of the Australian Forest Products Association said that Australian agriculture officials recently started "encouraging" talks with Chinese customs over log imports, once a A$600 million-a-year trade.
"We're optimistic that in the near future - could be three months, could be six months - we might see a resumption in trade," the association's chief executive, Victor Violante, told Reuters.
At least 15 vessels carrying Australian coal were bound for China last week as traders bet already-reduced trade barriers will fall further. Chinese cotton buyers are importing Australian product in anticipation an unofficial ban will lift.
An end to trade restrictions would mark an early success in Australia's effort to repair trade links with China even as it deepens security ties with the United States and United Kingdom through the AUKUS nuclear submarine alliance.
However differences over national security, human rights and other issues mean the journey to refreshed trade relations could be tentative and bumpy. Australia is expected to announce in March further details about the nuclear submarines it plans to buy, a move Beijing opposes.
Both countries remain locked in a formal World Trade Organisation dispute process over Chinese anti-dumping tariffs on barley. A report is due by March.
Nevertheless, Long Dingbin, China's top diplomat in Western Australia, a huge exporter of grains, iron ore and natural gas, met with state Premier Mark McGowan on Wednesday. McGowan hopes to go to China very soon, in what would be his fifth visit in office, the Chinese consulate in Perth said.
Long has attended at least eight events in February, meeting politicians and business groups, including a Chinese New Year party attended by more than 350 politicians and business leaders.
"People are starting to get on the front foot," Grain Trade Australia Chief Executive Pat O'Shannassy told Reuters. "Trade is ultimately about relationship and people are getting those relationships in place."
Capital is tentatively moving, too. Chinese buyers are looking at Australian assets, although Tianqi Lithium's $136 million bid for Australian lithium developer Essential Metals will test regulator appetite for investment in areas considered important for national security.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday said Australia would consider the merits of any deal but he was "conscious about Australia's sovereign capabilities".
Traders are cautious about possible bureaucratic delays. A shipment of Australian coal diverted to Vietnam last week after waiting at a Chinese port for five days without unloading.
"[The] government's attitude remains ambiguous and the bureaucratic proccess is opaque, even though the general consensus is that the rule is relaxing since last Friday," said a Chinese coal trader who declined to be named.
Even should trade resume, many producers plan to avoid becoming too reliant on China again.
Albanese travels to India next month with his trade and resources ministers and a big business delegation in tow.
The chief executive of Cattle Australia, David Foote, said producers cut off from China had spent more than two years finding new customers and would be loath to give them up.
"They'll want to add China back in but not at the offset of losing their new customers." | Australia Politics |
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy on Sunday said he was open to placing conditions on any aid to Israel, with the aim of reducing civilian casualties in Gaza.
The Connecticut Democrat, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that as lawmakers return to the Capitol Monday with the elusive goal of passing aid to Israel and Ukraine, they will discuss how to structure aid to Israel so it is used in line with human rights laws. His comments, on the third day of the truce between Israel and Hamas, come as other lawmakers — on both sides of the aisle — either didn’t rule out the idea of conditions on aid or underscored concern about minimizing civilian Palestinian casualties.
“We regularly condition our aid to allies based upon compliance with US law and international law. And, so, I think it’s very consistent with the ways in which we have dispensed aid, especially during wartime, to allies, for us to talk about making sure that the aid we give Ukraine or the aid we give Israel is used in accordance with human rights laws,” Murphy said. “And that’ll be a conversation we will all be engaged in when we get back to Washington on Monday.”
Murphy has previously called on Israel to try to further reduce civilian casualties and to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, where more than 14,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry there, in the wake of Hamas’ brutal cross-border assault on Israel on October 7.
“I do believe that the level of civilian harm inside Gaza has been unacceptable and is unsustainable,” he said. “I think there’s both a moral cost to this many civilians, innocent civilians, children often, losing their life, but I think there’s (also) a strategic cost. Ultimately, Hamas will get stronger, not weaker, in the long run if all of this civilian death allows them to recruit more effectively and ably inside Gaza.”
But Murphy also said that Israel has a “moral obligation” to continue fighting Hamas following the temporary four-day truce between Hamas and Israel, which is now in its third day.
“Hopefully, Hamas will accept the conditions that have been laid down that will allow for more hostages to be released. But if they don’t, ultimately Hamas is going to be defeated,” added Murphy. “That’s in Israel’s interest, but it’s also in the interest of the United States. We do not want terrorist organizations believing they can get away with the kind of murder that Hamas did on October 7.”
The Biden administration has pleaded with lawmakers to come together to pass aid for Ukraine and Israel, but disputes over supporting Ukraine — and now over immigration policy — have marred the talks.
Some progressives have proposed adding strict restrictions on aid, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, who released an extensive list of proposed demands for the Israeli government to receive US aid, including “an end to the indiscriminate bombing,” a “right of displaced Gazans to return to their homes,” “a freeze on settlement expansion” in the West Bank and no long-term occupation of Gaza by Israeli forces, as well as a commitment to engage in peace talks “for a two-state solution in the wake of the war.”
Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet indicated to CBS in an interview Sunday that he is open to supporting conditions on aid to Israel. “I haven’t so far, but I think that’s a debate we’re going to have in the coming days,” the Colorado senator, who services on the Intelligence Committee, said on “Face the Nation.”
House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, told NBC Sunday that while he wouldn’t propose placing conditions on aid to Israel aimed at lessening civilian casualties in Gaza, it is already the policy of the US and Israel.
“I think the White House has been clear, and I think US policy has been clear, of lessening the Palestinian casualties that are not Hamas,” Turner said on “Meet the Press,” adding that Israel has issued warnings to civilians about which areas will be targeted. “I wouldn’t propose it, but I think it does accurately reflect US policy.”
Murphy on Sunday also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s previous policies toward Palestinians, saying, “Benjamin Netanyahu believed that you could ignore the Palestinians, that you could try to squash their desires for a state and, ultimately, that would bring peace to the region into Israel. That’s just not the case.”
He continued, “Ultimately, the next government is going to have to put us back on a path to have a Palestinian state. That’s not easy, but it is the only way forward for Israel, is the only way forward for long-term peace.” | Middle East Politics |
The Central Park seen in a Vessel Finder photo.
When the U.S. Navy received a distress call Sunday from an Israeli-owned commercial ship off the coast of Yemen, the assumption was, according to U.S. and European intelligence officials, that Iranian-backed Houthi militants had targeted the vessel as part of an ongoing campaign to harass shipping in support of their allies in Hamas.
“The problem, of course, is that the pirates were Somali,” said an intelligence official from a NATO country that closely monitors international shipping. “Which is historically common but not currently.”That Somali pirates, who have long targeted shipping in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Indian Ocean, might attempt to hijack a vessel would have been routine a decade ago but since 2017 incidents have mostly stopped due to aggressive patrolling by an international coalition. But on Sunday, the attempted hijacking of the Central Park, a Liberian-flagged tanker owned by an Israeli billionaire, by five armed Somalis continues to baffle investigators who suspect, but cannot yet prove, a link to the situation in Gaza, which has sparked a rise in incidents by Iranian proxy forces - including Yemen’s Houthi movement - targeting Israeli or U.S. targets around the region.The Houthis seized an Israeli linked ship, the Galaxy Leader, on Nov. 19, in a dramatic helicopter assault released on social media. The group holds the ship and its 25 member, non-Israeli, crew. The Houthis, who control much of civil war-torn Yemen, have also repeatedly fired long range drones and cruise missiles at Israel, over 1000 miles away, during the fighting in Gaza. While each of the missiles have been intercepted and Houthis have respected the now five-day ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, the continuing incidents leave officials very nervous about the security of some of the world’s busiest sea lanes and possibility of other countries being dragged into the hostilities.
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Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.The Houthis released a series of videos on Nov 25 of Yemeni social media influencers dancing on the deck of the Galaxy Leader and distributing the locally popular mild narcotic Qat to the crew. The ship’s owners have called for the release of the crew and denied a link to Israel. On Sunday, after the five armed men stormed the Central Park from a small skiff, the crew hid in a safe room after contacting a nearby U.S. Navy warship, the USS Mason. According to a Pentagon spokesperson, the five pirates attempted to flee in the skiff after the arrival of coalition vessels but were detained.“They were Somali, but the Central Park is Israeli owned, which in itself is quite a coincidence considering the thousands of ships that pass that corridor,” said a security consultant for a major shipping company, who asked not to be named or their client identified. “But after the hijacking was disrupted by the arrival of the Americans, the Houthis fired missiles at both ships. That makes it complicated and leads to fears the Houthis outsourced the operation in an effort to avoid being seen breaking the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza.”
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At least two missiles fired from Houthi controlled areas landed within about ten nautical miles of the Central Park and USS Mason, according to the Pentagon, after the hijacking was disrupted.“While certainly still capable of piracy, the Somalis have been much less active since 2017,” said the NATO official. “But it wouldn’t be hard to hire some guys to storm a ship in the region and maybe the Houthis wanted to add pressure without being accused of breaking the ceasefire.”“We continue to investigate the incident for possible links to transnational terrorism,” said a U.S. official on the condition of anonymity. “But it's entirely possible the suspects didn’t know who they were working for.”Since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and its Gaza-based allies on Israeli communities and bases surrounding the tiny coastal enclave of 2.2 million people that killed about 1200 people, and the Israeli response which has killed at least 12,000 people and flattened much of Gaza, allies of Hamas in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria have targeted both Israel and U.S. forces throughout the region. The recent ceasefire has been honoured by the Hamas allies, except for Sunday’s unsuccessful missile attack on the ships.Hezbollah, a key Hamas ally in Lebanon, have exchanged artillery and missile fire with the Israelis along the UN designated border between the two countries, and despite honouring the Israeli-Hamas ceasefire, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Iranian-aligned groups represent a major regional threat, according to the U.S. official.
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“It’s a disastrous situation overall,” they said. “The only way this gets worse is if Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Yemen continue to escalate throughout the region. This has always been the concern because the U.S. might get drawn in militarily. The efforts to avoid this involvement aren’t just up to the U.S. Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis all get a vote on how far this goes.”A Hamas official based in Beirut denied regional coordination between Hamas and other Iranian-backed groups over Gaza but said that each group was free to decide about its involvement. “Hamas is focused on the war in Gaza,” said Abu Ahmed, who works with top Hamas official Osama Hamden. “The resistance bloc is aligned on the issue of [Israel] but operates independently according to their own decisions.”A Hezbollah commander in Beirut agreed but added that the regional allies closely coordinated as peers, not proxies of Iran and other groups.“Hezbollah trusts its leadership, both military and political,” said Abu Jawwad. “Each of Hezbollah’s allies makes their own operational decisions but the leaders work together in cooperation. These decisions will be made by our commanders.”“Every member of the resistance [bloc] wants to confront [Israel] but it’s not an individual decision.”
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The federal government has struck a deal with the Coalition on legislation setting out how this year's referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament will be managed.
Key points:
- A campaign will be run to make sure voters understand the referendum process
- Labor has conceded to the Coalition's demand for official pamphlets to be distributed nationally
- But it will not provide Commonwealth funding for the yes and no campaigns
The legislation could be passed by the Senate as early as today.
Labor has made a concession in allowing an official pamphlet to be distributed across the country, outlining the respective yes and no cases.
But it has not agreed to the Coalition's demands for equal Commonwealth funding for both sides of the debate.
A national "neutral civics" campaign will be run to ensure voters understand the referendum process and the meaning of the constitutional change.
The deal effectively sidelines the Greens and Senate crossbenchers, who had also been proposing amendments to the machinery bill.
The agreement comes as the Referendum Working Group comes together in Canberra for its final meeting ahead of presenting the proposed wording and question for the referendum to the government.
"I think it's an example of how [constructively] the government and opposition can work together to get the best result for the Australian people," Special Minister of State Don Farrell told the Senate, confirming the details of the deal.
Shadow Special Minister of State Jane Hume responded: "We would very much like to [give thanks for] the constructive way in which the government has engaged with the opposition."
Country Liberal Party senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said she had not spoken with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on his position on the referendum machinery bill.
"I'd like for an official yes and no campaign to be funded and if that is not available I will be crossing the floor," she said.
"Obviously Mr Dutton has his reasons. I'm yet to have a conversation with Mr Dutton but I'd like to be able to have a conversation with [him]."
The Greens had wanted to expand voting eligibility to ensure Indigenous Australians currently serving sentences of fewer than three years could have their say.
The government did not support an amendment from independent senator David Pocock, who was trying to have the advertising blackout period ahead of the referendum extended to include social media.
Senator Pocock had wanted the traditional "media blackout" period applied to television, radio and newspapers extended to social media — as well as donations reform.
"Social media now is a very legitimate advertising channel, in fact millions and millions of advertising dollars are spent on social media … it just seems common sense to bring this up to date," he said.
Senator Farrell said the purpose of changes to the bill were to make the experience of the referendum feel as much as possible like a general election and, "like it or not", currently there was no ban on social media advertising before federal elections.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson had wanted the referendum to be held on the same day as the next federal election. | Australia Politics |
Hamas was able to carry out their extensive October 7 massacre with help from spies within Israel's borders, according to a report by The Guardian. The report alleges that Hamas was able to spend years drawing detailed maps thanks to the help of sources inside Israel, citing an IDF conclusion drawn from data found on phones, notebooks, and documents seized by terrorists.
The report added that Hamas terrorists carried guides to hostage-taking as well as Arabic to Hebrew phrasebooks. One specifically translated phrase was "put your hands up and spread your legs," the British newspaper reported.
The UK-based outlet added that the findings on the plans for the massacre included a map that is more detailed than would be required by the IDF.
“Compiling such a map could only have been done using ‘inside knowledge’ – almost certainly from a Hamas spy,” the report cited an unnamed IDF intelligence source as saying.
These reports point out Israel's misunderstanding of Hamas and the organization's capabilities ahead of October 7.
Observers warned, but were threatened in response
A New York Times report alleges that the IDF retrieved a 40-page "game plan" for Hamas' planned attack but that it was dismissed on the grounds that security forces believed it was beyond the terror organization's bandwidth. Military officials also ignored reports from observers—mostly women—and even threatened to court martial them over their claims.
IDF lookouts who had warned their commanders that they were concerned about the situation along the Gaza border in the months before the October 7 attack were told to stop bothering them and were even threatened with a court-martial, N12 reported last month.
According to a report by Israeli media, the lookouts warned that they had seen unusual training and other actions taking place next to the border, with more and more people suddenly getting near the fence in the months leading up to the attack.
The observers felt that they weren't being heard; one of them decided to go directly to a senior commander in the area and was told "I don't want to hear again about this nonsense. If you all bother us again with these things, you'll be court-martialed."
Data taken from technology (laptops, phones, tablets) and written notebooks detailed plans for a slew of military targets and key points in Israel to attack, well into Israeli territory, The Guardian reported.The report also alleges that the detail and scale of the information found led to the conclusion that Hamas had to have engaged in "years" worth of planning efforts—which it is assumed that Israeli intelligence bodies would have taken more seriously had they known about it.
Hamas terrorists also utilized Israeli SIM cards as well as walkie-talkies for continued communication, according to the report. Recovered items such as a radio transmitter with solar battery capabilities were meant to allow for an extended stay in Israel. | Middle East Politics |
Ukraine may have launched a major new thrust of its counteroffensive in the 74th week of the war, even as it tried to convince its Western allies to supply more long-range weapons.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had fended off “a massive assault” on June 26 by three mechanised battalions. The thrust of the new offensive had come south of Orikhiv, in western Zaporizhia, the ministry said.
Unnamed Pentagon officials later told reporters that Kyiv had unleashed thousands of Western-trained reservists on the southern front. Geolocated footage suggested Ukrainian troops had advanced 2.5km (1.5 miles) towards Robotyne, a Russian-held village, before retreating somewhat.
Russian reporters disagreed on the size of the assault, putting the number of armoured vehicles between 30 and 80.
Ukraine’s strategy for much of the war has been to disrupt Russian ammunition logistics well behind the front lines, hampering Russia’s ability to bring its superior firepower to bear on the battlefront. That strategy dovetailed well with its guerrilla tactics in the battle for Kyiv in the first weeks of the war, which took out Russian tanks, planes and helicopters with Stinger and Javelin missiles.
Only in early June, when it launched its latest counteroffensive with Western armour, did Ukraine attempt large-scale mechanised assaults, but lost 20 percent of its new kit in two weeks, officials told The New York Times.
It quickly returned to its long-distance tactics in an effort to conserve manpower at the front lines until Russian occupying forces are sufficiently weakened to be frontally attacked.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Aspen Security Forum on July 21 that range was Ukraine’s only way of reaching parity with Russia’s superiority in quantity of arms and men.
“NATO weapons are better, but we have less of them. And if it is less, then there should be at least a long-range balance. We lack this,” said Zelenskyy.
This has meant Ukraine’s offensive has not yet made spectacular territorial gains, leading Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare it a failure.
“Today it is clear that the Western curators of the Kyiv regime are clearly disappointed with the results of the so-called counteroffensive,” Putin told a Kremlin meeting on July 21.
“There are no results, at least not yet. Neither the colossal resources that were ‘pumped into’ the Kyiv regime, nor the supply of Western weapons: tanks, artillery, armoured vehicles, missiles,” he said.
‘26,000’ Ukrainian soldiers killed, Russia says
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu estimated in early July that Kyiv’s losses during the counteroffensive were 26,000 men. Ukraine has not provided casualty figures, and Al Jazeera could not verify the numbers independently.
Reports surfaced during the week that the administration of US President Joe Biden was mulling over sending Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), with a range of 300km (186 miles), to Ukraine.
But The Washington Post reported that ATACMS are not an immediate prospect because production is limited to 500 missiles a year and all are marked for export to foreign buyers.
Currently, Ukraine’s longest-range missile is the Storm Shadow (SCALP), supplied by the United Kingdom and France, with a range of more than 200km (124 miles), and these were reportedly deployed against Crimea for the first time on July 19.
Some US officials have openly expressed their disagreement with sending existing ATACMS stockpiles to Ukraine. “This is a very valuable product, and it will be useful to us in the event of an unforeseen situation somewhere in the world, whether it be [North Korea] or China. Therefore, if we supplied them in significant quantities, this would directly affect our own readiness,” former US undersecretary of defence, Colin Kahl, told the Aspen Security Forum.
The US said on July 7 it had decided to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions as a way of evening the playing field with Russia. These release multiple bomblets and are considered effective against entrenched defensive positions. Ukraine started using them on June 20, The Washington Post reported.
Ukraine’s strategy of keeping Russia at arm’s length was causing 90 percent of Russian troops’ deaths, said Colonel Serhiy Baranov, Ukraine’s chief of missile troops, artillery and unmanned systems.
“Thanks to Western high-precision missile and artillery systems, we have combined and created a long-range ‘fiery fist’ that hits so powerfully and accurately that the Russians no longer have the ability to conduct an effective counter-battery fight with us,” he said on July 22.
Southern military command spokesperson Nataliya Humenyuk said Ukraine’s targeting of Russian ammunition depots was having an effect on Russia’s ability to resist Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
“They already have a certain hunger for shells,” she said on July 22, pointing out that shellings had decreased from about 90 barrages a day, citing 69 over the previous 24 hours.
Ukraine’s long-range strategy is also psychological.
Earlier this year, it launched drones that hit Moscow buildings for the first time during the war, highlighting gaps in the Russian capital’s aerial defences.
Russia blamed Ukraine for two drones that struck Moscow buildings in the small hours of July 24. One hit an administrative building on the central Komsomolsky Prospekt, the other an unfinished high-rise office building. The first drone appeared to have caused damage to the GRU military intelligence headquarters, said Bellingcat investigator Christo Grozev.
Russia’s foreign ministry accused Ukraine of attacking Crimea with 17 UAVs, claiming that all were disabled or shot down.
The eastern front
Both Russia and Ukraine have seen Bakhmut as a key prize on the eastern front. Since losing the city to Russian forces in early May, Ukraine has embarked on a flanking manoeuvre to surround it from the north and south.
Ukraine’s forces were trying to capture Klishchiivka, a village south of Bakhmut, in one of the key battles of the counteroffensive, according to Meduza’s analysis. Victory there could enable Ukraine’s forces to surround Bakhmut and push deeper into Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
A Ukrainian commander in the Bakhmut area said on July 19 that Ukrainian forces advanced 1.8km (1.1 miles).
Russian reporters said Ukrainian forces advanced on Bakhmut’s northern flank on July 20 and 21.
Geolocated footage published on July 25 showed Ukrainian forces making significant gains south of Klishchiivka.
On July 14, Russia tried to launch an offensive in Kupiansk, further north on the eastern front. On July 22, Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia’s Kupiansk initiative had failed. “It was a desperate attempt to somehow pull our forces away from other directions. But in general, the whole initiative is now on our side,” they wrote on Telegram.
Russia was still being thwarted in attempted offensives in Lyman, Avdiivka, and Marinka on the eastern front, said Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar.
Ukrainian forces were still making inroads only in Russia’s first two lines of defence, the armed forces said. “It is important that we progress every day. Somewhere by 100 meters, somewhere – by a kilometre. Every day, we gnaw away our territory, we gnaw away the first and second lines of defence where Russia was able to build something.” In places, Russian forces have many lines of defence.
The southern front
Major Valerii Shershen said Ukrainian forces advanced more than 1km (0.6 miles) towards Melitopol on July 19, and were making progress towards Berdyansk – the two main objectives of the southern counteroffensive. Russian forces were “losing fire control” over Staromayorkse, a front-line village on a commanding height, he said. Geolocated footage showed Ukrainian advances here on July 22, and in the neighbouring village of Pryyutne. The Ukrainian general staff said their forces had advanced 750 metres towards Staromayorke on July 25.
In western Zaporizhia, Ukrainian military officials said their forces were continuing to advance by roughly 100 metres a day south of Orikhiv, something backed up by geolocated footage on July 22.
A Russian military reporter said Russia was suffering from manpower rotation problems, and that is why it was unable to defend or recapture positions – recalling similar complaints from Russian generals.
Maliar said Ukrainian forces had advanced gradually on the southern front during the week of July 17-24.
The grain war
Russia on July 17 said it would no longer allow Ukrainian grain shipments to cross the Black Sea, but two days later Putin left open the possibility of returning to the grain deal.
“We are not against the deal itself,” he told a Kremlin meeting. “We will consider the possibility of returning to it.”
Russia’s demands must be met, he said. This entails lifting sanctions on banks that trade in grain sales and on agricultural machinery exports to Russia. Putin also placed a third condition – the lifting of sanctions on Russian grain and fertiliser.
The West has not imposed any such sanctions, but Putin insists there is undeclared discrimination against Russian products, which are left to pile up in European ports.
Zelenskyy, too, said he was talking to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to solve the Black Sea grain impasse. “We are looking for a way out,” he said in a video address to the Aspen Security Forum.
In the meantime, both pressed each other militarily in the Black Sea region.
Russia dealt a devastating blow to the port of Odesa on July 19, striking its Cathedral of the Transformation and two dozen other cultural landmarks. Two days later, its defence ministry said “sea-based long-range precision weapons” had struck “facilities where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared using attack unmanned aerial vehicles”.
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said Russia would consider all Ukraine port infrastructure “as a place for deployment and replenishment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with Western weapons” and therefore fair game for further strikes.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin amplified this line of argument, saying the UN should not condemn strikes against Odesa because they were targeting “terrorist” activity.
Ukraine attempted more surface drone attacks, like the one that disabled the Kerch Bridge on July 17, prompting Russia’s suspension of Ukraine’s grain exports.
Russia said one of its Black Sea patrol boats had on July 24 thwarted a naval drone attack. The defence ministry said the Sergei Kotov had managed to destroy two surface drones 1km away.
Ukraine insisted it also had missile capabilities. Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Volodymyr Gavrilov said Ukraine had the capacity to deny Russian military and commercial shipping access to a swath of the Black Sea. Ukraine’s ambition, he said, was to “drive this entire Black Sea fleet closer to Tuapse, Novorossiysk and prevent them from moving in the Crimean zone”.
Ukraine used US-supplied Neptune anti-ship missiles to sink the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva last year. Since then, Gavrilov said, Ukraine has developed its anti-ship warfare. “Our capabilities are not limited to Neptune-type systems. There are other systems. We are much stronger on this issue than we were a year ago. And we are advancing in this direction even further,” he said. | Europe Politics |
The Hague, Netherlands— Anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders won a huge victory in Dutch elections, according to a near complete count of the vote early Thursday, in a stunning lurch to the far right for a nation once famed as a beacon of tolerance. The result will send shockwaves through Europe, where, and puts Wilders in line to lead talks to form the next governing coalition and possibly become the first far-right prime minister of the Netherlands.
With nearly all votes counted, Wilders' Party for Freedom was forecast to win 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, two more than predicted by an exit poll when voting finished Wednesday night and more than double the 17 he won at the last election.
"I had to pinch my arm," a jubilant Wilders said.
Political parties were set to hold separate meetings Thursday to discuss the outcome before what is likely to be an arduous process of forming a new governing coalition begins Friday.
Despite his harsh rhetoric, Wilders has already begun courting other right and center parties by saying in a victory speech that whatever policies he pushes will be "within the law and constitution."
Wilders' election program included calls for a referendum on the Netherlands, a total halt to accepting asylum-seekers and migrant pushbacks at Dutch borders.
It also advocates the "de-Islamization" of the Netherlands. He says he wants no mosques or Islamic schools in the country, although he has been milder about Islam during this election campaign than in the past.
Instead, his victory seems based on his campaign to rein-in migration — the issue that caused the last governing coalition to quit in July — and tackle issues such as the cost-of-living crisis and housing shortages.
"Voters said, 'We are sick of it. Sick to our stomachs,'" he said, adding he is now on a mission to end the "asylum tsunami," referring to the migration issue that came to dominate his campaign.
"The Dutch will be No. 1 again," Wilders said. "The people must get their nation back."
But Wilders, who has in the past been labeled a Dutch version of Donald Trump, first must form a coalition government before he can take the reins of power.
That will be tough as mainstream parties are reluctant to join forces with him and his party, but the size of his victory strengthens his hand in any negotiations.
Wilders called on other parties to constructively engage in coalition talks. Pieter Omtzigt, a former centrist Christian Democrat who built his own New Social Contract party in three months to take 20 seats, said he would always be open to talks.
The closest party to Wilders' in the election was an alliance of the center-left Labor Party and Green Left, which was forecast to win 25 seats. But its leader, Frans Timmermans, made clear that Wilders should not count on a coalition with him.
"We will never form a coalition with parties that pretend that asylum seekers are the source of all misery," Timmermans said, vowing to defend Dutch democracy.
The historic victory came one year after the, whose Brothers of Italy's roots were steeped in nostalgia for fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Meloni has since mellowed her stance on several issues and has become the acceptable face of the hard right in the EU.
Wilders was long a firebrand lashing out at Islam, at the EU and migrants — a stance which brought him close to power but never in it, in a nation known for compromise politics.
Hungarian Prime Minister, who boasts of turning Hungary into an "illiberal" state amid a "clash of civilizations" and has similarly harsh stances on migration and EU institutions, was quick to congratulate Wilders. "The winds of change are here! Congratulations," Orban said.
During the final weeks of his campaign, Wilders somewhat softened his stance and vowed that he would be a prime minister for all Dutch people, so much so that he gained the moniker Geert "Milders."
The election was called after the fourth and final coalition of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigned in July after failing to agree to measures to rein-in migration.
Rutte was replaced by Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, a former refugee from Turkey who could have become the country's first female prime minister had her party won the most votes. Instead, it was forecast to lose 10 seats to end up with 24.
The result is the latest in a series of elections that is altering the European political landscape. From Slovakia and Spain to Germany and, populist and hard-right parties triumphed in some EU member nations and faltered in others.
for more features. | Europe Politics |
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. ANI Canberra (Australia): Defending the use of Russian arms by Indian forces, External Affairs
Minister S Jaishankar on Monday hit out at Western countries for choosing military dictatorships as preferred partners and not supplying India with weapons for decades.
He made these remarks while addressing a press conference along with Australian counterpart Penny Wong after both ministers held the 13th Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue (FMFD).
“We have a long-standing relationship with Russia, and this relationship has served our interests well. We have a substantial inventory of Soviet and Russian-origin weapons,” Jaishankar said adding, “this inventory grew for various reasons including the West not supplying weapons to India for decades and in fact seeing the military dictatorship next to us as a preferred partner.”
“In international politics, we make judgments which are reflective of our future interests and current situation,” Jaishankar added.
Jaishankar on Monday held broad-ranging discussions on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and its repercussions on the Indo-Pacific region with his Australian counterpart.
“We discussed Ukraine and its repercussions in the Indo-Pacific region, the progress in Quad, G-20 issues, our trilateral, some things related to IAEA and climate finance sustainable
development goals.”
“We have been very clearly against the conflict in Ukraine. We believe it does not serve the interest of anybody, the participants, or the international community. As the country of the global south, we have been seeing first hand how much it has impacted low-income countries. As PM Modi said in Samarkand, this is not an era of war,” the minister said.
Jaishankar said that the discussions held were underpinned by the fact that “as liberal democracies, both the countries believe in the rules based international order, in freedom of navigation in the international waters, in promoting growth connectivity and security of all and ensuring that countries make sovereign choices in matters that are important today.”
As the chair of G20 next year, Australia’s views and interests will be very important, he said.
He expressed gratitude to Australia for joining India in celebrating the 75th anniversary of India’s independence by decorating Australia’s iconic sites.
Among bilateral issues, Jaishankar said that the talks were to see how India and Australia can shape a better region.
“We spoke about a whole lot of issues — trade, economy, education, defence and security, clean energy and among the many agreements and understandings we reached. It is in our mutual interest to expand the diplomatic footprint in each other’s country.”
“There are some issues in which we see great potential in terms of giving a greater quality to our bilateral partnership,” he added.
First, Jaishankar said is the proposal that has been under discussion — “an understanding on the mobility of talent and skills and how we can grow education and what we could do bearing in mind India’s new education policy.”
Responding to a question over the ‘Khalistani issue’, Jaishankar said, “From time to time we’ve engaged the Canadian government on this issue, and we have flagged the need to ensure that freedoms in a democratic society are not misused by forces which actually advocate violence and bigotry.”
Meanwhile, Penny Wong highlighted that India and Australia are comprehensive strategic partners.
“India and Australia recognise that the Indo-Pacific region is being reshaped and it is in the interest of both nations to navigate through this together,” said Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
“Most fundamentally, we share a region, the Indio Pacific region. We got a shared interest and shared ambition which is our region being stable, prosperous and respectable of sovereignty and where countries are not required to choose sides but make their own sovereign choices,” the minister said.
Wong said both India and Australia “don’t want to see any country dominating and any country being dominated.”
Underlining the importance of partnership with India, Wong said, “For Australia, this partnership (India), is a critical part of shaping the region we want.”
She said both countries have agreed to continue to deepen the relationship, including the diplomatic footprint in each other’s country. “We are looking to open a consulate general in Bengaluru, in the heart of India’s technology industry sometime next year,” she added.
Jaishankar arrived in Canberra on Monday to a “Tiranga welcome”.
“Arrived in Canberra to a Tiranga welcome. So happy to see the old Parliament house of Australia in our national colours,” Jaishankar tweeted. In Australia, Jaishankar will be visiting Canberra and Sydney.
It is EAM’s second visit to Australia this year, the first was in February 2022 to attend the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Melbourne. The external affairs minister will also be meeting the Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Richard Marles.
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. | India Politics |
Musk Says He’d Like To Help Rebuild Gaza Ian Chat With Netanyahu
Billionaire Elon Musk said that he’d like to help rebuild Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war in a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his social-media platform X.
(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Elon Musk said that he’d like to help rebuild Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war in a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his social-media platform X.
It’s important to first “deradicalize” the Palestinian territories, similar to how other Arab states have become more moderate in recent years, including Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu said in a live discussion broadcast on the site formerly known as Twitter on Monday.
Read More: Musk, Netanyahu Visit Massacre Site Amid Antisemitism Furor
Musk, who is under fire for amplifying antisemitic content on X, is meeting with Israeli officials and toured the Kfar Aza kibbutz where some of the worst violence occurred on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants broke through the country’s border barriers and attacked civilians. Musk described seeing bullet shell casings in cribs on the tour.
After watching footage of the attack by Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the US and European Union, Musk called the apparent joy expressed by the killers “evil” and “jarring.” Israel has been showing footage of the attack by Hamas in screenings around the world.
Still, Netanyahu didn’t address the latest antisemitism row on X in the approximately 20-minute broadcast. Musk has defended himself from what he labeled “bogus media stories” after he endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory earlier this month on X. Major brands including Apple Inc. and Walt Disney Co. have stopped advertising on his social media platform over concerns of increasing antisemitism and hate speech since he took over Twitter last year.
Read More: Musk’s X Sues Media Matters Over Link to Pro-Nazi Content
Musk’s trip to Israel will also include meetings with Benny Gantz, an opposition leader and member of the three-man war cabinet and President Isaac Herzog.
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | Middle East Politics |
White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer led a U.S. delegation to New Delhi on Monday where he noted the formation of an investigative panel by India to probe an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on U.S. soil.
"Mr. Finer acknowledged India's establishment of a Committee of Enquiry to investigate lethal plotting in the United States and the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible," the White House said in a statement Monday.
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department alleged that an Indian government official directed an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on U.S. soil, while it announced charges against a man accused of orchestrating the attempted murder.
U.S. officials have named the target of the attempted murder as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the United States and Canada.
In response, India expressed concern about one of its government officials being linked to the plot, from which it dissociated itself, as being against government policy.
India said last week it would formally investigate the concerns aired by the U.S. and take "necessary follow-up action" on the findings of a panel set up on Nov. 18.
News of the incident came two months after Canada said there were "credible" allegations linking Indian agents to the June murder of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a Vancouver suburb, a contention India has rejected.
U.S. President Joe Biden, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, CIA director Bill Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have discussed this issue with their Indian counterparts in recent weeks.
The issue is highly delicate for both India and the Biden administration as they try to build closer ties in the face of an ascendant China perceived as a threat for both democracies.
The Indian government has long complained about the presence of Sikh separatist groups outside India. New Delhi views them as security threats. The groups have kept alive the movement for Khalistan, or the demand for an independent Sikh state to be carved out of India.
Finer met Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. They also discussed developments in the Middle East, including the Israel-Hamas war, plans for a post-war Gaza and recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, the White House said Monday. | India Politics |
The powerful sister of North Korea’s leader has said her country will stage more displays of military might in response to a new US-South Korean nuclear deterrence agreement and compared Joe Biden’s comments about it as a “nonsensical remark from the person in his dotage”.
Kim Yo-jong’s broadside came after Biden attended a summit with the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, on Wednesday. The US president said later that any North Korean nuclear attack on the US or its allies would “result in the end of whatever regime” took such action.
Kim responded that Biden was “too miscalculating and irresponsibly brave”. “It may be taken as a nonsensical remark from the person in his dotage who is not at all capable of taking the responsibility for security and the future of the US, an old man with no future, as it is too much for him to serve out two-year remainder of his office term,” Kim said, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Biden’s meeting with Yoon in Washington came amid heightened tensions in the Korean Peninsula as the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the combined US-South Korean military exercises have increased in a cycle of tit-for-tat.
Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles, including multiple demonstrations of intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the US mainland and a slew of short-range launches the North described as simulated nuclear strikes on South Korea.
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is widely expected to up the ante in coming weeks or months as he continues to accelerate a campaign aimed at cementing the North’s status as a nuclear power and eventually negotiating US economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
During their summit, Biden and Yoon announced new nuclear deterrence efforts that call for periodically docking US nuclear-armed submarines in South Korea for the first time in decades and bolstering training between the two countries. They also committed to plans for bilateral presidential consultations in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack, the establishment of a nuclear consultative group and improved sharing of information on nuclear and strategic weapons operation plans.
In Kim Yo-jong’s comments, published on state media, she said the US-South Korean agreement reflected the allies’ “most hostile and aggressive will of action” against the North and would push regional peace and security into “more serious danger”.
Kim, who is one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, said the summit further strengthened the North’s conviction to enhance its nuclear arms capabilities. She said it would be especially important for the North to perfect the “second mission of the nuclear war deterrent”, in an apparent reference to the country’s escalatory nuclear doctrine that calls for preemptive nuclear strikes over a broad range of scenarios where it may perceive its leadership as under threat.
She added: “The more the enemies are dead set on staging nuclear war exercises, and the more nuclear assets they deploy in the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula, the stronger the exercise of our right to self-defence will become in direct proportion to them.”
North Korea has long described the US’s regular military exercises with South Korea as invasion rehearsals, while the allies describe those drills as defensive. Many experts say Kim Jong-un likely uses his rivals’ military drills as a pretext to advance his weapons programs, cement his domestic leadership and be recognised as a legitimate nuclear state to get international sanctions on the North lifted. | Asia Politics |
Was this the week that Ukraine's long-anticipated counter-offensive finally got under way?
Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to think so. "We can definitely state that this Ukrainian offensive has begun," he said in a video interview published on Telegram on Friday.
In some ways, it's already been under way for weeks, with Ukraine conducting what's known in military jargon as "shaping operations": long range artillery and missile attacks on key Russian logistical targets far behind the front lines.
Monday seemed to herald a change, with small detachments of lightly armoured Ukrainian units moving forward across the open fields towards Russian fortifications in southern Ukraine, south-east of Zaporizhzhia.
"Now the so-called 'fighting reconnaissance stage' is taking place along the entire length of the front," Serhii Kuzan, co-founder and chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre, told the BBC.
"That means there's a probing of Russian defences."
Some videos and accounts suggested that they quickly ran into trouble.
"Somewhere this happens more successfully with small losses," Mr Kuzan said. "And somewhere less successfully, where the Russians fight back."
Mr Kuzan declined to name specific towns, saying only that they were all in the area south of Zaporizhzhia.
By Tuesday, the world's attention was captured by the destruction of the dam at Nova Kakhovka and the subsequent flooding that soon covered around 230 square miles (596 sq km) either side of the Dnipro River.
For all the Kremlin's denials, it didn't look like a coincidence. The dam, and the road across it, offered a possible line of attack for Ukrainian forces looking for ways to keep Russian forces off-balance.
It seems highly likely that Russian forces, which controlled the dam, decided to blow it up, taking one of Kyiv's military operations off the table.
Kyiv had already signalled its interest in this stretch of the front line more than once.
In late April, Ukrainian soldiers crossed the river and briefly established a bridgehead at Oleshky. Ukraine also took control of several small islands in the Dnipro delta, close to Kherson.
The extent of Kyiv's military plans for this area is not known, and is now academic. The catastrophic flooding will have made river crossings impossible for the time being.
"But the fact that such a direction was an option was seen by the Russians," Mr Kuzan said.
While the authorities in Kyiv suddenly grappled with the flooding, the fighting continued - and seemed to escalate - further east.
By early Thursday morning, the UK's Ministry of Defence tweeted that "heavy fighting continues along multiple sectors of the front," adding that in most areas "Ukraine holds the initiative."
In a video the same day, Russia's defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that Russian forces had repelled an overnight Ukrainian attack in the area south of Zaporizhzhia, involving 150 armoured vehicles and 1,500 troops.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, Ukraine's 47th Mechanised Brigade "made an attempt to break through Russian lines."
A video circulated on the internet, purporting to show something new: a western-supplied Leopard tank being destroyed. The BBC has not yet verified the video.
Ukrainian officials, characteristically tight lipped about current operations, offered tantalising glimpses into what was going on.
Hanna Malyar, the Deputy Defence Minister, coyly said that Russian troops were "actively on the defensive" in the area around the town of Orikhiv, around 65km south-east of Zaporizhzhia.
In a statement on Telegram, she also confirmed that battles were continuing around Velyka Novosilka, further east.
The two towns likely form the western and eastern edges of a heavily fortified stretch of the front line where many analysts believe Ukraine will eventually try and punch through Russian lines.
"It's not a secret that one of our main goals is to cut the land corridor that feeds the whole southern grouping of enemy forces," Mr Kuzan said.
Pro-Russian Telegram channels in the Donbas were full of excited chatter about Ukraine's latest moves, much of it laced with scorn.
"They are going where the Russians are waiting for them," one member posted in the I Love Kramatorsk group. "What stupidity!"
Others acknowledged that Ukrainian forces had moved forward, but questioned the price in lost men and armour.
"I really question the price of this success," another member of the same group commented.
"Do they have enough forces to reach Tokmak [44km south of Orikhiv], let alone Berdyansk and Melitopol?"
But it's not the only area where fighting is raging.
Footage from north and south of the city of Bakhmut, scene of one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war, appeared to show Ukrainian forces moving forward.
Ms Malyar said they had advanced "from 200 to 1,100 metres in various sections," in what may eventually be an effort to encircle the city and trap its Russian occupiers.
It is, as the UK's Ministry of Defence noted, "a highly complex operational picture".
But does it mean that Ukraine's counter-offensive is already entering a dramatic new phase?
On Wednesday, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, scoffed at the idea.
"All of this is not true," he told Reuters.
"When we start the counter-offensive, everyone will know about it. They will see it."
But something has definitely changed.
"The point is that the front is finally moving," Serhii Kuzan said, adding that several options were still open to Ukrainian commanders.
But Ukraine is also operating under a number of significant restraints, the main one being the lack of fighter jets capable of providing support from the air.
"That's why we move slowly," Mr Kuzan said, "and then move air defence [systems] closer."
Another factor is time. This offensive will probably last no more than five months, after which autumn rain will once again render open ground impassable for heavy armoured vehicles.
What will success look like?
If Ukrainian forces can punch through Russian lines, all the way to the Sea of Azov, then any Russian troops west of that breach will suddenly be much more vulnerable, dependent entirely on supply lines through the Crimean Peninsula.
All that would then remain, Mr Kuzan says, would be to destroy the Kerch Bridge linking Russia with Crimea (briefly disabled by a huge truck bomb last October) and attack ships and planes being used to ferry supplies to the peninsula.
"That would be the end," he says. "But don't expect this to happen soon. It'll take months." | Europe Politics |
Artificial intelligence, drones, and deep space radar are among the technologies that will be used by Australia and its Aukus allies to counter China’s aggression in the Pacific.
Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, met with his counterparts from the United States and United Kingdom – Lloyd J Austin and Grant Shapps – in California on Saturday to announce the second “pillar” of the Aukus deal.
It came after the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, last month accused a Chinese naval ship of “dangerous, unsafe and unprofessional” behaviour after Australian naval divers were injured by sonar pulses said to have been emitted by a Chinese warship in the international waters off Japan.
Despite Australia’s thawing trade relationship with China, there is ongoing tension over the latter’s presence in the region.
Marles said on Saturday that the incident was “unsafe and unprofessional” and had been raised directly with China.
“We have made public our concerns about the behaviour,” he said.
“It highlights the need for this arrangement and it highlights the need for speed in this arrangement and I think you can see that speed.”
While Australia’s planned acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines has been the main focus of the Aukus pact, the second pillar focuses on advanced technologies.
AI technology will be used on systems – including on P-8A Poseidon aircraft – to process information from sonobuoys, which detect and transmit underwater data, to improve “our anti-submarine warfare capabilities”, according to a joint statement by the ministers.
AI algorithms and machine learning will also be used to “enhance force protection, precision targeting, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance”.
Existing and future submarines will be used to launch and recover undersea vehicles from torpedo tubes, they said, while quantum technology will be deployed to improve positioning, navigation and timing to improve stealth and enable forces to operate even if GPS goes down.
The Aukus partners also said they will be able to detect emerging threats in space with a continuous deep space radar to track objects in deep space.
The trio said they will undertake “a series of integrated trilateral experiments and exercises”, to test and refine the operation of uncrewed maritime systems. They will also share and process maritime data, improve cybersecurity, and launch an annual competition focused on electronic warfare technologies.
In the joint statement, they reaffirmed a “shared resolve to bolster security and stability and ensure that the Indo-Pacific remains a region free from coercion and aggression”.
Marles also dismissed concerns that the possible return of Donald Trump to the White House could threaten Aukus, saying the deal had support “across the political spectrum”.
A recent survey found about four in 10 Australians think the government should ditch the Aukus deal if Trump is elected.
Austin said Aukus would “promote peace and security throughout the Indo-Pacific”, which Shapps suggested had become “much more dangerous”.
“[With] Russia waging war in Ukraine, with Hamas wreaking havoc in the Middle East, China undermining the freedom of navigation in the Indo Pacific – we’ve never had a greater need for more innovation, to be more pioneering,” Shapps said.
Six Royal Australian Naval officers have graduated from the US Nuclear Power School, the joint statement said. Three are also set to graduate from the UK Nuclear Power School in January.
Industry personnel have started working at the US Pearl Harbor Navy and the UK Barrow-in-Furness shipyards to develop the skills to build and sustain nuclear-powered submarines.
The Aukus partners also again committed to nuclear non-proliferation, and welcomed Australia’s decision to appoint an independent nuclear safety regulator. | Australia Politics |
Australia's financial regulator has cancelled the local financial services licence of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. The Guardian reports: Earlier this year, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) found Binance had incorrectly classified hundreds of retail customers as wholesale investors. The Asic chair, Joe Longo, said the distinction was important because retail customers have access to more consumer protections under Australian law, including the right to dispute resolution. Binance's Australia's financial services (AFS) licence only allows it to provide derivatives products to sophisticated investors, rather than retail customers.
"It is critically important that AFS licensees classify retail and wholesale clients in accordance with the law," Longo said. "Retail clients trading in crypto derivatives are afforded important rights and consumer protections under financial services laws in Australia, including access to external dispute resolution through the Australian financial complaints authority. Our targeted review of these matters is ongoing, including focus on the extent of consumer harms."
From April 14, Binance clients will not be able to increase derivatives positions or open new positions. The exchange must close any remaining open positions by April 21. Binance can remain a member of the Australian financial complaints authority until April 8, 2024. "As we have said before, Asic supports a regulatory framework for crypto with a focus on consumer protection and market integrity. The final decision as to the regulatory settings is one for government," Longo said. Binance has been operating in Australia for many years but its now cancelled AFSL was with Oztures Trading, a company it acquired last year.
"It is critically important that AFS licensees classify retail and wholesale clients in accordance with the law," Longo said. "Retail clients trading in crypto derivatives are afforded important rights and consumer protections under financial services laws in Australia, including access to external dispute resolution through the Australian financial complaints authority. Our targeted review of these matters is ongoing, including focus on the extent of consumer harms."
From April 14, Binance clients will not be able to increase derivatives positions or open new positions. The exchange must close any remaining open positions by April 21. Binance can remain a member of the Australian financial complaints authority until April 8, 2024. "As we have said before, Asic supports a regulatory framework for crypto with a focus on consumer protection and market integrity. The final decision as to the regulatory settings is one for government," Longo said. Binance has been operating in Australia for many years but its now cancelled AFSL was with Oztures Trading, a company it acquired last year. | Australia Politics |
Albanese government could consider trialling four-day work week among string of reforms to 'revolutionise' workplace laws
The Albanese government could consider trialling a four-day work week, among a list of reforms to "revolutionise" workplace laws.
The Albanese government has been called on to trial a four-day work week, among a list of major workplace reforms, in a bid to improve productivity, health and wellbeing and work-life balance.
A report released by the Senate Select Committee on Work and Care on Thursday proposed sweeping policy recommendations to overhaul Australia’s workplace laws.
The four-day work week trial, pushed by the Greens, would see employees receive 100 per cent of their pay for 80 per cent of the time.
It relies on the notion that employees would keep productivity and output levels to 100 per cent.
Greens Senator Barbara Pocock chaired the committee and urged the government to request Fair Work Commission to undertake a review of reducing the standard working hours.
The report referenced landslide findings from the world’s largest trial in the United Kingdom, which recorded 86 per cent of 70 participating companies continued the four-day work week after the pilot.
Other policy reforms provided included a right to disconnect from work outside paid hours, moving towards 52 weeks of paid parental leave and steps towards universal early childhood education.
It also encouraged lifting pay for childcare, disability and aged care workers, implementing a right to predictable, stable rosters and paid sick, carers and holiday leave for casual employees.
Senator Pocock said the reforms were desperately needed to alleviate Australia's “work and care crisis”, with work-life balance a “remote dream for too many”.
“The committee’s report gives the Government the blueprint it needs to revolutionise our workplace laws," she said.
“Australia is an international outlier in terms of our support for workers with caring responsibilities. We have slipped too far behind. And we are paying a price in labour supply, stressed workers, and gender inequality.
“It is time for a new social contract, fit for the 21st Century workforce, that does not put the burden on workers juggling care responsibilities around their jobs.”
However, Labor Senators Deborah O’Neill, Jana Stewart and Linda White said there were fiscal restraints to the reforms as the country was currently in a trillion dollars of debt.
“Whilst the recommendations contained within the report provide a valuable contribution to policy debate and are supported in principle by the committee's Government Senators, they do not reflect Australian Government policy,” they said in additional comments published in the report.
Liberal Senators backed concerns by Labor and noted the “aspirational views expressed in the recommendations” did not take into consideration the impact to the budget.
“Many recommendations of this report will see further deterioration of the flexibility and consideration of what employers and employees are looking for when it comes to fulfilling work, and a move to a further regimented and legalistic nature of the workplace relations system,” Senators Anne Ruston, Wendy Askew and Andrew Bragg said.
“Such change will be detrimental to all Australians.” | Australia Politics |
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed intense drone and missile attacks overnight Wednesday, damaging critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine, including grain and oil terminals, and wounding at least 12 people, officials said.
The bombardment targeted the port city of Odesa, days after President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for an attack on the crucial Kerch Bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin illegally annexed from Kyiv in 2014. Putin also pulled Moscow out of its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a wartime deal that enabled Ukraine’s exports to reach many countries facing the threat of hunger.
WATCH: Slow pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive prompts military strategy questions
Russian emergency officials in Crimea, meanwhile, said more than 2,200 people were evacuated from four villages because of a fire at a military facility.
The blaze forced the closure of an important highway, according to Sergey Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of the peninsula. He didn’t specify a cause for the fire at the facility in Kirovsky district.
Across Ukraine, authorities reported that drones and missiles were sent against more regions than in recent days.
“A difficult night of air attacks for all of Ukraine,” said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, in a statement on Telegram.
He said the attacks were especially fierce in Odesa for a second consecutive night. The Ukrainian army’s Operational Command South reported at least 12 civilians were wounded in the region.
Gov. Oleh Kiper said the attack included dozens of missiles and drones aimed at the port. Debris from those that were shot down struck apartment buildings, seaside resorts and warehouses, sparking fires and injuring several people.
Russia used Oniks and Kh-22 missiles to hit grain and oil terminals, Kiper said.
Wheat prices rose more than 2.5 percent on Tuesday and over 3 percent on Wednesday amid the Russian attacks in Odesa, a key hub for exporting grain, illustrating jitters in global markets after Moscow withdrew from the grain deal, threatening to worsen hunger in some parts of the globe. However, Wednesday’s trading price of $6.91 a bushel was still more than 85 percent below last year’s peak.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock tweeted that “Putin hasn’t just blown up the Black Sea Grain Initiative; now he has hit the port city of Odesa with a hail of bombs for the second consecutive night.”
“In doing that, he is robbing the world of any hope of Ukrainian grain. Every one of his bombs also hits the world’s poorest,” she said.
Baerbock pledged support for Ukraine in “turning over every stone to find alternative transport routes,” perhaps by inland waterways, rail and road.
The attacks on Odesa injured at least six people, including a 9-year-old boy, showering them with shattered glass and other debris. The remnants of a downed Kh-59 missile created a large crater in another part of the city, wounding three civilians and damaging several buildings.
Eight Iranian-made Shahed drones were also shot down in the wider Odesa region, where two warehouses containing tobacco and fireworks were reported damaged.
Russia also attacked Kyiv with Shahed drones without result, Popko said. Air defenses intercepted all the drones aimed at the capital and a preliminary investigation showed there were no casualties.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, welcomed Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to Kyiv, hours after the attacks, and thanked him for his support in the war that Russia launched in February 2022. In a statement published on Telegram, Zelenskyy noted that Ireland’s neutrality “does not mean indifference, and this is very important.”
The Russian attack in southern Ukraine was accompanied by strikes elsewhere in the country in the past 24 hours that killed one person and wounded 21 others.
The death occurred in the northeastern Kharkiv region, near the volatile Kupyansk area, while 10 people were injured in the shelling of seven cities in the Donetsk region, including Avdiivka, Mariinka and Chasiv Yar. Two people were wounded by shelling in the Mykolaiv region and one person was injured in the Kherson region.
Russian drone attacks in the Zhytomyr region damaged some infrastructure and private homes, but no casualties were reported, said Gov. Vitalii Bunechko.
Attacks also were reported in the Poltava and Kirovohrad regions.
The attacks were part of what Russia’s Defense Ministry described as a “strike of retribution” after Monday’s attack on the Kerch Bridge, a key span used for military and civilian supplies. The attack, apparently by maritime drones, damaged part of the roadway on the bridge but rail traffic continued.
Ukraine’s top security agency appeared to tacitly admit to a role in the attack, but stopped short of directly claiming responsibility, echoing their responses after a previous strike on the bridge in October 2022 that took months to repair.
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The United States has engaged in high-level diplomatic discussions in Pakistan to address concerns related to Afghan refugees on the brink of mass deportation.
The Pakistani government has pledged to deport hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals who do not possess recognized refugee status. This includes Afghans who collaborated with the United States and its allies prior to 2021.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of State said that Washington is urging Pakistan to adhere to the principle of nonrefoulement, grant entry and extend humanitarian aid to Afghan refugees.
“We consistently raise these issues with Pakistan at the highest levels and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson told VOA on background.
Echoing similar sentiments, the United Nations, along with various human rights organizations, have cautioned Pakistan against a mass deportation, saying such a move could further destabilize Afghanistan's already dire humanitarian situation and leave some Afghans vulnerable to persecution by the Taliban.
“UNHCR is appealing to Pakistan to continue its protection of all vulnerable Afghans who have sought safety in Pakistan,” the U.N. Refugee Agency said in a statement last week.
The U.N. has offered to help register Afghans who need international protection in Pakistan.
Last week, media advocacy groups also implored Pakistani officials to refrain from deporting scores of Afghan journalists who sought asylum in Pakistan after the Taliban's return to power.
“At least 200 Afghan journalists are currently refugees in Pakistan, forced to flee the Taliban’s crackdown on press freedom, including draconian restrictions on women journalists, shuttering of media houses, and rampant censorship,” the International Federation of Journalists and its Afghan and Pakistani affiliates said in a joint statement.
Some 1.3 million Afghans are already registered refugees in Pakistan.
Pakistani officials cite security issues as their justification for the potential mass deportation of Afghan refugees, alleging Afghan nationals had roles in multiple terror incidents within Pakistan this year, but offering no evidence.
Independent experts say Islamabad's intent might be to pressure the nascent Taliban administration in Kabul, given the latter's perceived inaction against Pakistani Taliban hideouts on Afghan soil.
SIV applicants
Amid concerns that the Taliban continue targeting former Afghan security personnel and human rights activists — charges Taliban officials deny — the U.S. has amplified its efforts to relocate qualifying Afghans under its Special Immigration Visa program, or SIV.
In the past nine months, more than 20,900 Afghans received SIVs — significantly more than the total 11,252 SIVs awarded in 2022.
“At the president’s direction, we have undertaken substantial efforts to improve the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program to streamline the application and adjudication processes, while safeguarding our national security,” the State Department spokesperson told VOA on Friday.
Because the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan remains closed and also because of security threats, many Afghans are opting to journey to Pakistan and other nations to apply for SIVs and other types of visas.
“The Biden administration should speed up SIV and USRAP [U.S. Refugee Admissions Program] processing and work with the Pakistani government to protect Afghan refugees, not send them back to danger," said Adam Bates, a policy counsel at the International Refugee Assistance Project.
Over 150,000 Afghans have applied for SIVs.
UK visa
About 3,000 Afghans currently in Pakistan are registered as eligible for resettlement to the United Kingdom under the British government’s two-tiered scheme for relocating at-risk Afghans.
They are “waiting in U.K.-funded hotels in Islamabad for their transfer to the U.K.,” said Sara de Jong, co-founder of Sulha Alliance, a nongovernmental organization advocating for former British military interpreters abroad.
Nearly 7,000 Afghans who worked as interpreters for British forces in Afghanistan have been relocated to the U.K. over the past two years, and some 4,000 applicants are awaiting their turn, according to Britain’s Defense Ministry.
Unlike the U.S., the U.K. has slowed its Afghan resettlement program this year.
“While the Pakistan hotels were initially just used as short-term transits for biometric tests and visa issuance, in December 2022, the U.K. government halted the regular flights because they claimed that there was no longer U.K. accommodation available into which these Afghans could be moved,” de Jong told VOA.
The Taliban maintain that Afghans who worked for the former government and for the U.S. and its allies are covered under their general amnesty and will not face persecution.
Their claim is repudiated in reports from the U.N. and human rights groups documenting extrajudicial detention, torture and assassination of their former enemies by members of the Taliban regime.
“The Taliban have a track record of broken promises, including their promise to respect girls' right to education, which they are violating every day,” de Jong said, adding that former Afghan interpreters face grave risks to their lives in Afghanistan. | Asia Politics |
In a significant intervention and major boost for Sir Keir Starmer, the Conservative veteran heaped praise on Reeves’ “responsible” approach to the public finances.
Lord Clarke, who served under Margaret Thatcher, John Major and David Cameron, gave his surprise endorsement while speaking to i‘s new podcast, Labour’s Plan for Power.
The shadow Chancellor has adopted a strict approach to the public finances as Labour prepares for power, ruling out unfunded rises in day-to-day spending or tax cuts, to the consternation of some in the party.
It has included a decision to water down Labour’s flagship £28bn green prosperity plan due to rising interest rates and the parlous state of the public finances, as Ms Reeves attempts to bulletproof her party’s new-found reputation for economic competence.
The “uncompromising” approach has now won praise from Lord Clarke, who suggested Ms Reeves and Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt represented the same view of how to run the Treasury.
Asked if he had been impressed by Ms Reeves, Lord Clarke said: “Yes.”
“It’s her party that worries me. Well, it’s almost true in both cases, actually. But if it was Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves, then I don’t think either of the parties would worry me very much.
“I don’t think they disagree on very much. They do, of course, politically, I do myself disagree with some of Rachel’s political views, I’m sure.
“But her actual approach, a responsible approach to macroeconomic policy, matches the responsible approach to macroeconomic policy that Jeremy Hunt has, which is in the present shambles of British and international politics and the dangers of it I find rather reassuring – about the only thing I do find reassuring about this election that’s coming up.”
Lord Clarke also warned that Ms Reeves would need to make “a lot of tough, unpopular decisions” if she is chancellor after the next election because “we’re not going to get out of our present financial crisis for at least two or three years”.
Lord Mandelson, the architect of New Labour’s 1997 landslide victory, also told the podcast that Reeves had proved she had what it takes to become chancellor: “She’s even tougher than I thought she was. I mean, I knew she would be a bit of an old boot, but I didn’t realise that she’d be quite as uncompromising in the way in which she develops policy, sees off her detractors and deals with her colleagues on some occasions too.”
Lord Clarke meanwhile warned Rishi Sunak not to sack Mr Hunt as Chancellor in any upcoming reshuffle despite calls from some Tory MPs who want tax cuts.
Lord Clarke said it was “absurd” to suggest a Cabinet reshuffle could help the Prime Minister turn around flagging opinion polls as he backed the current Chancellor.
“I think we’ve got a perfectly good Chancellor. I would certainly keep Jeremy there. And I don’t think Rishi disagrees. I’m sure occasionally there’s always strain between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor and sometimes rows.
“But Rishi and Jeremy I think are probably more quite close on economic policy. A perfectly good Chancellor, let him get on with it.”
Lord Clarke added: “I think the demand for a reshuffle is almost as daft as the demand for tax cuts and neither of them will do any good in the sense of winning votes.”
Labour’s Plan For Power: The Economy” is the first episode of an exclusive new i podcast series examining what a government led by Sir Keir Starmer would actually do if it wins the next election.
Hosted by Paul Waugh, i‘s chief political commentator, this fascinating four-part series will also dive into Labour’s plans for the NHS, Brexit and the North-South divide. | United Kingdom Politics |
It's been the object of much speculation for weeks: who would lead Silvio Berlusconi's empire after his death?
Now his will has been made public, it is clear he has handed a majority stake in the family's holding company Fininvest to his two eldest children, Marina and Pier Silvio.
They will jointly own 53% of the family firm.
The four-time prime minister died on 12 June from leukaemia. One of Italy's richest men, he had amassed a fortune that spanned real estate, television, cinema and sport.
But he never publicly indicated who should lead his business empire.
It turns out he did not distribute his shares in an equal way among his five children.
Marina and Pier Silvio are his children from his first marriage and they will receive bigger shares than the three other children from his second wife - Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi.
The two eldest children have held management roles in the family business since the early 1990s.
They earlier said in a statement that "no shareholder will exercise overall individual indirect control of Fininvest".
Berlusconi also left â¬100m (£85m) to Marta Fascina, his partner at the time of his death and 53 years his junior.
They were not married, but on his deathbed, he referred to her as his wife. In a letter that was enclosed in his will, he wrote: "Whatever the amount, be prepared. They will say it's too much or not enough. Never that it's right."
Berlusconi's brother Paolo also receives â¬100m, while the late prime minister's close aide Marcello Dell'Utri will have â¬30m (£26m).
It is not yet clear how Berlusconi's many other valuable assets will be passed on; his numerous luxurious villas could be tricky to give to his offspring in an equal way.
His Villa San Martino in Arcore, north-east of Milan, covers 3,500 sq m and dates back to the 18th Century. He also has homes at Lake Maggiore, in Rome, Cannes, the Caribbean and elsewhere.
The jewel in Berlusconi's crown of properties is Villa Certosa, a mansion in Sardinia that he bought in the 1970s.
He hosted world leaders there, from Vladimir Putin to George W Bush. It has 126 rooms and looks like a theme park, including a fake volcano that erupts lava. Its value is estimated at â¬259m.
Silvio Berlusconi was arguably one of the most influential men in Italy's history. For the past 50 years, his shadow has loomed large over parliament, the media, football and the man on the street.
His will included a handwritten letter to his children, which ends with the words: "Thanks, so much love to all of you, your Dad."
People close to the family have described Berlusconi as "the glue" who kept his children united.
The big question is whether that family unity can be maintained now that Berlusconi has gone, and what impact that might have on the future of his business empire. | Europe Politics |
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MADRID (AP) — Polls closed Sunday in a general election that could make Spain the latest European Union member to swing to the political right.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is trying to win a third consecutive national election since taking power in 2018. But his Socialists and the other party in his leftist coalition took a beating in regional and local elections in May.
The mainstream conservative Popular Party, which led most polling during the campaign, is hoping that its first national victory since 2016 could let candidate Alberto Núñez Feijóo unseat Sánchez. But it may need the help of far-right Vox to do so.
Such a coalition would return a far-right force to the Spanish government for the first time since the country transitioned to democracy in the late 1970s following the nearly 40-year rule of dictator Francisco Franco.
Voters braved soaring summer temperatures to cast ballots in the election for 350 members of the lower house of Parliament. Near-final results were expected before midnight.
A PP-Vox government would mean another EU member has moved firmly to the right, a trend seen recently in Sweden, Finland and Italy. Countries such as Germany and France are concerned by what such a shift would portend for EU immigration and climate policies.
WATCH: Italy’s right-wing government aims to halt tide of migrants by cracking down at ports
Spain’s two main leftist parties are pro-EU participation. On the right, the PP is also in favor of the EU. Vox, headed by Santiago Abascal, is opposed to EU interference in Spain’s affairs.
The election comes as Spain holds the EU’s rotating presidency. Sánchez had hoped to use the six-month term to showcase the advances his government had made. An election defeat for Sánchez could see the PP taking over the EU presidency reins.
Sánchez was one of the first to vote, casting his ballot in a polling station in Madrid.
Commenting later on the large number of foreign media covering the election, he said: “This means that what happens today is going to be very important not just for us but also for Europe and I think that should also make us reflect.”
“I don’t want to say I’m optimistic or not. I have good vibrations,” Sánchez added.
An embargoed tracking poll published by Spanish public broadcaster RTVE on the closing of the voting pointed to an uncertain outcome.
According to the poll, the conservative Popular Party would win the elections with between 145-150 seats. The far-right Vox would get between 24-27.
But they would both have to get results at the high end of those possible outcomes to reach the 176 needed for a majority.
The tracking poll said that Sánchez’s Socialists are heading toward a result between 113-118, not far below the 120 won in 2019. But Sánchez’s path to remaining in power once again would rely on both a new coalition with the leftist Sumar, or Joining Forces, tipped to fill 28-31 seats, as well as winning the support of myriad small parties, including Basque and Catalan regionalist and separatist parties.
The tracking poll based on 17,500 phone calls was carried out in the two weeks prior to the election. It has a 3.5 percentage point margin of error.
Sumar, which brings together 15 small leftist parties, is led by second Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, the only woman among the top four candidates.
Díaz called for everyone to vote, recalling that the freedom to vote didn’t always exist in Spain.
“A lot is at risk,” Diáz said after casting her ballot. “For people of my generation, they are the most important elections.”
At stake is “waking up tomorrow with more rights, more democracy and more freedom,” she said.
The Interior Ministry said voter turnout at 6 p.m. local time stood at 53 percent, compared to 56 percent at the same point in the the country’s last national election, in November 2019.
Monica Lopez and her husband carry beach chairs as they cast their votes during a general snap election at a polling station in Barcelona, Spain, July 23, 2023. Photo by Albert Gea/REUTERS
The election was taking place at the height of summer, with millions of voters likely to be vacationing away from their regular polling places. However, postal voting requests soared before Sunday.
With no party expected to garner an absolute majority, the choice is basically between another leftist coalition and a partnership of the right and the far right.
For poll favorite Feijóo, “It is clear that many things are in play, what model of country we want, to have a solid and strong government.”
Vox’s Abascal said he hoped for “a massive mobilization (of voters) that will allow Spain to change direction.”
Alejandro Bleda, 45, did not say who he voted for but indicated that he was backing the leftist parties. “Given the polarization in this country, it’s to vote either for 50 years of backwardness or for progress,” he said.
The main issues at stake are “a lot of freedoms, social rights, public health and education,” Bleda said after voting in the Palacio de Valdés public school polling station in central Madrid.
Voters are to elect 350 members to the lower house of Parliament and 208 members to the Senate.
Carmen Acero, 62, who voted for the Popular Party, compared Sánchez to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and said she voted because “to continue with Pedro Sánchez is hell.”
Sporting a Spanish flag on her phone, Acero accused Sánchez of being an “assassin” for allying with the small Basque regional party Bildu, which includes some former members of the now-defunct armed separatist group, ETA.
The government said that all polling stations were running as normal.
A fire in a tunnel forced the suspension of all trains entering and leaving the eastern city of Valencia, indicating many people there might not have made it to their voting station.
Coming on the tail of a month of heat waves, temperatures were expected to average above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), or 5 to 10 degrees Celsius above normal in many parts of the country. Authorities distributed fans to many of the stations.
READ MORE: Tourists, residents advised to stay inside as second heat wave hits Europe
“We have the heat, but the right to exercise our vote freely is stronger than the heat,” said Rosa Maria Valladolid-Prieto, 79, in Barcelona.
Sánchez’s government has steered Spain through the COVID-19 pandemic and dealt with an inflation-driven economic downturn made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But his dependency on fringe parties to keep his minority coalition afloat, including the separatist forces from Catalonia and the Basque Country, and his passing of a slew of liberal-minded laws may cost him his job.
The right-wing parties vow to roll back dozens of Sánchez’s laws, many of which have benefited millions of citizens and thousands of companies.
Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona. AP journalists Aritz Parra, Renata Brito, Iain Sullivan, María Gestoso, Alicia Léon and José María García contributed to this report.
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Taiwan activated its defence systems on Thursday after reporting 37 Chinese military aircraft flying into the island’s air defence zone, some of which then flew into the western Pacific, in Beijing’s latest mass air incursion.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has over the past three years regularly flown its air force into the skies near the island, though not into Taiwan’s territorial airspace.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said that starting from 5am it had detected 37 Chinese air force planes, including J-11 and J-16 fighters as well as nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, flying into the south-western corner of its air defence identification zone, or ADIZ. The ADIZ is a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols to give its forces more time to respond to threats.
Some of the Chinese aircraft flew to Taiwan’s south-east and crossed into the western Pacific to perform “air surveillance and long distance navigation training”, Taiwan’s defence ministry said in its short statement.
Taiwan sent its own aircraft and ships to keep watch and activated land-based missile systems, it added, using its standard wording for how it responds to such Chinese activities.
China’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China completed a second phase of joint air patrols with Russia over the western Pacific on Wednesday, after flights on the previous day over the Sea of Japan and East China Sea, prompting concerns in Japan over national security.
In April, China held war games around Taiwan after a trip to the United States by Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen.
Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future. | Asia Politics |
Addis Abeba – An armed militia attack on Nuer village in the city of Gambella, the capital of Gambella regional state has resulted in at least 31 fatalities and 20 injuries, according to a source who spoke with Addis Standard. The informant, wishing to remain unidentified for their safety, indicated that the attack began on 18 July around 4:50 pm.
The source, who is close to the matter, said 19 people from the village and 12 from the attackers, who are alleged to be ethnic Angwa militias from Abol district, were killed during the attack, adding that among the dead is Kwang Nial Poh, a respected member of the psychology department at Gambella University.
Another anonymous source provided further details about the assailants, stating that they donned the city’s police uniforms to carry out their assault surreptitiously, thereby evading identification. This informant went on to suggest that these attackers were also responsible for a previous assault on a bus traveling from Wentawo to Gambella city.
On 13 July, Addis Standard reported that three people were killed, and 23 others were injured during a violent assault on two public buses on the outskirts of Gambella city, at a location known as Ochom.
According to the sources, following the latest attack, the city is currently under the control of the national defense forces, with public services and offices remain closed for the time being.
In response to this escalating crisis, the Gambella regional cabinet, in an emergency meeting on 19 July, has enacted an indefinite curfew, prohibiting all movement between 1:00AM and 12:00PM, except for designated security personnel. Furthermore, it has been mandated that carrying weapons, with the exception of the aforementioned security forces, is strictly forbidden, according to the regional government’s communication bureau.
In an attempt to restore some normalcy, the cabinet has decreed that all government employees and service providers will recommence regular work schedules from the following day.
Ugato Ading, head of the regional communication bureau, said in a presser, human lives were lost and properties have been damaged in the wake of recent violence in the region. He added, the efforts are underway to ensure security in the region with the help of federal government forces. He said “ethno-nationalism and tribalism are threatening the region”, admitting that the violence is ethnic based. He vowed any individuals or parties including government officials contributing to the disruption of peace in the region will be held accountable.
In May, the Gambella region president, Umod Ujulu, dismissed the violence which killed nine people and injured 23 in Itang special woreda and the capital Gambella city as a dispute between individuals which later escalated into communal violence.
He also said back then that the violence has been brought under control by the coordinated efforts of the regional and federal security forces, and that the plot by what he called “elements” existing in the public who try to separate the people who have lived in solidarity and brotherhood for centuries was foiled. AS | Africa politics |
BERLIN — Bavaria’s Premier Markus Söder said he will not dismiss his deputy Hubert Aiwanger despite numerous accusations surrounding an antisemitic leaflet from his school days, a decision that was roundly criticized by senior members of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition.
Since there was no proof that Aiwanger had written the antisemitic pamphlet himself and the incident occurred 35 years ago, a dismissal “would not be proportionate,” Söder told reporters on Sunday in Munich.
Leading members of the federal government had called for consequences after it became known that Aiwanger, the federal chairman of the right-wing Free Voters party, had been involved in distributing an antisemitic flyer during his school days and that fellow students had accused him of making the Hitler salute and antisemitic jokes at the time.
The Bavarian Minister of Economics was criticized above all for downplaying of the accusations. Several times Aiwanger spoke of a “dirt campaign” against him. Söder, with the center-right Christian Social Union party, criticized Aiwanger’s crisis management, saying he should have clarified the situation earlier and more comprehensively.
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Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens, who is also vice chancellor, called Söder’s decision “unfortunately not a good one.” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, with the Social Democrats, accused the Bavarian leader of damaging Germany’s international reputation.
Faeser said that Aiwanger has “neither apologized convincingly nor been able to convincingly dispel the accusations,” Bloomberg reported.
Söder announced the decision after Aiwanger had previously answered his 25 questions about the affair. “The answers were not all satisfactory,” Söder said. Much was already known, little was new and some was not remembered, he said.
In answers released simultaneously to Söder’s press conference by the Bavarian State Chancellery, Aiwanger wrote that after finding the pamphlet in his school bag, he was threatened with the police by school administrators at the time. He again denied having written the pamphlet.
“My brother and I were in shock,” Aiwanger wrote. Aiwanger’s brother stated after the allegations became known last week that he had written the antisemitic pamphlet at the time.
“We will be able to continue the civil coalition in Bavaria,” Söder said. There would definitely be no coalition of his party with the Greens, he said, a few weeks before the state elections in Bavaria on October 6. “That concludes the matter from my point of view.”
Söder did not take questions from journalists. | Europe Politics |
Key to solving Libyan conflict lies within the country, analyst says
The key to solving the Libyan political conflict lies within the country rather than with the international community, analysis says.
Electoral and governance deadlock has been blamed for the devastating impact of the flooding in the country.
The "contentment" of the political elite and others with the status quo—given the currently limited levels of violence and the rising global prices of energy since the outbreak of Russia's war on Ukraine—explains the general lack of a genuine commitment to relaunch the transition and electoral roadmap, according to Dr. Irene Fernández-Molina from the University of Exeter
But profound domestic recognition and social contract issues will affect any future rebuilding, conflict settlement and Libyan government, as shown by protests by disgruntled Libyan youth across the country in the summer of 2022.
Dr. Fernández-Molina says the EU's efforts in the coming months should focus on ensuring intra-EU and broader international political unity in Libya. Any national reconciliation conference for Libya hosted by the African Union should also receive strong EU backing. Those with power should work to ensure neglected Libyan youth and civil society get a dialog.
Dr. Fernández-Molina said, "The international community has learnt only half of the lessons from the past decade of Libyan government splits and international recognition dilemmas. The problem of the now-embraced inclusivity is that it remains partial and vulnerable to hijacking from members of the Libyan political elite who have little interest in a successful transition. Overcoming this catch-22 situation is certainly not easy, but in any case, the only way ahead hangs on democratic elections."
Libya is yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel of protracted turmoil and intermittent civil war. Since the suspension of parliamentary and presidential elections in December 2021 the country has seen two parallel cabinets are operating again in Tripolitania, in the West, and Cyrenaica/Barqa, in the East, with the ensuing increased risk of return to violent conflict.
Over the past 12 years, Libya has gone through the overlapping upheavals of revolution, international military intervention and civil war as well as relatively quieter interludes devoted to stabilization, political transition, security sector reform and state-building attempts. The analysis says at no time have the latter efforts resulted in a sustainable conflict settlement. The failure of conflict resolution has been conspicuously associated with recurring authority splits and contests about international recognition.
Dr. Fernández-Molina said, "Rather than acting at the initiative or on behalf of regional or global powers, those with power in Libya played a key role in internationalizing the conflict by soliciting and manipulating foreign support for their own interests and agendas."
"Their autonomy has been preserved and reinforced thanks to the persisting rentier nature of the Libyan state and its institutional bits and pieces. Oil and oil revenues managed by the Central Bank of Libya have kept flowing even in the shakiest conditions to all sorts of (para)state and double-hatted local actors."
"Rather than pigeonholing the country into the problematic category of failed states, the outcome of Libya's deepening fragmentation may be better understood as the consolidation of multiple areas of limited statehood."
Provided by University of Exeter | Middle East Politics |
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TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian opposition lawmakers on Thursday caused commotion in Parliament, trying to disrupt a session in protest against what they say is increasingly authoritarian rule by the governing Socialists.
Democratic lawmakers blocked left-wing Socialists of Prime Minister Edi Rama from taking their seats and stacked chairs on top of each other in the central hall. The Democrats threw smoke firecrackers and even pushed and shoved some of the Socialists.
However, the session in the 140-member chamber later went ahead and 73 Socialist lawmakers voted in favor of 21 draft laws.
Sali Berisha, leader of one group in the heavily divided center-right Democratic Party, described the melee in parliament as a “temporary strike” and said the Democrats would continue with such actions as long as “the shameful parliament” keeps ploughing ahead.
“They did not respect our strike,” he said of the Socialists.
READ MORE: Serbia and Kosovo leaders break off talks without result despite EU push for improved relations
The parliament disturbances first started two weeks ago, two days before prosecutors accused Berisha of the Democratic Party of corruption because of a land-buying scheme that’s now under legal investigation in the capital of Tirana.
The prosecutors in the case allege the 79-year-old Berisha granted financial favors to his son-in-law, 50-year-old Jamarber Malltezi. Berisha last month said the prosecutor’s office in charge of cases against senior officials or major cases had ordered him not to leave the country.
Malltezi has been arrested on corruption and money laundering charges. The prosecution claims he exploited Berisha’s position as prime minister to buy land in Tirana owned by private citizens and the country’s defense ministry and build 17 apartment buildings.
Berisha has said that both he and Malltezi are innocent, and claims the case is politically motivated and that his opponent, Rama, is behind it.
The Democrats also on Thursday accused Interior Minister Taulant Balla of links to organized crime, without offering evidence for their claim.
The opposition has said it would radicalize its protests but did not elaborate.
Berisha served as Albania’s prime minister from 2005-2013 and as president from 1992-1997. He was reelected as a lawmaker for the Democratic Party in the April 2021 parliamentary election.
Berisha and his family members were barred by the United States in May 2021 from entering the country, and also the United Kingdom in July 2022 because of alleged involvement in corruption. Berisha is the fourth top Albanian official to be barred from entering the U.S. because of alleged involvement in corruption.
Post-communist Albania has struggled to fight corruption, which has impeded the country’s democratic, economic and social development.
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Human Rights Watch under fire for allegedly accepting millions in Qatar funds
Middle East Media Research Institute on Tuesday published a leaked Qatari government document claiming Qatar’s regime paid 3 million euros to HRW
The New York-based Human Rights Watch is facing another financing scandal involving donations, this time from Qatar—a Gulf country that was urged by one expert in a recent US congressional hearing to be classified as a state-sponsor of terrorism.
The Washington D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on Tuesday published a leaked Qatari government document claiming Qatar’s regime paid 3 million euros to HRW.
MEMRI translated the Qatari Prime Minister’s Office document that declares the matter is “confidential and urgent.”
According to MEMRI’s translation, Abdullah Bin Khalaf Hattab Al Ka'bi, director of Qatar's Office of the Prime Minister, wrote to Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al-Emadi in January 2018, stating: “His Excellency the Prime Minister has agreed to provide monetary support of 3 million euros to the organization Human Rights Watch, under the Humanitarian Aid section, and that it should be distributed with the knowledge of the Embassy of Qatar in London so that it can be aware of it and take the necessary [steps] with regard to it.”
The subject of the letter notes “providing additional monetary support to the organization Human Rights Watch.”
MEMRI wrote that the translation of a document in Arabic was leaked as part of Project Raven.
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Executive director of the organization UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, told i24NEWS on Thursday: “These reports are very disturbing. They need to be fully investigated. There are strong reasons to fear that this may be true. We would need accountability. The money would have to be returned.”
Neuer added, “Qatar is a human rights abusing regime. They enslave migrant workers…caused thousands of them to die. They support the Taliban. They support Hamas. They support terrorism. They have an egregious human rights record.”
He continued “If it’s true, this would be shameful but not inconsistent with their [HRW] actions in the past. We have seen, because of their anti-Western ideology and anti-Israel ideology, that they will often cozy up to Islamist regimes, whether it’s Hamas or Hezbollah. There is a corrupt and twisted culture at Human Rights Watch and that needs to be fixed.”
Marc Eichinger, a former French intelligence agent who has written extensively about Qatar’s alleged financing of Islamist terrorist movements, told i24NEWS, “Many NGOs are being funded by Qatar and there should be international rules concerning these activities. They should be regulated like any listed companies raising fund on the stock markets. They should provide full transparency over their funding and their management.”
Eichinger said "HRW employee Natalie Lundgren worked in the past for the Qatar Foundation and was program manager of World Innovation Summit for Education. These entities are closely linked and under the control of Sheikha Moza. Human Rights Watch can always deny any link with Qatar. The fact is that Mrs Lundgren is in charge of fundraising in Paris and comes from WISE. "
Natalie Lundgren started her work for HRW as the Development and Outreach Manager in 2018. Her previous job was for the Qatari-funded WISE initiative. i24NEWS sent a press query to Lundgren asking if she played a role in securing the alleged Qatari donation for HRW.
Neuer noted that Danielle Haas, an Israeli who worked for HRW for over 13 years, just quit HRW due to the institutional bias against the Jewish state.
Qatar’s alleged enabling of Qatar’s terrorism was the focus of a congressional hearing in late October. Rich Goldberg, a member of then-President Trump’s National Security Council, said at the hearing that “Replacing a Major non-NATO ally designation with a State Sponsor of Terrorism designation would have a destabilizing effect on Qatar overnight — rippling through its global investment portfolio, energy sector, national air carrier, and international prestige.”
In 2020, the online news organization The Intercept revealed that HRW’s then-Executive Director, Ken Roth, accepted a $470,000 donation from a Saudi billionaire based on the condition that HRW would not use the money to protect the rights of the persecuted LGBTQ-plus community in the Middle East.
Roth was compelled to return the donation after The Intercept report. Neuer urged HRW to reveal the results of the investigation into HRW accepting money from Saudi Arabia.
The founder of HRW, the late Robert Bernstein, issued a scathing indictment of HRW in his 2009 New York Times opinion article titled “Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Middle East.”
Bernstein argued that HRW devoted massive and disproportionate resources to criticizing Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, at the expense of exposing human rights violations in closed totalitarian regimes like the Islamic Republic of Iran and Arab dictatorships.
He wrote “the Arab and Iranian regimes rule over some 350 million people, and most remain brutal, closed and autocratic, permitting little or no internal dissent. The plight of their citizens who would most benefit from the kind of attention a large and well-financed international human rights organization can provide is being ignored as Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division prepares report after report on Israel.”
Berstein added, “Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective on a conflict in which Israel has been repeatedly attacked by Hamas and Hezbollah, organizations that go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields. These groups are supported by the government of Iran, which has openly declared its intention not just to destroy Israel but to murder Jews everywhere. This incitement to genocide is a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
i24NEWS sent press numerous queries to Human Rights Watch and Qatar’s government.
HRW's press department told i24NEWS that "HRW never solicited or accepted any money from the Qatari government or any other government. We do not accept money from governments."
In response to i24NEWS’s question about HRW accepting money from a Saudi billionaire ostensibly opposed to LGBTQ plus rights, HRW responded that “In 2012, Human Rights Watch made a deeply regrettable decision to accept a donation that included conditions that the funds not be used to support HRW’s work on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in the Middle East and North Africa. We also regret that the grant was made by the owner of a company that Human Rights Watch had previously identified as complicit in labor rights abuse. “ | Middle East Politics |
President Joe Biden extended his support Friday to the ongoing protests in Iran, saying he thinks the reaction to Mahsa Amini’s death has opened the floodgates for lasting change in the theocratic country. Biden opened his speech in Irvine, California, with his comments about the protests after seeing someone in the crowd with a “Free Iran” sign. “I want you to know we stand with the citizens and brave women of Iran, for real,” the president said.“Mahsa Amini’s death was ― I’ve been doing foreign policy a long time. It stunned me what it awakened in Iran. It’s awakened something I don’t think will be quieted in a long, long time,” he added.President Biden opens his remarks in Irvine, California by expressing support for the women-led Iranian protests:“We stand with the citizens and brave women of Iran ... It’s awakened something I don’t think will be quieted in a long, long time.” pic.twitter.com/KM3AuMvkDH— The Recount (@therecount) October 14, 2022 Amini, 22, died last month in Tehran while in the custody of Iran’s morality police, who arrested her for improperly wearing her hijab ― a head-covering worn by some Muslim women ― as mandated by Iranian law. Witnesses say they saw police severely beating Amini upon arresting her before bringing her to the police station, where she collapsed before dying in a hospital three days later.Officials deny beating her and are blaming her death on a heart attack. Her father, Amjad Amini, however, said he wasn’t allowed to see her body at the hospital but caught a glimpse of bruising on her foot. The incident set off massive protests across Iran and fueled outrage over the mandatory hijab law, lack of freedoms for women, the morality police and the entire system of government. They’ve lasted for nearly a month and show no signs of slowing down. “Right now, they’re demonstrating to secure their very basic fundamental rights. Women and men should have the right to freedom of expression and assembly,” Biden said, adding that “no one should be telling them what to wear.”Iranian authorities have turned to aggressive and violent tactics to tamp down protests, resulting in at least 200 protester deaths, including 23 children, according to Iran Human Rights. The government has also imposed an internet blackout and blocked social media platforms amid the demonstrations.“Iran has to end the violence against its own citizens simply exercising their fundamental rights,” Biden said Friday. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.
2:21 p.m.: 1 p.m.: Ukrainian officials Thursday updated casualty figures from a massive Russian attack overnight. Russian forces fired another rash of missiles and self-exploding drones in nearly a dozen provinces of Ukraine early Thursday, causing the first attack-related death of the year in Kyiv and killing at least 11 people in all, according to Ukrainian authorities, The Associated Press reported. The attacks adhered to Russia’s recent pattern of striking power plants and other critical infrastructure about every two weeks. However, the latest onslaught came after Germany and the United States upped the ante in Russia’s 11-month war by promising Wednesday to send high-tech battle tanks to Ukraine and green-lighting other allies to do the same. The spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, said that in addition to the dead the casualties included at least 11 people who were wounded. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was killed during the attacks, the city’s first such death since New Year’s Eve. Two others were injured, he said.
12:35 p.m.: Investigators have detained a Ukrainian security official on suspicion of spying for Russia, authorities said on Thursday, part of an effort by Kyiv to weed out moles nearly a year into a war with Russia, Reuters reported. The official - a lieutenant colonel in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) which joined the operation - had revealed the location of military checkpoints and other “secret information”, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) said. He allegedly sent the data to his Russian handlers via email and a messaging app. A search turned up mobile phones, Russian SIM cards, cash and other evidence proving “longstanding ties” to Russian state and law enforcement structures, the SBI added. “Today the service works as a single team and is doing the maximum for Ukraine’s victory,” said SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk in a separate statement.“And the self-cleansing of our ranks from traitors is an important part of this process.” 12:00 p.m.: French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna arrived on Thursday in Odesa, the strategic port city on Ukraine's Black Sea coast, as part of France's efforts to boost its relationship with Ukraine and discuss its needs in the coming months, Reuters reported. UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, on Wednesday designated the city's historic center a "World Heritage in Danger" site. Colonna was in Odesa shortly after missile strikes hit crucial power infrastructure facilities in the surrounding region, causing blackouts in the city. She was due to visit one of the damaged sites. "It's been a year since Russia launched this war carrying out atrocities and crimes. What we saw this morning with strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure is not waging war, it's waging war crimes," she told TFI television in Odesa. The visit aims to send a message to Moscow amid Western fears that Russia, almost a year after invading Ukraine, may still want to launch an attack on the city to deprive Ukraine of its key maritime outlet for grain products. 11:30 a.m.: Ukraine came under attack by Russian missiles and drones early Thursday, resulting in widespread damage in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, including the cities of Dnipro and Kherson, VOA’s Anna Chernikova reported. During the attack, residents in the Kyiv, Vinnytsia, and Odesa regions, including the capital city of Kyiv, reported hearing explosions. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed damage in two districts in the capital which left one civilian dead and two wounded. The latest attack caused damage to energy infrastructure across the country. According to local officials, the Kyiv, Odesa, and Vinnytsia regions currently face the most severe energy crisis. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed that Ukrainian air defense managed to destroy 47 of the 55 missiles of various kinds that Russian forces fired across Ukraine. All 24 drones targeting Ukrainian cities were also destroyed, the Ukrainian air forces confirmed.
11:15 a.m.: The U.S. State Department released a statement Thursday saying it is imposing sanctions on the Wagner Group, a private military entity involved in the war in Ukraine.
"The United States is sanctioning individuals and entities linked to Russia’s para-military Wagner Group and its head, Yevgeniy Prigozhin – including its key infrastructure and associated front companies, its battlefield operations in Ukraine, producers of Russia’s weapons, and those administering Russia-occupied areas of Ukraine," the statement said.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is designating the Wagner Group as a significant transnational criminal organization, citing the group's "pattern of serious criminal behavior.”
This action supports the goal "to degrade Moscow’s capacity to wage war against Ukraine, to promote accountability for those responsible for Russia’s war of aggression and associated abuses, and to place further pressure on Russia’s defense sector," the statement said.
10:55 a.m.: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on January 26 it was "meaningless" to hold a trilateral meeting with Sweden and Finland to discuss their NATO bids after anti-Turkish protests this month in Stockholm, Reuters reported. Cavusoglu also told a news conference in Ankara that there was no offer to evaluate Sweden's and Finland's NATO membership separately. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country wanted to restore NATO dialogue with Turkey after Ankara indefinitely postponed trilateral talks with Sweden and Finland over their membership. 10:40 a.m.: A former theater director In Siberia whose son condemned the war In Ukraine has been sent to house arrest, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The former director of the Red Torch Theater in Novosibirsk, Aleksandr Kulyabin, whose son publicly condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, was sent on Thursday to pretrial house arrest on embezzlement charges. Kulyabin was detained two days earlier after his home was searched. His son, Timofei Kulyabin, worked as the chief producer at the theater in the Siberian city. He decided not to return to Russia from the Czech Republic, where he was on a business trip weeks after Russia launched its full-scale aggression against Ukraine in February 2022.
10:10 a.m.: 9:50 a.m.: Ukraine will now push for Western fourth generation fighter jets such as the U.S. F-16 after securing supplies of main battle tanks, an adviser to Ukraine's defense minister said, according to Reuters. Ukraine won a huge boost for its troops on Wednesday as Germany and the United States announced plans to provide heavy tanks for Kyiv, ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock on the issue. "The next big hurdle will now be the fighter jets," Yuriy Sak, who advises Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, told Reuters by phone. Ukraine's Air Force has a fleet of ageing Soviet-era fighter jets that came off the assembly line before Kyiv even declared independence more than 31 years ago. The warplanes are used for intercept missions and to attack Russian positions. "If we get them (Western fighter jets), the advantages on the battlefield will be just immense... It's not just F-16s (U.S. multirole fighter jets): fourth generation aircraft, this is what we want." 9:30 a.m.: Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to participate in this year's Asian Games despite Russia's war in Ukraine, the Olympic Council of Asia said on Thursday, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. "All athletes, regardless of their nationality or the passport they hold, should be able to compete in sports competitions," the OCA said in a statement. The International Olympic Committee had said on Wednesday that the presence of Russians at next year's Paris Olympics should be "further explored" despite calls from Ukraine for them to be excluded.
9:15 a.m.: 9:00 a.m.: Germany apologized on Thursday for using a leopard emoji in a jibe at Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Twitter that ended up offending some Africans, The Associated Press reported. The German foreign ministry poked fun at Russia’s top diplomat during his tour of Africa when it tweeted that he wasn’t there looking for leopards, but using the trip to try and justify Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The tweet, and the leopard emoji the foreign ministry used on its official account, played off Germany’s decision to send some of its advanced Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine to help its military fight off Russian forces. But an African Union official took offense at what she said was the continent being portrayed as only about wild animals. Ebba Kalondo, the spokeswoman for AU Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat, tweeted back to the German government account questioning if Africa, its people and its wildlife was “just a joke to you?” “Foreign policy is not a joke nor should it be used to score cheap geopolitical points by illustrating an entire Continent with colonial tropes,” Kalondo wrote in a follow-up tweet. The German foreign ministry apologized and said that the tweet wasn’t meant to offend, but rather “to call out the lies that Russia uses to justify its imperialist war of aggression against Ukraine.” 8:25 a.m.: An expanding cemetery in southern Russia began to fill with scores of newly dug graves of fighters killed in Ukraine. Many of the fighters were convicts recruited by Wagner Group after its founder promised a pardon if prisoners survived six months. 8:10 a.m.: South Korea, with a world-class arms industry, is facing mounting pressure to find a way to get needed arms and munitions to Ukraine without unduly angering Russia, which has hinted that it could resume military cooperation with North Korea, VOA’s Christy Lee reported. Experts interviewed by VOA say the most likely solution under consideration in Seoul is for the nation’s commercial arms manufacturers to make private sales to the United States, allowing the U.S to ship more of its own armaments to Ukraine without depleting its stockpiles. A spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs told VOA Korean Service on Wednesday that the administration in Seoul “has been providing humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine” but “there has not been a change” in its position that it “will not send lethal weapons to Ukraine.” 7:45 a.m.: German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Ukrainian crews will start their training in Germany in coming days on German-made Marders, which are infantry fighting vehicles, while training on the heavier Leopard 2 tanks would start “a little later,” according to The Associated Press. “In any case, the aim with the Leopards is to have the first company in Ukraine by the end of March, beginning of April,” he added. “I can’t say the precise day.” In an interview with Britain’s Sky News on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he didn’t know when the tanks from the U.S. and Europe would arrive. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, also speaking to the British network, declined to speculate on the timing, but said “allies are extremely focused on the importance of speed.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the move to provide Ukraine with modern Western tanks reflected the West’s growing involvement in the conflict. “Both European capitals and Washington keep saying that the delivery of various kinds of weapons systems, including tanks, to Ukraine, absolutely does not mean the involvement of these countries or the alliance in the hostilities ongoing in Ukraine,” Peskov told reporters. “We categorically disagree with that.” “Moscow views everything the alliance and the capitals I have mentioned as direct involvement in the conflict,” he added. “We can see it growing.” 7:30 a.m.: 7:10 a.m.: Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks pledged by the West will give Ukraine a substantial boost in its fight against invading Russian forces, but numbers are a key factor and time is of the essence as the war grinds on and both sides prepare for possible offensives in the coming months, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported in its news analysis, quoting experts. The promised deliveries are also an important sign of support from the United States and its European allies, but tanks are not the only weapons that Ukraine wants from the West as it struggles to fend off sustained attacks, regain territory, and ultimately drive Russian troops from the country. Tanks are “a vital part of the recipe,” retired U.S. Army Major John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Madison Policy Forum, a New York-based think tank focusing on security issues, told RFE/RL. “They need a tank that will overmatch that majority of Russian tanks.” Western tanks like the Leopard 2 and the Abrams are superior because they have better sight capabilities, enabling them to quickly find and target enemy armor, and better stabilization, allowing them to fire with accuracy while on the move, he said. Experts say they are also safer than Russian models with tough blast doors separating the crew inside from the stored ammunition. So far Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom have agreed to transfer about 60 tanks, but more announcements are expected in the coming days and weeks. Earlier this month, the United Kingdom said it would send 14 Challenger 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Valeriy Zaluzhniy, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, said in December that his country needs 300 tanks, 600-700 armored fighting vehicles, and 500 howitzers to push the Russians back, a number one former U.S. lieutenant general called “a really big ask.” Ukraine had about 850 tanks prior to the war and lost at least half of them, according to Oryx, a website that uses open-source tools to count destroyed equipment. The actual loss is likely much higher. Ukraine does not disclose its tank count, saying it is a state secret. 6:50 a.m.: 6:35 a.m.: Ukrainian air defenses shot down 47 of the 55 missiles Russian forced fired at Ukraine, the country's top general said on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Moscow used the Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile, among other models, General Valery Zaluzhny said on his Telegram channel. Twenty of the incoming missiles were shot down around the area of the capital Kyiv, he added.
"The goal of the Russians remains unchanged: psychological pressure on Ukrainians and the destruction of critical infrastructure," he wrote. "But we cannot be broken!"
6:15 a.m.: Japan, as this year's G-7 chair, expects Russia's invasion of Ukraine to dominate talks this year among the world's major advanced economies, its top finance diplomat, Masato Kanda, told Reuters. "Sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine will be a top priority at G-7 finance track under Japan's chair," Kanda, who will oversee deputy-level negotiations on economic policy among the Group of Seven (G-7) nations this year, said in an interview.
6 a.m.: The French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, visited the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa on Thursday, Ukraine's foreign minister said on Twitter.
Colonna's visit to Odesa took place on the same day that Russian missile strikes hit energy infrastructure in the region and caused blackouts, according to local officials. 5:40 a.m.: The Associated Press reported that the International Olympic Committee, or the IOC, has signaled that it wants to let Russian athletes compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics under as neutral athletes.
“A pathway for athletes’ participation in competition under strict conditions should therefore be further explored,” the IOC said in a statement. Tuesday on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote that he “particularly emphasized that athletes from Russia should have no place at the Olympic Games in Paris” in a talk with French President Emmanuel Macron.
5:20 a.m.: A Russia-based hacking group named Cold River is behind an expansive and ongoing information-gathering campaign that has struck various targets in government, politics, academia, defense, journalism, and activism, Britain said on Thursday, according to Reuters.
In an advisory, the National Cyber Security Center, part of Britain's GCHQ eavesdropping intelligence agency, said Cold River researches its targets and impersonates people around them using faked email addresses and social media profiles.
"There is often some correspondence between attacker and target, sometimes over an extended period, as the attacker builds rapport," the advisory said.
Russia's embassies in London and Washington did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment about the NCSC's comments. The advisory did not directly attribute the digital attacks to the Russian government.
Once a rapport has been built with a target, Cold River hackers encourage the target to click on a malicious link which tricks them into entering their login credentials on a website controlled by the group, the advisory said.
The hackers use those stolen credentials to log into the target's email accounts, "from where they are known to access and steal emails and attachments from the victim's inbox," it added.
5 a.m.: A German citizen was arrested at the Munich airport on suspicion of treason for allegedly colluding with an intelligence service employee to pass on intelligence to Russia, Reuters cited the prosecutor general's office as saying on Thursday.
The man, identified as Arthur E., was arrested on Sunday upon arriving in Germany from the United States, the prosecutor said in a statement. He is said to be an associate of Carsten L., an employee of the German foreign intelligence service (BND) who was arrested in December on suspicion of spying for Russia.
Arthur E., who is not a German intelligence employee, is believed to have passed on to the Russian intelligence service information he had obtained from Carten L., according to the prosecutor's statement.
An arrest warrant had already been issued for Arthur E., who was brought before a judge of Germany's top criminal court on Monday and remanded in custody, the statement added.
The investigation was conducted it close cooperation with the BND and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the prosecutor said.
German authorities have warned of likely heightened Russian spying given the Kremlin's stand-off with the West over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
4:35 a.m.: "On Christmas and New Year Belgrade was like Casablanca — there's no spy that hasn't occupied our hotels," said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Agence France-Presse had the full story on Russian exiles and Russian agents living in the Serbian capital, and the high tensions and loaded threats that extend well beyond Russia’s borders.
4:15 a.m.: The mayor of Ukraine's capital Kyiv said one person had been killed and two more were wounded on Thursday after Russia launched more than a dozen missiles in its latest large-scale aerial offensive.
"As a result of a rocket hitting a non-residential building in the Golosiivsky district, there is information that one person is dead and two wounded," Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a statement on social media, Agence France-Presse reported. The Kyiv city military administration said the death was due to parts of a missile falling.
4 a.m.: Authorities in Ukraine's southern region of Odessa said Thursday that two energy facilities were hit by Russian missiles, in the latest attack by Moscow's forces against critical infrastructure, Agence France-Presse reported.
"There is already information about damage done to two critical energy infrastructure facilities in Odessa. There are no injured. Air Defence Forces are working over the Odessa region," the head of the region's military administration, Yuriy Kruk, said on social media.
3:30 a.m.: Kyiv's mayor urged residents to stay in shelters on Thursday morning after an explosion was heard in Ukraine's capital amid what officials said was a Russian missile salvo, Reuters reported.
"Explosion in Kyiv! Remain in shelters," Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram. Reuters reporters in Kyiv heard at least one explosion.
Russian missile impacts were also reported at unspecified sites in Ukraine's central region of Vinnytsia and other parts of the country, Yuriy Ignat, the Air Force spokesman, said on Thursday.
"In several regions and Vinnytsia region in particular there are impacts of Russian missiles," he said in a TV broadcast.
3 a.m.: Ukraine said Thursday that Russian forces had fired more than 30 missiles at targets across the country, in the latest wave of attacks that have put pressure on Ukraine's air defense systems, Agence France-Presse reported.
"We expect more than 30 missiles, which have already started to appear in various territories. Air defense systems are working," Yuriy Ignat, a Ukrainian military spokesman, told local media.
2:30 a.m.: Russia launched its latest air attack on Ukraine during rush hour on Thursday morning and officials told Ukrainians to take cover in shelters as air defense forces shot down incoming missiles.
A Reuters reporter heard the sound of a missile flying overhead at a low altitude, about 30 kms from the capital Kyiv.
Two missiles were spotted over the territory of the Mykolaiv region, its governor, Vitaly Kim, said on the Telegram messaging app.
"Missiles are flying inside the territory of Ukraine. At least two northwest through Mykolaiv region," he said.
An air raid alert wailed across the country as people were heading to work. In the capital, people sheltered in a metro station, with some sitting on blankets and small plastic chairs.
"The first Russian missiles have been shot down," Andriy Yermak, head of the president's office said.
Russia has targeted critical infrastructure with missile and drone strikes since October, causing sweeping blackouts and other outages during winter.
DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy producer, said it was conducting emergency power shutdowns in the capital, Kyiv, the surrounding region, and also the regions of Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk due to a danger of missile attack.
Overnight, the military said its anti-aircraft defenses had shot down all 24 drones sent by Russia.
Fifteen of the drones were downed around the capital Kyiv where there were no reports of any damage.
2 a.m.: U.S. officials balked for months at sending M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, insisting they were too complicated and too hard to maintain and repair. That has abruptly changed.
Ukraine’s desperate pleas for tanks have been answered with a sweeping, trans-Atlantic yes. The U.S. now says it will send 31 of the 70-ton Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine, and Germany says it will send 14 Leopard 2 tanks and allow other countries to do the same. The dramatic reversal was the culmination of intense international pressure and diplomatic arm-twisting that played out over the last week. The Associated Press has this explainer. 1:45 a.m.: 1:30 a.m.: Novak Djokovic's father has been filmed posing with fans brandishing pro-Russian flags at the Australian Open in scenes Ukraine's ambassador Thursday slammed as "a disgrace," Agence France-Presse reported. The Serbian star had just booked his place in the tournament semi-final with a straight set thumping of Russian opponent Andrey Rublev in Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday night.
After the match, a group of fans unfurled Russian flags near the stadium, including one featuring Vladimir Putin's face, chanting pro-Russian slogans.
Tennis Australia said four people "revealed inappropriate flags and symbols and threatened security guards." Police were called and they were ejected from Melbourne Park.
A video later posted to a pro-Russian Australian YouTube account showed Djokovic's father Srdjan posing with a man holding the Putin flag. It was captioned: "Novak Djokovic's father makes bold political statement."
Serbian tennis reporters confirmed it was Djokovic's father and the Melbourne Age newspaper reported he said in Serbian: "Long live Russia."
Spectators are banned from having Russian or Belarusian flags at the Grand Slam after Ukraine's ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, demanded action when they were seen among the crowd last week.
1:05 a.m.: Reuters reported that Ukraine declared an air raid alert over most of the country Thursday morning.
12:55 a.m.: Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Biden and European allies have sought to present an image of harmonious support for Ukraine despite occasional disagreements, Reuters reported. But conflicting opinions on sending Abrams and Leopard tanks had the distinct possibility of distorting that image.
Reuters provided a look into the negotiations that led to the U.S.’s promise to send Abrams tanks, and what that could mean for Ukraine and its European allies.
12:30 a.m.: 12:01 a.m.: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged a senior U.N. official to help find a way to resolve what Ukrainian authorities decry as a serious consequence of 11 months of war — the deportation to Russia of thousands of adults and children, Reuters reported. Ukraine has for months denounced reports of mass deportations to Russia, often to remote regions thousands of kilometers from Ukraine. Russia denies any suggestion of mistreatment or criminal intent, describing the mass movements as evacuations.
"The discussion focused above all on our people that the occupiers have deported to Russia," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, referring to talks with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi earlier on Wednesday.
"These are adults, these are our children. A mechanism is needed to protect and bring back people and to bring to account all those who are guilty of deportations. I am certain the U.N. institutions can show leadership in resolving this issue."
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Congressional delegation visits Taiwan amid tense relations with Beijing
The visit largely focused on competition with China and Taiwan's role in semiconductor chip manufacturing.
The Facts Inside Our Reporter’s Notebook
A bipartisan congressional delegation visited Taiwan and met Tuesday with President Tsai Ing-wen amid tense relations with China.
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) and Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) arrived Sunday in Taiwan, which is trying to distance itself from China's control.
Such efforts have resulted in China increasing showing its military strength over Taiwan's movement toward democracy.
The United States acknowledges the Chinese government's position that Taiwan was part of China.
Tsai on Tuesday tweeted photos of herself with the delegation and said: "By continuing to deepen the #Taiwan-#US partnership, we will find more opportunities for cooperation & strengthen our resilience, post-pandemic & beyond."
The visit largely focused on competition with China and Taiwan's role in semiconductor chip manufacturing.
House Democrat Nancy Pelosi, as chamber speaker, visited Taiwan in August 2022.
"Our efforts to come here are in no way provocative of China, but consistent with the president’s foreign policy that recognizes the importance of the relationship like Taiwan, while still seeking ultimately, peace in the region," Khanna said, according to the Associated Press. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
China, a staunch backer of Russia, says it wants to help bring peace in Ukraine
The foreign minister of China, which has provided strong political backing for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, said Tuesday that his country wants to play a role in ending the conflict.
Qin Gang told participants at a security conference in Beijing that China was concerned that the almost-yearlong war could escalate further and spin “out of control.”
China would continue to urge peace talks and provide “Chinese wisdom” to bring about a political settlement, he said.
“At the same time, we urge relevant countries to immediately stop adding fuel to the fire, stop shifting blames to China and stop hyping up the discourse of ‘Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow,’” Qin said in an apparent reference to military support provided to Ukraine by the U.S. and its allies, as well as concerns that China is preparing to make good on its threats to use force to assert its claim over self-governing, democratic Taiwan.
China has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion or atrocities against Ukrainian civilians and strongly criticized Western economic sanctions against Moscow. In deference to Moscow, it has yet to describe the conflict as an invasion.
China and Russia have aligned their foreign policies to oppose the U.S. Weeks before the Ukraine invasion, their leaders declared a partnership with “no limits.” China also says Russia was provoked into using military force by NATO’s eastward expansion.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken says U.S. intelligence suggests China is considering providing arms and ammunition to Russia.
Despite that, Qin reiterated China’s claim to have “always taken an objective and impartial stance based on the merits of the issue.”
Qin said Chinese President Xi Jinping had put forward proposals that have “played a responsible and constructive role in easing the situation and de-escalating the crisis” in Ukraine. Qin did not offer any details or evidence.
“We will continue to promote peace talks, provide Chinese wisdom for the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis and work with the international community to promote dialogue and consultation to address the concerns of all parties and seek common security,” Qin said.
China has opposed criticism of Russia at the United Nations, while insisting that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations be respected, a position that underpins its claim to Taiwan, which separated from the mainland amid civil war more than 70 years ago.
Even as air-raid sirens wailed, Biden met with Ukraine’s leader to pledge continued U.S. support, both moral and material, for Kyiv against Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet with the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign policy chief, Wang Yi, in Moscow, the Kremlin said Monday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov hailed Russia-China ties as “multidimensional and allied in nature.”
That statement coincided with President Biden’s unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and show support for Kyiv days ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Wang’s trip to Russia follows talks Saturday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on the sidelines of an international security conference in Munich. Blinken said he reiterated to Wang that any Chinese material support for the Russian armed forces would trigger a strong response from Washington. Thus far, the U.S. says there are no indications that China is providing such support, although its close economic ties with Russia have offered a lifeline to Putin’s regime.
War wounds and traumatic captivity, cherry liqueur and air-raid alerts: Weathering the year-old Russian invasion
Russia, in turn, has offered strong support for China and held a series of joint military drills amid tensions with the U.S. over Taiwan, trade, human rights and Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.
China’s Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement Tuesday outlining Xi’s “Global Security Initiative,” which aims to “eliminate the root causes of international conflicts, improve global security governance, encourage joint international efforts to bring more stability and certainty to a volatile and changing era, and promote durable peace and development in the world.”
In its only reference to Russia’s invasion, it said the initiative would “support political settlement of hotspot issues such as the Ukraine crisis through dialogue and negotiation.”
At a daily briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin criticized military aid provided to Ukraine by the U.S. and its allies, saying that “the U.S. claims to maintain peace, but actually it is making money from the crisis.”
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“There are enough facts to show the true nature of the U.S. as a source of trouble rather than a defender of peace for the world,” Wang said.
The U.S. has committed about $113 billion in aid to Ukraine since last year, while European allies have committed tens of billions of dollars more and welcomed millions of Ukrainian refugees who have fled the conflict. Such aid is funded by U.S. and other foreign taxpayers, with Ukraine under no obligation to provide repayment as it seeks to withstand renewed Russian attempts to regain territory it had earlier conquered.
Wang also defended China’s “comprehensive strategic partnership” with Russia as “based on non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties, which is within the sovereignty of two independent countries.”
Wang gave no details on Wang Yi’s visit to Moscow, but called it “an opportunity to work with Russia to jointly promote steady progress of bilateral relations in the direction determined by the two leaders, safeguard each other’s legitimate rights and interests and contribute positively to world peace.”
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A councillor in Kraków is seeking to prevent Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters from performing two concerts at an arena in the Polish city next year due to his stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
During his current tour, Waters has included Joe Biden in a montage of “war criminals”. He told CNN that the US president has been “fuelling the fire in Ukraine” and should instead “encourage [Volodymyr] Zelensky to negotiate” an end to the war, which is “basically about…NATO pushing right up to the Russian border”.
Waters then wrote to Zelensky’s wife, Olena, saying that her husband had “agreed to totalitarian, anti-democratic…forces of extreme nationalism” that have “crossed any number of red lines set out quite clearly by your neighbours the Russian Federation…and in consequence…set your country on the path to this disastrous war.” "Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?"
An Open letter to Mrs. Olena Zelenska from Roger Waters – Sunday 4th September 2022
Dear Mrs. Zelenska… Read more: https://t.co/YPe13ChnwE pic.twitter.com/y7BV1MW2Zw
— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) September 5, 2022 On Friday, it was announced that Waters’ tour, titled “This Is Not A Drill”, will include two dates at Kraków’s Tauron Arena in April next year. That prompted an angry response on social media in Poland, which has been one of Ukraine’s strongest allies since Russia’s invasion.
Later on Friday, city councillor Łukasz Wantuch, who belongs to a group led by mayor Jacek Majchrowski, announced that he would seek to have the concerts “blocked” at a meeting of the council on Wednesday, at which he would appeal directly to the mayor.
Allowing “Roger Waters, an open supporter of Putin, to play in Kraków…would be shameful for our city”, wrote Wantuch. “Let him sing in Moscow.” This morning, Wantuch published an image of a letter he has addressed to Majchrowski in which he clarifies that they cannot ban Waters from performing completely, but that the concert should not take place in Tauron Arena, which is owned by the city.
The councillor also noted that, wherever it takes place, the concert would represent a security risk as Kraków and its surrounding region are home to “hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians”, who would not take kindly to Waters’ performance.
By March, it was estimated that around 150,000 refugees from Ukraine were being sheltered in Kraków. In Poland as a whole, there are estimated to be around three million Ukrainians – both refugees and pre-war immigrants – representing 7-8% of the country’s population. A study by the Pew Research Centre earlier this year found that Poles hold the most negative views of Russia among all countries surveyed, with only 2% perceiving Russia positively. Large protests have been held outside the Russian embassy and in May the Russian ambassador was doused with red paint.
Meanwhile, there has been a huge outpouring of support for Ukraine in Poland since Russia’s invasion, with 77% of the public saying that they have been involved in helping refugees and two thirds approving of the government’s actions, which have included strong backing for Kyiv and calls for a tougher line against Moscow.
The Polish authorities have also sought to prevent the spread of Russian propaganda, including by taking Russian TV stations off the air and blocking access to certain websites. Note: this article has been updated to include the letter published by Łukasz Wantuch this morning.
Main image credit: Sergio Castro/Flickr (under CC BY-NC 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
President Joe Biden slipped into Kyiv on Monday for the first time since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago, demonstrating in dramatic personal fashion his commitment to the country and its struggle as the war enters an uncertain new phase.
The highly secretive visit – which took place as air raid sirens could be heard ringing out around Kyiv while Biden walked alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky around the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral – comes at a critical moment in the 12-month conflict, with Russia preparing for an expected spring offensive and Ukraine hoping to soon retake territory.
Biden announced a half-billion dollars in new assistance, saying the package would include more military equipment, such as artillery ammunition, more javelins and Howitzers. And he said new sanctions would be imposed on Moscow later this week.
“One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden said.
The United States and other Western nations have been rushing arms, tanks and ammunition to Ukraine in the hopes of changing the trajectory of the war. By visiting in person, Biden is offering a singular image of American support for Zelensky, who has spent the past year attempting to rally the world behind his nation and appealing for greater levels of assistance.
Biden arrived in Kyiv at 8 a.m. local time after a lengthy, covert journey from Washington and arrived to the Mariinsky Palace half-an-hour later. He departed Kyiv in the early afternoon.
“Thank you for coming,” Zelensky said, shaking Biden’s hand.
US officials have privately voiced hope the massive influx of weaponry to Ukraine – which includes new vehicles, longer-range missiles and Patriot air defense systems – can help Ukraine prevail on the battlefield and put Zelensky in a stronger position to negotiate an end to the war.
But it remains unclear what parameters Zelensky might be willing to accept in any peace negotiations, and the US has steadfastly refused to define what a settlement may look like beyond stating it will be up to Zelensky to decide.
A high-stakes visit
Biden’s visit made for a highly symbolic moment, coming a day ahead of a planned speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin marking the anniversary of the war. Speaking from Kyiv, Biden declared Putin’s “war of conquest is failing.”
“Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided,” Biden said, standing alongside Zelensky. “He thought he could outlast us. I don’t think he’s thinking that right now.”
“He’s just been plain wrong,” Biden said of Putin. “One year later, the evidence is right here in this room. We stand here together.”
During their talks inside the presidential palace, Biden laid out his rationale for visiting the Ukrainian capital as the war enters a second year.
“I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about US support for Ukraine in the war,” Biden said.
“The Ukrainian people have stepped up in a way that few people ever have in the past,” he added.
Biden emphasized there was broad, bipartisan support in Washington for the Ukrainian cause.
“For all the disagreement we have in our Congress on some issues, there is significant agreement on support for Ukraine,” he said.
“It’s not just about freedom in Ukraine. … It’s about freedom of democracy at large,” he said
Biden was intently focused on discussing the coming months of fighting when he sat down with Zelensky, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“The President was very focused on making sure that he made the most of his time on the ground, which he knew was going to be limited,” Sullivan said. “So he was quite focused on how he was going to approach his conversation with President Zelensky and in part how the two of them were really going to look out over the course of 2023 and try to come to a common understanding of what the objectives are.”
White House officials would not go into details about the logistics of the president’s trip, saying that more details would come once they “got the green light from the security folks.”
In photos: President Biden visits Ukraine and Poland
Highly secretive trip
Biden’s trip to Kyiv was shrouded in secrecy, a reflection of the steep security concerns. Air Force One departed Joint Base Andrews under cover of darkness at 4:15 a.m. ET on Sunday, and reporters aboard the plane were not allowed to carry their devices with them.
Biden’s public schedule didn’t reflect the trip, and White House officials repeatedly said last week that a visit to Ukraine was not in the works.
Biden only decided on Friday to go ahead with the visit after huddling with top members of his national security team in the Oval Office. A few hours before he departed, the United States informed Russia of the plans to visit the Ukrainian capital for “deconfliction purposes,” according to Sullivan.
Biden was presented with a range of options for a visit to Ukraine, but decided that a trip to Kyiv made the most sense, a source familiar with the matter said. As Biden was briefed over several months on the planning for a potential visit, the source said that Biden only once expressed concern about the risk of a visit to Ukraine – but that was about the extent to which his visit could endanger others, rather than about his own safety. Other officials were obviously extremely concerned about Biden’s own safety and prepared a series of security contingency plans.
On Saturday evening, before he departed, Biden went out to dinner with his wife in Washington. He wasn’t seen in public again until arriving in Kyiv on Monday morning.
Ukraine is an active war zone where the US military has no control, making Monday’s visit different from previous presidential trips to Iraq or Afghanistan. White House officials had repeatedly ruled out a visit earlier in the year.
The Friday session in the Oval Office was the culmination of months of work by a tiny handful of Biden’s top aides to plan the trip around the anniversary of the start of the war. The planning included the chief of staff’s office, the National Security Council and the White House Military Office, with input from a small number of officials at the US Secret Service, the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community, according to deputy national security adviser Jon Finer.
Biden was regularly briefed on the plans for the trip, including threat assessments, as the visit came together.
Discussions between the White House and the “highest levels of the Ukrainian government” helped bring the trip over the finish line.
“He was satisfied the risk was manageable,” Sullivan said.
“This was a risk that Joe Biden wanted to take,” said communications director Kate Bedingfield. “It’s important to him to show up, even when it’s hard, and he directed his team to make it happen no matter how challenging the logistics.”
Biden traveled with a relatively small entourage, including Sullivan, deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and personal aide Annie Tomasini.
Zelensky himself traveled to Washington in December to meet Biden in the Oval Office and speak to a joint session of Congress – his first trip outside Ukraine since the war began.
The Ukrainian leader invited Biden to visit Kyiv months ago, saying he believed it was important for the US leader to see the situation up close.
The trip comes ahead of Biden’s planned two-day visit to Poland. The President is scheduled to be in Warsaw on Tuesday where he will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, the White House said Sunday.
Biden’s visit follows other world leaders’ trips
Biden has been itching to visit Ukraine for months, particularly after several of his counterparts in Europe all endured lengthy train journeys to meet with Zelensky in Kyiv. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, as well as former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have all made visits to the country to demonstrate their support.
Several of Biden’s top lieutenants, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, have also visited the Ukrainian capital to pledge new assistance. Senior administration officials, including CIA Director Bill Burns and top White House officials, visited Kyiv last month.
Even Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, paid a surprise visit on Mother’s Day last year to a small city in the far southwestern corner of Ukraine. She met with Zelenska at a former school that was converted into temporary housing for displaced Ukrainians, including 48 children.
Now, with the war nearing its one-year mark on February 24, Biden is hoping to demonstrate to the world his commitment to Ukraine, even as it remains unclear how much longer US and western resolve can last.
Asked about the significance of being in Kyiv, Biden noted it was his eighth visit to the city. “Each time more significant,” Biden said.
He added that the purpose of his visit was to convey to Zelensky that the US is “here to stay.”
“We’re not leaving,” Biden said.
Concerns over China’s support for Russia
American officials told CNN on Saturday the US has recently begun seeing “disturbing” trends and there are signs that Beijing wants to “creep up to the line” of providing lethal military aid to Moscow without getting caught.
The officials would not describe in detail what intelligence the US has seen suggesting a recent shift in China’s posture, but said US officials have been concerned enough that they have shared the intelligence with allies and partners at the Munich Security Conference over the last several days.
Blinken raised the issue when he met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Saturday on the sidelines of the conference, officials said.
Wang, who was named Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s top foreign policy adviser last month, is expected to arrive in Moscow this week, in the first visit to the country from a Chinese official in that role since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to China’s Foreign Ministry, Wang’s visit will provide an opportunity for China and Russia to continue to develop their strategic partnership and “exchange views” on “international and regional hotspot issues of shared interest” – a catch-all phrase often used to allude to topics including the war in Ukraine.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond and Nectar Gan contributed to this report. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Perhaps foreseeing a Russian win or stalemate in Ukraine, some foreign policy experts urge that it cede territory. French President Emmanuel Macron calls for not “humiliating” Russia. These entreaties could miss the mark. The battlefield is fluid and could turn for or against Ukraine. The West should prudently prepare for Ukrainian success as well as a less favorable outcome. A few weeks ago, euphoria reigned when Ukrainian forces pushed back Russian attempts to seize Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa — Ukraine’s three largest cities. Now, pessimism is ascendant. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks of “very fierce” fighting in eastern Ukraine and high casualties. Ukrainians may be running out of some ammunition. Since neither side seems ready to quit, fighting will likely continue. But battlefield advantages could continue to ebb and flow, and Ukraine’s fortunes remain uncertain. Ukraine’s is fighting “for every inch” in Sievierodonetsk and mounting counteroffensives in the southern Kherson region. Ukraine’s army benefits from a general mobilization. The will to fight is strong. Western support for Ukraine exceeds expectations. The West is supplying Ukraine with an ever-larger array of weapons and combat support systems, including artillery and rockets, counterbattery radars and armed drones. Ukraine is making effective use of these arms. But Kyiv seeks more heavy weaponry, especially for counteroffensives. Ukraine’s main weakness is a firepower gap with Russia’s artillery forces, which helps to enable Russian incremental advances in eastern Ukraine. But Russia’s military suffers from severe deficiencies. Many troops lack the will to fight. Strong Ukrainian resistance and other factors prevented a Russian blitzkrieg from succeeding in overthrowing Zelensky. Russia dispersed its initial invading force on too many axes. Russian forces appear unable to counter Ukrainian aerial drones and Javelin anti-armor and Stinger anti-air weapons. Russian logistics have been vulnerable to interdiction. Some Russian formations have lost discipline and raped and pillaged. Russian troops are stealing and shipping home Ukrainian goods. Russian forces have reverted to World War II tactics of indiscriminate mass attacks with tube and rocket artillery to grind down Ukrainian defenses. But huge losses have demoralized Russian infantry and weakened armored units. This and the risk of opposition to a military draft may have deterred Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his May 9 Victory Day speech, from calling for large-scale war mobilization. Instead, Russia’s military is struggling to regenerate fighting units that have suffered heavy casualties. Some units are receiving ancient T-62 tanks. Despite incremental gains in eastern Ukraine, a Russian military collapse is possible. Russian forces could suffer catastrophic defeat akin to that of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s army in the 1967 Six Day War, when more than 80 percent of its military materiel was lost. Is such a defeat possible? Military history is replete with breakdowns. Last summer, the Afghan armed forces collapsed amid weak governance and extreme corruption. So have other large or well-equipped armies — the demoralized Russian army in 1917, the outmaneuvered French army in 1940 and British army in Singapore in 1942, and the weakened South Vietnamese army in 1975 and Iraqi army in Mosul in 2014. Central to these fiascos was a lack of cohesion in military institutions, poor governance and corruption, and popular unwillingness to defend the state. Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz’s emphasis on sound relationships between the army, government and society appears valid. A Russian military collapse might have several implications. First, it might encourage Western countries to boost train-and-equip programs in other countries near Russia. In Ukraine, this effort seems to have helped it adopt more flexible and successful NATO-like tactics. Second, the collapse may cause Western intelligence analysts to reevaluate estimates of the vulnerability of the Baltics and Eastern Europe to Russian aggression. Against a Russian army that may be weaker than once thought, Baltic allies might consider defense options that go beyond tripwire postures. Third, Western militaries may sharply increase their stocks of weapons, which have worked so well in Ukraine — such as portable anti-armor and anti-air — but which have been consumed in larger numbers than expected. Unlike Nasser, Putin possesses a large and diverse nuclear arsenal that he often touts and has ambiguously threatened to use in the Ukraine war if Russia’s “existential” interests are threatened. But this has not deterred Ukraine or the West from opposing Russia’s invasion. A Russian military failure in Ukraine might give the West more confidence to challenge aggression elsewhere despite Moscow’s nuclear weaponry. This would not be the first time. The U.S. confronted a nuclear-armed USSR in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and 1973 Yom Kippur War. Russia may understand better than the West that its weak conventional forces might not enable it effectively to exploit any opportunities in Ukraine that a nuclear strike might create. In conventional or unlikely nuclear escalation scenarios, the West might consider keeping its negotiating powder dry until military and sanctions outcomes come into clearer focus. Peter A. Wilson is an adjunct senior international and defense researcher at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and teaches a course on the history of military technological innovation at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. William Courtney is an adjunct senior fellow at RAND and was U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, Georgia and U.S.-USSR negotiations to implement the Threshold Test Ban Treaty. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
BRUSSELS (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin would be crossing a “very important line” if he were to order the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Thursday, as both the military alliance and Russia are due to hold nuclear exercises in the next few days.NATO is holding its exercise, dubbed “Steadfast Noon,” next week. The long-planned maneuvers are conducted around the same time every year and run for about one week. They involve fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads, but do not involve any live bombs.Russia usually holds its own maneuvers around the same time, and NATO is expecting Moscow’s exercise of its nuclear forces sometime this month. Stoltenberg said NATO will “closely monitor” what Russia is up to.Asked what NATO would do if Russia launched a nuclear attack, Stoltenberg said: “We will not go into exactly how we will respond, but of course this will fundamentally change the nature of the conflict. It will mean that a very important line has been crossed.”He added that “even any use of a smaller nuclear weapon will be a very serious thing, fundamentally changing the nature of the war in Ukraine, and of course that would have consequences.”Stoltenberg’s remarks came after a meeting of NATO’s secretive Nuclear Planning Group, which was held among defense ministers in Brussels, as concerns deepen over Putin’s insistence that he will use any means necessary to defend Russian territory.The meeting, which usually happens once or twice a year, comes amid high tension as some NATO allies, led by the U.S., supply Ukraine with advanced weapons and munitions to defend itself against Russian aerial attacks.“Irresponsible and reckless rhetoric is dangerous,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said of Russian threats to potentially use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. However the U.S. has not seen the need to make any changes to its current military posture or response, Austin said.European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also warned Putin not to cross that threshold. “Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated,” he said in a speech in Bruges, Belgium. NATO is keeping a wary eye on Russia’s movements in its war with Ukraine, but has so far seen no change in its nuclear posture. Putin’s nuclear exercises though could make it more difficult for NATO to understand what Russia’s intentions might be, potentially increasing the risk of an accident.“Russia will also be conducting its annual exercise, I think, the week after or just after the annual exercise,” U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told reporters Wednesday. But “what we don’t want is to do things out of routine.”“This is a routine exercise and it’s all about readiness,” Wallace said, just as “NATO’s meeting is all about making sure we are ready for anything. I mean, that is the job of this alliance — to make sure that the 30 partners together are ready for what is thrown at us. And we have to continue to work at that.”Fourteen NATO member countries will be involved in “Steadfast Noon,” which was planned before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The main part of the maneuvers will be held more than 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from Russia.NATO as an organization doesn’t possess any weapons. The nuclear weapons nominally linked to the alliance remain under the firm control of three member countries — the U.S., the U.K. and France. But France insists on maintaining its nuclear independence and doesn’t take part in Nuclear Planning Group meetings.With the Russian army retreating in some places when faced with Ukrainian forces armed with Western weapons, Putin raised the stakes by annexing four Ukrainian regions and declaring a partial mobilization to buttress the crumbling front line.As his war plans have gone awry, Putin has repeatedly signaled that he could resort to nuclear weapons to protect Russian gains. The threat is also aimed at deterring NATO nations from sending more sophisticated weapons to Ukraine.In an interview with France 2 television, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that France would not respond with a nuclear strike. He also warned about the responsibilities of leaders when it comes to nuclear rhetoric and said he has spoken to Putin “several times.”“We have a (nuclear) doctrine, which is clear,” Macron said. “The dissuasion is working. But then, the less we talk about it, the less we brandish the threat, the more credible we are.”“Too many people are talking about it,” he said.___Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.___Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Imagine how the American people would react if the Biden administration said it could not support the Ukrainian people because the overriding issue is not their freedom from the domination of an authoritarian overlord but instead that we would be caving to Vladimir Putin’s threat of using tactical nuclear weapons. What if the administration rationalized Putin’s fears and minimized his falsehoods while finding fault with Ukraine’s imperfect democracy? Yes, apparently we do have isolationists here who have justified Putin’s indefensible actions to the point that, reportedly, “a leaked Kremlin memo directed Russian state-sponsored media to use a [Fox commentator’s broadcasts] ‘as much as possible,’ due to his criticism of the U.S., NATO and defense of Putin.” Although Americans are not interested in again putting their soldiers in harm’s way, a recent Reuters/Ipsos Poll found a majority of Americans support the Ukrainian people in Russia’s war; our transfer of arms to Ukraine; and their right to determine their destiny. According to a Gallup poll, 66 percent of Americans support Ukraine in reclaiming territory, even if it prolongs the conflict, though 24 percent believe the U.S. is doing too much to help Ukraine. Now, imagine other peoples who yearn for democracy and whose protests have been violently suppressed for decades, and America giving minimal rhetorical support in their quest for freedom. Imagine an American president who abandoned these freedom-seeking people who protested by the millions during the 2009 Green Movement in Iran, many of whom were then violently suppressed, tortured, imprisoned and even killed by a regime that continues to undermine our national security interests. The president was Barack Obama, who legitimized Iran’s anti-American authoritarian theocracy by demanding that America’s Sunni allies and the one democracy in the Middle East — Israel — “share the neighborhood” with Iran, thereby minimizing Iran’s aggressions, terrorism and human rights violations. The naïve hope that appeasing gestures from America would lead to stability and reciprocity from Iran was as implausible then as it is now to anyone who has followed the actions of the Islamic Republic for the past 53 years. According to Gallup, 84 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Iran, and it is scary to contemplate that even 13 percent of Americans have a positive view of Iran. The Iranian people, by and large, yearn for freedom, to throw off the yoke of their repressive regime. In contrast, their mullahs demand religious conformity at home and jihad beyond their borders to dominate their neighbors. Based on American security interests and values, our goal should be a free Iranian people, able to decide what government should lead them. President Biden has an opportunity to make a difference, something Obama evidently chose not to do. Iranians protesting by the thousands today are demanding that they be freed from the shackles of intolerance and persecution. Iran’s notorious Evin prison is filled with dissidents, journalists, liberals, students and ordinary people used by Iran as examples to warn everyone what awaits them if they dare to speak their minds — a freedom we Americans sometimes take for granted. This round of uprisings is connected to the torture and killing of a Kurdish-Iranian woman by Iran’s morality police for her failure to wear a hijab properly. Iran has responded to the protests with arrests, torture and killing of at least 55 people in several Iranian cities. Benny Avni of the New York Sun wrote, “As the Iranian hair revolution intensifies in the aftermath of Mahsa Amini’s death following her arrest by hijab enforcers, Americans of goodwill are rightly asking what can be done to intensify the pressure against the Islamic Republic. It turns out that the answer is a lot, and the time to start doing it is now — beginning with President Biden.” The Washington Post weighed in: “The Biden response — expressing support for the protesters in unflinching terms, condemning the government response, imposing sanctions — has outpaced the way the administration in which he served as vice president handled the so-called Green Revolution 13 years ago. As Aaron David Miller, who advised Obama, said, ‘Given the hammering the (Obama) administration took politically for not responding aggressively enough to the 2009 protests (Green Revolution), it didn’t want to be put in that position again.’” So what should the Biden administration do next? Relaxing restrictions on U.S. internet companies to fight the Iranian social media blackout and targeted sanctions against the morality police is a good beginning. However, unless more is done, it will simply be virtue signaling — a misleading, false claim that America is offering substantial support or making a significant difference. We need to fully enforce all of the sanctions currently in place against Iran for their human rights abuses, terrorism, missile development and expansionism. Implementing secondary sanctions against nations such as China that help Iran’s resistance economy to survive would be essential in weakening the regime. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has not fully implemented the full weight of sanctions, lest it upset Iran and inhibit their desire to rejoin a flawed nuclear agreement. That agreement — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated under Obama in 2015 — guarantees Iran the ability to have a nuclear program without international limits in eight years, effectively putting a nail in the coffin to suffocate Iranian freedom. The Biden administration must grow a spine, uphold American values, and state clearly and openly that we support the Iranian people’s desire for regime change. We should publicly declare that American policy is for a non-kinetic — i.e., no American boots on the ground — regime change. That does not lead America into another war. The howls of isolationists claiming this is warmongering should be stiffly confronted with the facts, knowing that American democratic values are on our side. Yes, realpolitik comes into play. And yes, we cannot change the world to our liking. But unlike the isolationists, most Americans believe the United States is a force for good in the world, and our security interests are strengthened when we are engaged in the world. At least rhetorically, we should state the obvious: After more than 50 years, we have learned that Iran’s leadership and Islamic regime are unrepentant, extreme, heinous, anti-American, antisemitic; the mullahs will not change on their own. It is in America’s national security interest for the Iranian people to control their destiny. Regime change should be an American foreign policy goal, and we should not give in to tyrants’ threats. In their world, disengagement is seen as a weakness, an invitation to continue aggressive behavior that will come back to bite us over time. Dr. Eric R. Mandel is the director of MEPIN, the Middle East Political Information Network. He regularly briefs members of Congress and their foreign policy aides. He is the senior security editor for the Jerusalem Report. Follow him on Twitter @MepinOrg. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The United States will not hesitate to use sanctions to ensure the Ethiopian ceasefire agreement is respected and abided by and to hold to account those responsible for human rights violations, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.Asked what would happen if Eritrean forces and fighters from the neighboring Amhara region do not withdraw from the Tigray region as agreed, the official said: "I don't want to get ahead of ourselves in terms of what will happen if these commitments aren't abided by," but added that sanctions are always a foreign policy tool at Washington's disposal.Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Ismail ShakilOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Former U.S. General Ben Hodges predicted Ukraine will "probably" defeat Russia in the coming year.The Russia-Ukraine war, launched by President Vladimir Putin in late February, defined much of 2022's international affairs as much of the West condemned the invasion for lacking justification, violating contemporary international norms and for human rights abuses allegedly committed by Russian soldiers.Russia, despite the vast size of its military, has struggled to achieve substantial goals in Ukraine after more than 10 months of fighting. The war exposed weaknesses among Putin's troops, including an apparent inability to maintain motivated, well-trained soldiers. This has allowed Ukraine in recent months to retake thousands of square miles of formerly occupied territory.Heading into 2023, Hodges, who formerly served as the commanding general of the United States Army Europe, said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) he believes Ukraine will continue to score victories, potentially even defeating Russia, adding that Ukraine currently has the "momentum."
Above, a split image of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Former U.S. General Ben Hodges predicted that Ukraine would defeat Russian in 2023, retaking control of Crimea, after Russia has struggled to achieve substantial goals in more than 10 months of fighting.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images; Contributor/Getty Images
"It's too early to plan a victory parade in Kyiv but all the momentum is with Ukraine now and there is no doubt in my mind that they will win this war, probably in 2023," Hodges said.Hodges explained that while the winter may see Ukraine's progress slow—as they deal with renewed Russian strikes against civilian infrastructure—he believes Ukraine's military is better poised to recover from a difficult winter due to a steady supply of winter equipment from its Western allies.Ukraine may even retake control of Crimea—a region Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014—in 2023, Hodges said. Kyiv will also likely begin reconstruction in areas damaged during the conflict near the Azov sea, he said."When I see the determination of the Ukrainian people and soldiers, and the rapidly improving logistical situation for Ukraine, I see no other outcome but a Russian defeat," he told the BBC.Putin Faces Pressure as War StagnatesIn recent months, as Moscow's war in Ukraine flounders and Western sanctions continue hitting its economy, Putin has faced increased pressure to deliver a victory, with some Russian officials and media personalities now admitting the war is stagnating.Polling released earlier in December indicated that more Russians are ready for Putin to negotiate the end of the war, even if they don't support conceding the surrender of territories Putin has sought to annex into Russia.Meanwhile, Russian State TV hosts, who have largely backed Putin's pro-war propaganda, have recently admitted that the war is not going well for Russia in several media appearances.Ukraine Still Faces Obstacles Despite ProgressEven as Ukrainian troops make progress, they are facing a brutal winter as Russia continues launching strikes against civilian infrastructure across the country. Experts have said the infrastructure strikes are intended to knock down Ukrainian morale as they face a frigid winter, adding pressure to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet Putin at the negotiating table. Furthermore, Russia may be planning to attempt a comeback in the spring. Retired four-star U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey warned during an MSNBC appearance last week that Putin is planning to launch a new offensive against Ukraine and may pressure Russian ally Belarus to join the war.Newsweek reached out to Russia and Ukraine's defense ministries, as well as foreign policy analysts, for comment. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
September 23, 2022 07:00 AM Republicans are accusing the Biden administration of allowing the relationship between Chinese drug manufacturers and Mexican cartels to flourish amid a fentanyl crisis. The Chinese government suspended its anti-drug efforts with the United States last month in retaliation for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) decision to visit Taiwan. Republicans have been sounding the alarm about the growing problem. “The Biden administration has failed to hold Communist China accountable for its role in spreading fentanyl into American communities,” the Republican Study Committee said in a memo this week. “China is the number one producer of illicit fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl.” The House GOP group, led by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), wrote: “President Donald Trump recognized this threat and successfully pressured China to schedule fentanyl-related substances as a class.” The RSC continued: “However, we now know that a significant portion of China’s fentanyl manufacturing subsequently moved to Mexico where cartels set up their own operations to produce fentanyl using precursor chemicals from China. “Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s weakness has allowed this deadly relationship between the cartels and Chinese actors to flourish,” it added. The RSC also pointed to a letter by attorneys general in 18 states and territories that asked President Joe Biden to consider classifying illegal fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction.” US INTEL COMMUNITY UNPREPARED FOR CHINESE ESPIONAGE The Washington Examiner has reported on how Chinese money launderers and fentanyl-makers have gone into business with Mexican drug cartels and have made billions pushing fentanyl across the U.S. border. The Trump administration pressured Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2019 to make fentanyl illegal there, but drug labs in Wuhan and elsewhere shifted to manufacturing the precursor ingredients for the drugs instead, and Chinese partnerships with drug traffickers in Mexico have expanded. Last week, Biden named 22 foreign nations as being major drug transit or major illicit drug-producing countries last week. China was not on the list. But the president said, “We will look to expand cooperation with China, India, and other chemical source countries to disrupt the global flow of synthetic drugs and their precursor chemicals.” Biden also signed an executive order in December concluding international drug trafficking “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy” of the U.S. The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Aug. 5 that it was implementing eight “countermeasures” in retaliation for Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Among the punitive actions, China said it was “suspending China-U.S. counternarcotics cooperation.” “This epidemic will only intensify as Beijing suspends counter-narcotics cooperation with America,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote last week. “We must put greater pressure on Beijing to control fentanyl production at its source, as well as the production of fentanyl precursors that Chinese dealers sell to traffickers in Mexico.” Rubio added, “Most importantly, Biden and his fellow Democrats must stop undermining border security." Rahul Gupta, the White House’s director of national drug control policy, said on Aug. 8 that he was "disappointed that China has chosen to disrupt its cooperation on the global issues of transnational crime and counternarcotics.” He contended that “China has played and must play a key role in helping disrupt the illicit flow of drugs like fentanyl and their precursor chemicals” and that “it’s unacceptable that the PRC is withholding its cooperation.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 107,600 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021. More than 71,200 of those overdose deaths involved synthetic opioids, mainly fentanyl. The National Institutes of Health similarly concluded that “synthetic opioids other than methadone (primarily fentanyl) were the main driver of drug overdose deaths with a 6-fold increase from 2015 to 2020.” CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that 12,900 pounds of fentanyl had been seized as of September, compared to 11,200 pounds of fentanyl seized in all of 2021. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday that the so-called "golden era" of relations with China was over, saying Beijing's systemic challenge to Britain's interests and values was growing more acute.In his first major foreign policy speech, Sunak said Britain's approach to China needed to evolve and Beijing was "consciously competing for global influence using all the levers of state power"."Let’s be clear, the so-called 'golden era' is over, along with the naive idea that trade would lead to social and political reform," Sunak said in London's financial district, a reference to former finance minister George Osborne's description of Sino-British ties in 2015.Some in Sunak's Conservative Party have been critical of Sunak, regarding him as less hawkish on China than his predecessor Liz Truss. Last year when he was finance minister, he called for a nuanced strategy on China to balance human rights concerns while expanding economic ties.However, a planned meeting between Sunak and China's President Xi Jinping at this month's G20 summit in Bali fell through and last week London banned Chinese-made security cameras from sensitive government buildings."We recognise China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests, a challenge that grows more acute as it moves towards even greater authoritarianism," he said, referring to the BBC statement that one of its journalists had been assaulted by Chinese police."Of course, we cannot simply ignore China’s significance in world affairs - to global economic stability or issues like climate change. The U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan and many others understand this too."Sunak said under his leadership Britain would not choose the "status quo" and would confront international competitors "not with grand rhetoric but with robust pragmatism".On Ukraine, he said the government would maintain military aid to Kyiv next year, maintaining the strong support offered by former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Truss."So be in no doubt, we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We will maintain or increase our military aid next year. And we will provide new support for air defence," he said.In September, Britain said it was the second-largest military donor to Ukraine after the United States, providing 2.3 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) of aid this year.Sunak said Britain needed to take the same long-term approach as its adversaries and competitors such as Russia and China."In the face of these challenges, short-termism or wishful thinking will not suffice. We can’t depend on Cold War arguments or approaches, or mere sentimentality about the past," he said.($1 = 0.8288 pound)Reporting by David Milliken and Michael Holden; Editing by David Gregorio and Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
(Bloomberg) -- China hit back at the US for expanding military access in the Philippines, saying Washington was trying to “encircle and contain” Beijing, and is “driving a wedge” between the two Asian nations.
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The Chinese embassy gave comments on Sunday, criticizing the US for moving to “secure its hegemony and selfish geopolitical interests.” Involving the Philippines “will seriously harm” the nation’s interest and endanger regional peace and stability, the embassy said in a statement responding to the US ambassador in Manila’s recent interview.
The Philippines last month gave the US access to four more military bases under the countries’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, with some of the sites believed to be in provinces near Taiwan. The 2014 pact allows the US to rotate its troops for prolonged stays as well as build and operate facilities on Philippine bases.
“The U.S. military has been coming all the way from the other side of the Pacific to stir up trouble in the South China Sea and ganging up with its allies from other parts of the world to flex muscle,” according to the statement. “By doing these, the U.S. has not only heightened tension, driven wedge between China and Philippines, but has also disturbed and upset the joint effort of countries in this region to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.”
The Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been ramping up the rhetoric against Beijing on territorial dispute. At the same time, it plans to restart patrols with the US in disputed waters and expand military exercises with American troops.
Marcos’s administration has filed at least 77 diplomatic protests against China over “alleged” violations in the South China Sea since it started in June last year. That was almost a fifth of the 388 filings made by his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte who pivoted the Philippines’ foreign policy toward China during his six-year tenure.
“Now that China and the Philippines, among other countries of the region, are at a critical juncture of post-Covid recovery, we should keep to the right track of maintaining good-neighborlinesss and attaining mutual benefit rather than getting distracted by forces who are fanning the flame and driving a wedge between us,” China’s statement said.
The US has said its so-called “freedom of navigation operations” follow international law. The Chinese Embassy statement echoed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s remarks last week, where he said Beijing is grappling with “comprehensive containment and suppression by western countries led by the US.” Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has also warned of moves to “contain and suppress China in all respects.”
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10:42 a.m.: 10:30 a.m.: Spain will send up to eight warplanes to Bulgaria next month to help with its air policing tasks amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported Thursday, citing the Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov.
Stoyanov said the Spanish Eurofighter jets were expected to land in Bulgaria on November 1 and will perform airspace protection duties along with the Bulgarian Air Force until December 23.
"This is yet another mission on enhanced air policing. It will be a joint airspace security duty, " Stoyanov told reporters.
Spain and the Netherlands took part in similar air policing missions in the Black Sea country earlier this year.
Bulgaria, a NATO member since 2004, is hosting a NATO battlegroup of up to 1,000 troops under Italian command as the alliance seeks to bolster its eastern flank.
9:24 a.m.: As Russia's invasion force in Ukraine has been battered by Kyiv's counter-offensive, one section of front around Bakhmut is bucking the trend thanks to the Wagner mercenary group, which experts say is now a vital cog in Moscow's military machine, the French news agency AFP reported.
Deployed in recent years in Syria, Mali and the Central African Republic, "Wagner... is right now proving to be the most capable infantry that the Russian army has" in Ukraine, said Philip Wasielewski, a researcher at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute. "However, it's not a high bar because of the poor performance of the Russian army," he added.
The Kremlin has always denied any ties with private military groups, and Wagner has no legal entity in Russia, where mercenary companies are illegal.
That fiction was partly dispelled in late September, when Yevgeny Prigozhin — a businessman close to President Vladimir Putin and a fellow Saint Petersburg native — acknowledged founding the company in 2014, calling its fighters "pillars of our motherland."
8:49 a.m.: Moscow’s forces have destroyed 30% of the country’s power stations since Oct. 10, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to The Associated Press.
The latest attacks occurred overnight in the Kryvyi Rih region, Dnipropetrovsk region, inflicting damage, according to regional administrator Valentyn Reznichenko.
Russian forces also struck a school in Zaporizhzhia region early on Thursday, the deputy head of the president’s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko on Telegram.
8:16 a.m.: Russia's air force held scheduled patrol flights at the borders of its ally Belarus on Thursday, Reuters reported citing Minsk, as concerns remain that it could take a more active role in the Ukraine war.
Russia has deployed an enhanced task force of 9,000 troops and hundreds of pieces of military hardware to its neighbor after President Alexander Lukashenko said last week Belarus was at threat of attack from Ukraine.
"Right now, the Russian aviation component of the regional troop grouping is carrying out a scheduled patrol of the air borders of the Union State," Belarus' defense ministry said in a statement. The "Union State" is the name of a borderless customs-free zone between Russia and Belarus.
Russia used Belarus as a staging post for its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, deploying troops and equipment from there for its failed offensive on Kyiv in the early days of the war.
Belarus shares a 1,085-kilometer (675-mile) border with Ukraine and is less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Ukrainian capital at its closest point.
While Lukashenko has repeatedly claimed Belarus is at risk of attack by Kyiv, he has so far not sent forces to fight alongside Russia, despite Ukrainian and Western concerns it may.
Ukraine denies it is a threat to Belarus.
7:06 a.m.: Russia's foreign ministry said on Thursday that European Union weapons supplies to Kyiv made the bloc party to the conflict in Ukraine and that countries pumping Ukraine with weapons were "sponsors of terrorism."
In a briefing in Moscow, Reuters reported that spokeswoman Maria Zakharova repeated Moscow's aggressive criticism of the West for shipping billions of dollars worth of advanced arms to Ukraine to help Kyiv defend itself against Russia's eight-month military campaign.
6 a.m.: European Union members have agreed on new measures against Iran over its supply of drones to Russia, the Czech presidency of the EU said on Thursday.
"EU ambassadors agreed on measures against entities supplying Iranian drones that hit Ukraine," the Czech EU presidency said in a tweet.
"EU states decided to freeze the assets of three individuals and one entity responsible for drone deliveries (and) is also prepared to extend sanctions to four more Iranian entities that already featured in a previous sanctions list."
5:30 a.m.: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using energy and hunger as weapons but has failed to break the West's unity and will not achieve his war aims through scorched earth tactics, Reuters reported.
Speaking to parliament, Scholz said Germany had freed itself from dependence on Russian gas and was working to bring energy prices down but warned that the EU imposing a gas price cap risked back-firing.
Scholz also said Ukraine's financial needs have been covered to the end of the year, thanks to contributions from the EU and the G-7 club of industrialized nations, Agence France-Presse reported.
"The good news is the financial needs of Kyiv are practically covered to year's end — the EU and the G-7 are playing a decisive role," Scholz told parliament while warning that Ukraine will need much more in the coming years for reconstruction.
Germany holds the rotating presidency of the G-7 and will be hosting a reconstruction conference on Ukraine on Tuesday.
4:30 a.m.: NATO allies will act if Sweden or Finland come under pressure from Russia or another adversary before they become full members of the alliance, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.
"It is inconceivable that allies would not act should Sweden and Finland come under any form of pressure," Stoltenberg said at a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
Sweden will involve itself more clearly and deeply in NATO's counter-terrorism activities, the country's recently appointed Prime Minister Kristersson said. 4:10 a.m.: A Russian airstrike that hit a major thermal power station in the city of Burshtyn in western Ukraine on Wednesday has caused "quite serious" damage, Reuters reported Thursday, citing the region's governor.
"Unfortunately, there is destruction, and it is quite serious," Svitlana Onyshchuk, Ivano-Frankivsk's governor, said on Ukrainian television.
3:40 a.m.: The governor of Mykolaiv announced via Telegram that missiles struck the city Thursday morning, according to The Guardian. "No casualties or destruction," he wrote. "Only lawns spoil."
2:20 a.m.: 1:45 a.m.: Ukraine is restricting electricity usage nationwide for the first time on Thursday following a barrage of Russian missile and drone attacks that have destroyed some power plants, Reuters reported.
Power supply will be restricted between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., government officials and the grid operator Ukrenergo said, and temporary blackouts are possible if people do not minimize electricity use, a presidential aide said.
While limited to Thursday, "we do not exclude that, with the onset of cold weather, we will be asking for your help even more frequently," Ukrenergo said.
Russia has intensified its missile and drone attacks on Ukraine's power and water infrastructure in recent days.
"There is new damage to critical infrastructure. Three energy facilities were destroyed by the enemy today," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his Wednesday night video address.
"We are preparing for all kinds of scenarios in view of the winter season. We assume that Russian terror will be directed at energy facilities until, with the help of partners, we are able to shoot down 100% of enemy missiles and drones," said Zelenskyy, who earlier in the week said a third of his country's power stations had been hit by Russian air strikes.
The mayor of the western city of Lviv said on television that it would take months to repair damaged power substations.
1 a.m.: The Biden administration announced a round of criminal charges and sanctions related to a complex scheme to procure military technologies from U.S. manufacturers and illegally supply them to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
The Justice Department said some of the equipment was recovered on battlefields in Ukraine, and other nuclear proliferation technology was intercepted in Latvia before it could be shipped to Russia, The Associated Press reported. Eleven people were charged in separate cases in New York and Connecticut. The defendants are accused of acquiring the military technology from U.S. companies and then laundering tens of millions of dollars for wealthy Russian businessmen and other sanctioned entities.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken showed support for the announcement saying, the decision demonstrates "our commitment to preventing Russia’s procurement of U.S.-origin technologies," in a Twitter post. VOA's National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin outlines the details: 12:05 a.m.: The United States, Britain and France raised the issue of Iran's alleged transfer of drones to Russia at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.
"We expressed our grave concerns about Russia's acquisition of these UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] from Iran," Price said in a statement, Reuters reported. "We now have abundant evidence that these UAVs are being used to strike Ukrainian civilians and critical civilian infrastructure."
"We will not hesitate to use our sanctions and other appropriate tools on all involved in these transfers," Price said.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
European Union foreign ministers gathered Wednesday in Stockholm with a push to provide more ammunition to Ukrainian forces high on their agenda.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur advocated for EU countries to provide money to jointly procure ammunition for Ukraine, arguing that effort will boost the capacity of the industry and help EU security in the future.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters that in addition to a joint effort to expand defense industry capacity, EU members should also in the short term provide ammunition quickly to Ukraine from their existing stocks. Borrell said sending what is available now could be accomplished in a matter of weeks.
“The issue is how to provide the ammunition Ukraine needs to continue defending,” Borrell said.
Ukraine has asked in particular for allies to provide more 155-millimeter artillery rounds.
“There is enormous demand out there,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday. “The current rate of consumption compared to the current rate of production of ammunition is not sustainable and therefore we need to ramp up production.”
Stoltenberg said the conflict is “now a war of attrition.”
Bakhmut fighting
The NATO chief also said he could not rule out the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut falling into Russian control in coming days.
“Therefore, it is also important to highlight that this does not necessarily reflect any turning point of the war, and it just highlights that we should not underestimate Russia,” Stoltenberg said. “We must continue to provide support to Ukraine.”
Hours earlier, the head of Russia's Wagner Group mercenaries, Yevgeni Prigozhin, said its units had taken control of the eastern part of Bakhmut.
Russia has been trying to seize the city in Donetsk province in eastern Ukraine for months.
Prighozin said Wagner forces controlled all districts east of the Bakhmutka River, which would represent about half of the city.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that seizing Bakhmut was important for launching further offensive operations in the region.
Ukrainian leaders have said in recent days they intend to keep fighting in Bakhmut.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
John Oliver said Afghanistan wasn’t doing well under U.S. occupation ― yet the situation got even worse when American troops left and the Taliban took over one year ago.“Our exit was the foreign policy equivalent of putting a cake in the oven, and then 40 minutes later taking out a live rat dressed as Hitler,” he said. “It’s not just a fuck-up. It’s a mind-blowing fuck-up that’ll take years to fully comprehend.” The Taliban has struggled to provide even basic services to the citizenry. One expert told PBS the Taliban was designed to fight ― not rule. Oliver agreed.“A militant insurgency group is pretty low on the list of people that you’d want leading a government,” he said. “Right around the Hell’s Angels, the Manson family and Ron DeSantis.” Under the Taliban, Afghans are finding it difficult or impossible to get food or healthcare, and girls past the age of 11 have been banned from school. The Taliban at one point claimed they needed more time to create and approve a school uniform for girls before they could be allowed to return to class.“Which is clearly total bullshit,” Oliver said. “Besides, for an organization so concerned with virtue and purity, taking months to brainstorm a schoolgirl uniform you like is objectively the single perviest thing you can do.” See more from Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight”: | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
5:33 PM / December 21, 2022 Biden vows the U.S. will give Ukraine what it needs "to succeed on the battlefield" President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House on Dec. 21, 2022. Alex Wong / Getty Images In the final question to Mr. Biden and Zelenskyy, a reporter asked whether the U.S. could give Ukraine everything it needs to liberate the Russian-held territories swiftly, prompting a light-hearted back-and-forth between the two leaders."His answer is yes," the U.S. president said."I agree," Zelenskyy replied, prompting laughter.Mr. Biden then stressed that the U.S. has provided more than $20 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in late February, but that its success in forcing Russia to retreat hinged on the broader support from NATO and European Union allies."Why don't we just give Ukraine everything there is to give? For two reasons," he said. "One: There is an entire alliance that is critical to stay with Ukraine, and the idea that we would give Ukraine material that is fundamentally different than is already going there would have a prospect of breaking up NATO and the European Union and the rest of the world."Mr. Biden continued: "We're going to give Ukraine what it needs to be able to defend itself, to be able to succeed, and to succeed on the battlefield."The president said that he has spent an extensive amount of time speaking with European leaders to urge them to continue their support for Ukraine, but said they do not want to go to war with Russia."We are staying with Ukraine as long as Ukraine is there," Mr. Biden pledged. 5:28 PM / December 21, 2022 Zelenskyy draws laughs with quip about asking for more Patriot missile systems Zelenskyy again expressed his appreciation for American support for his country's war effort. said he came to Washington to meet with Mr. Biden because "I respect him as a person, as a president, as a human being for his position. And for me, this is a historic moment."Zelenskyy noted that he and the president are in frequent communication, and joked about eventually asking him to send more Patriot missile systems to protect Ukrainian skies. "You said, 'What's going to happen after Patriots are installed?' After that, we will send another signal to President Biden that we would like to get more Patriots," he said in Ukrainian, eliciting laughter in the audience. "That is our life, we are in war. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry," Zelenskyy said in English. 5:26 PM / December 21, 2022 Biden says Putin is "going to fail" Mr. Biden asserted that Putin is "going to fail," despite the Russian president's continued assault into the winter. "He's failed in the past and it's very important for him and everyone else to see that President Zelenskyy and I are united, two countries together to make sure that he cannot succeed," Mr. Biden said. Mr. Biden praised Zelenskyy as a man who "to his very soul, is who he says he is," and is "willing to give his life for his country." Additionally, Mr. Biden said they would "love" for Ukraine not to have to use the Patriot missile defense system the U.S. is giving the country. 5:24 PM / December 21, 2022 Zelenskyy say a "just peace" maintains Ukraine's sovereignty, freedom and territorial integrity Asked whether there is a fair way to end the war brought by Russia and about a "just peace," Zelenskyy reiterated that U.S. leadership is "strong," but that the Ukrainian people have also been protected by Ukraine's armed forces."For me as a president, just peace is no compromise as to the sovereignty, freedom and territorial integrity of my country," Zelenskyy said. "The payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression."Zelenskyy described the Russians who invaded his country and targeted civilians as "inhuman."Mr. Biden echoed that the vision is a "free, independent, prosperous and secure Ukraine," but said Russian President Vladimir Putin could end the war if he "had any dignity at all and did the right thing.""What comes next?" the U.S. president said, adding that it involves continuing to help Ukraine notch wins on the battlefield."If and when President Zelenskyy is ready to talk with the Russians, he will be able to succeed as well because he will have won on the battlefield," Mr. Biden said. 5:23 PM / December 21, 2022 Biden "not at all worried" about strength of alliance against Russia A reporter asked Mr. Biden if he is concerned that the international backing Ukraine will begin to fray."I'm not at all worried about holding the alliance," Mr. Biden said, adding that he sees "no sign" the United Nations or NATO weakening in their support for Ukraine. "We all know what's at stake here," Mr. Biden said. "Putin thought he would weaken NATO. Instead he strengthened NATO." 5:08 PM / December 21, 2022 Zelenskyy: "We need to survive this winter" In brief opening remarks through a translator, Zelenskyy reiterated the purpose of his visit to Washington — to thank Mr. Biden and Congress for providing bicameral and bipartisan support for continued assistance to Ukraine."This visit to the United States became a historic one," the Ukrainian president said. "In the last [300] days of this war, we have started a new face of our inter-relations with the United States. We became real partners and allies."Zelenskyy said he hopes to ensure Ukraine continues to combat Russia from a position of strength as it enters the second year of the war, and urged Congress to approve the $45 billion assistance to his country included in the $1.7 trillion omnibus package."Every dollar of this investment from the United States is going to strengthening of global security," he said. "I know that the American leadership will be strong and will play an important role …and the United States will help us to defend our values and independence."Noting the change of party control of the House in the coming weeks, when Republicans will take hold of the lower chamber, Zelenskyy said he is confident there will be bipartisan support for additional assistance to Ukraine. "We need to survive this winter. We need to protect our people," he said.Zeleskyy reiterated his characterization of Russia as a "terrorist country" and the need for Russia to be held accountable for its aggression against innocent Ukrainian people."Glory to Ukraine," he said to conclude his opening remarks. 5:00 PM / December 21, 2022 Biden kicks off press conference, saying Ukraine "has defied Russia's expectations at every single turn" Mr. Biden opened up the joint press conference with Zelenskyy by noting the two have been in close communication throughout this conflict, and said it's particularly meaningful to "look each other in the eye" in person for the first time since Russia launched its assault on Ukraine. "As we head into the new year, it's important for the American people and for the world to hear directly from you, Mr. President, about Ukraine's fight, and the need to continue to stand together throughout 2023," Mr. Biden told Zelenskyy. Mr. Biden told the Ukrainian people they have stood strong in the face of autocrats, adding that Americans from "every walk of life" have provided "unequivocal" and "unbending" support for the people of Ukraine.More than 50 nations have committed tanks, artillery systems and billions of dollars to make sure Ukraine has the military and humanitarian resources it needs, the president said."From the very beginning, the United States rallied allies and partners from around the world to stand strong with Ukraine" and impose "unprecedented" sanctions on Russia, Mr. Biden said. Mr. Biden said Ukraine's performance on the battlefield has stymied Russia's efforts and shattered expectations, even as Putin has "no intention" to stop the "brutal" war."We should be clear about what Russia is doing — it is purposefully attacking Ukraine's critical infrastructure, destroying the systems that provide heat and light to the Ukrainian people during the coldest, darkest part of the year. Russia is using winter as a weapon," the president said.Still, "Ukraine has won the battle of Kyiv, has won the battle of Kherson, has won the battle of Kharkiv," he noted. "Ukraine has defied Russia's expectations at every single turn."The president said he "looks forward" to signing Congress' omnibus spending bill, which includes $45 billion in additional support for Ukraine. 2:42 PM / December 21, 2022 Zelenskyy thanks Biden for U.S. support in Oval Office meeting Zelenskyy thanks Biden for U.S. support for Ukraine during White House visit 06:47 The two world leaders began their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office with Mr. Biden saying he's honored to be at Zelenskyy's side. Mr. Biden said it's hard to believe it's been 300 days since Russia launched its assault on the Ukrainian people. Mr. Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to use "winter as a weapon." "The Ukrainian people continue to inspire the world. I mean that sincerely. Not just inspire us but inspire the world with their courage and how they have [shown] the resilience and resolve for their future," the president said.The American people, Democrats and Republicans alike, stand proudly with Ukrainians, Mr. Biden said. "We're going to continue to strengthen Ukraine's ability to defend itself, particularly air defense," Mr. Biden said, adding that's why the U.S. is giving Ukraine the Patriot missile defense system. Mr. Biden called Zelenskyy the man of the year in the U.S., referencing the designation bestowed upon Zelenskyy by Time magazine.For his part, Zelenskyy said he wanted to make the trip sooner but the situation was too difficult. He expressed his appreciation for the United States' support under Mr. Biden's leadership. He also expressed his gratitude to Congress for approving funding. "Thanks from ordinary people to your ordinary people, Americans. I really appreciate it," Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy then presented Mr. Biden with a Ukrainian captain's combat award, saying the soldier wanted Mr. Biden to have it. President Joe Biden holds a Ukrainian soldier's medal presented to him by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Dec. 21, 2022. Oliver Contreras/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images "Undeserved, but much appreciated," Mr. Biden said of the soldier's award he was being given. Mr. Biden said he and his late veteran son, Beau Biden, had a tradition of giving each other challenge coins. He said he would give one for Zelenskyy to pass along to the soldier. 2:07 PM / December 21, 2022 Bidens welcome Zelenskyy to the White House Mr. Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcomed the Ukrainian president to the White House on the South Lawn shortly after 2 p.m. ahead of the leaders' 2:30 p.m. meeting. Both the American and the Ukrainian flag adorned the White House as Zelenskyy emerged from an SUV, wearing an olive-green sweatshirt.Zelenskyy shook hands with the Bidens and posed for a photograph before Mr. Biden, one arm around Zelenskyy's shoulder, ushered him inside. 12:55 PM / December 21, 2022 Zelenskyy lands in the U.S. A White House official confirmed Zelenskyy has landed in the U.S. Events scheduled for the afternoon are set to be on time, the official said.Zelenskyy shared photos on Instagram of his arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where he was met by Rufus Gifford, chief of protocol for the U.S., and Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in the U.S. on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Instagram "I am in Washington today to thank the American people, the President and the Congress for their much-needed support. And also to continue cooperation to bring our victory closer," Zelenskyy wrote in a caption accompanying the photos. "I will hold a series of negotiations to strengthen the resilience and defense capabilities of Ukraine. In particular, we will discuss bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and the United States of America with US President Joseph Biden."He continued: "Next year, we must return the Ukrainian flag and freedom to our entire land, to all our people." 12:49 PM / December 21, 2022 Senate confirms new U.S. ambassador to Russia ahead of Zelenskyy address As Zelenskyy arrived in the U.S., the Senate overwhelmingly confirmed Lynne Tracy as U.S. ambassador to Russia in a 93 to 2 vote. GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky opposed the nomination.Tracy replaces John Sullivan as the top American diplomat in Russia. Sullivan, who was appointed to the post by former President Donald Trump, stepped down as ambassador in September. A career member of the Foreign Service, Tracy was most recently U.S. ambassador to Armenia, and served as senior adviser for Russia Affairs at the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.Ahead of the confirmation vote, Schumer highlighted the Senate's timing for approving Tracey as ambassador before Zelenskyy's speech and said it underscores U.S. support for Ukraine."By passing this omnibus and by confirming a new ambassador, we can send President Zelenskyy back to Ukraine with the message that the Senate, the Congress and the American people stand unequivocally behind the people of Ukraine, and we're backing that up with real dollars and real resources," he said, referencing the $1.7 trillion spending package that includes $45 billion in aid to Ukraine. 12:18 PM / December 21, 2022 U.S. announces $1.85 billion aid package, including Patriot missile battery The State Department said the new U.S. aid package would total $1.85 billion, comprising $1 billion in new funding approved by the White House and $850 million from the Defense Department. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed the latest round of military assistance will include the Patriot air defense system, which is effective in bringing down cruise missiles, short range ballistic missiles and aircraft. The technology is something Ukraine has long asked for, especially as Russia has ramped up its aerial assaults.Blinken used his "drawdown" authority delegated by the president to release $1 billion in funding that Congress has already approved. In addition to the Patriot system, the aid package includes hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds and mortars; 37 mine-resistant vehicles; 2,700 grenade launchers and small arms; and "Joint Direct Attack Munitions," which the State Department said would provide "the Ukrainian Air Force with enhanced precision strike capabilities against Russia's invading forces."The U.S. has provided about $22 billion in military assistance to Ukraine alone since the war began, on top of tens of billions of dollars in financial and humanitarian assistance. 11:38 AM / December 21, 2022 Pelosi urges all members to attend Zelenskyy address In a letter to colleagues, Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged all members of the House to attend Zelenskyy's address in the House chamber, saying the speech will be "etched into history as well as part of your legacy.""As the fight for freedom in Ukraine wages on, we look forward to hearing his inspiring message of courage, unity and determination," the speaker said.Pelosi said the evening is "fraught with meaning for me.""My father, Congressman Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., was a Member of the House in 1941 when Winston Churchill came to the Congress on the day after Christmas to enlist our nation's support in the fight against tyranny in Europe," she wrote. "Eighty-one years later this week, it is particularly poignant for me to be present when another heroic leader addresses the Congress in a time of war — and with Democracy itself on the line."The speaker noted that there "will be no guests allowed in the House Gallery – with the exception of official guests of President Zelenskyy." 11:04 AM / December 21, 2022 H.R. McMaster discusses Zelenskyy's U.S. visit CBS News foreign policy and national security contributor H.R. McMaster joined Errol Barnett and Aziza Schuler to discuss what's at stake for Ukraine as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travels to Washington to meet with Mr. Biden and address Congress. Watch his analysis in the video below: H.R. McMaster discusses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's U.S. visit 07:27 10:46 AM / December 21, 2022 Schumer on Zelenskyy's visit: "This is a day to remember" in history of Congress Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hailed the upcoming arrival of Zelenskyy to the U.S., calling him an "ambassador of freedom" and highlighting that the Ukrainian leader will deliver his remarks from the same place British Prime Minister Winston Churchill himself delivered a wartime address to U.S. lawmakers in 1941."This will be a day to remember in the history of the United States Congress when we welcome President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine," said Schumer, wearing Ukraine's colors of blue and yellow. "It's always a high honor to welcome a foreign head of state to Congress, but it's nearly unheard of to hear from a leader who is fighting for his life, fighting for his country's survival, and fighting to preserve the very idea of democracy. It shows the importance President Zelenskyy places on us continuing to give robust help."The visit by Zelenskyy, who will address lawmakers in a joint meeting Wednesday evening, comes as the Senate is moving toward a vote on final passage of the omnibus package, which includes $45 billion for Ukraine. Schumer noted the Ukrainian leader's arrival comes at a "crucial moment" for the Senate, and he urged his colleagues to complete their work swiftly.The New York Democrat also encouraged House Republicans to attend Zelenskyy's speech to hear him "describe the horror his people have endured at the hands of Vladimir Putin." While emergency aid to Ukraine has largely received broad bipartisan support in the Senate, some GOP members of the House have balked at sending more U.S. dollars to the country. That opposition, and with Republicans poised to take control of the House next month, has led to uncertainty as to whether more aid packages for Ukraine would win approval from the next Congress."I hope that Donald Trump's friendship with Putin is not motivating House Republicans to turn a blind eye to Ukraine's suffering and desperate need for help," Schumer said. "Because the so-called friendship between Putin and Trump was a sour relationship that was deeply damaging to our country and to the international order."The majority leader praised the success of Ukrainian fighters in forcing Russia's retreat from key cities and said it shows "American support is working.""To date, our funding has put more weapons in Ukrainian hands and more victories under their belt," Schumer said. 9:41 AM / December 21, 2022 Harris to join Biden for meeting with Zelenskyy Vice President Kamala Harris will join Mr. Biden for the bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy at the White House, her office said. 9:26 AM / December 21, 2022 What Zelenskyy hopes to accomplish in Washington Mr. Biden formally extended an invitation to Zelenskyy last Wednesday, and he accepted last Friday. Pelosi's office was informed of the visit over the weekend, setting in motion elaborate plans for Wednesday's big events. CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O'Keefe reports: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy set to visit White House, address Congress 02:30 9:20 AM / December 21, 2022 Biden "thrilled" to have Zelenskyy in U.S. Mr. Biden responded to the Ukrainian president's tweet, saying he is "thrilled to have you here": I hope you’re having a good flight, Volodymyr. I’m thrilled to have you here. Much to discuss. https://t.co/SsRdsAnSDb— President Biden (@POTUS) December 21, 2022 | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
CNN — Russian President Vladimir Putin formally announced the Kremlin’s intention to annex nearly a fifth of Ukraine in blatant violation of international law. Once the process is officially complete, Moscow will recognize four Ukrainian regions as Russian territory: Luhansk and Donetsk – home to two Russian-backed breakaway republics where fighting has been ongoing since 2014 – as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, two areas in southern Ukraine that have been occupied by Russian forces since shortly after the invasion began. The annexation announcement follows so-called referendums in the regions that were universally dismissed as “a sham” by Ukraine and Western nations. Putin, however, attempted to claim that the referendums reflected the will of “millions” of people, despite reports from the ground suggesting that voting took place essentially – and in some cases, literally – at gunpoint. Putin said that while he was willing to negotiate with Ukraine, the sovereignty of those four regions would not be on the table. “I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me. For everyone to remember. People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are becoming our citizens. Forever,” the Russian president said during the annexation ceremony Friday. The Russian president framed the annexation as an attempt to fix what he sees as a great historical mistake that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin’s speech echoed his major foreign policy aim: restoring Russia as a major global power charged with protecting the Russian speaking world from the continued threat posed by Western forces. Russia will now, despite the widespread international condemnation, forge ahead with its plans to fly its flag over some 100,000 square kilometers (38,600 square miles) of Ukrainian territory – the largest forcible annexation of land in Europe since 1945. This is a developing story. More details to come. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Russian President Vladimir Putin is using billionaire Elon Musk to broadcast terms for ending his war in Ukraine, former top National Security Council analyst Fiona Hill said.Hill told Politico in an interview published Monday that Putin has chosen Musk in a well-worn playbook of using prominent businesspeople to communicate his demands to a wider audience. “Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin,” Hill told Politico. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, earlier this month shared suggestions for ending the war with his followers on Twitter, earning the condemnation of Ukrainian officials. His proposal included redoing “elections” in the four Ukraine regions Putin annexed “under U.N. supervision,” referring to the sham referendums the Kremlin organized in these regions. Musk also suggested formally declaring Crimea, which Putin illegally annexed in 2014, part of Russia.Hill, currently a senior foreign policy fellow on the United States and Europe at the Washington-based Brookings think tank, said Musk made similar suggestions during “The Weekend” festival in Aspen, Colorado, last month.Hill also pointed to Musk’s proposal to guarantee the water supply of Crimea, which Ukrainian officials curtailed after the annexation by blocking water from Ukraine’s Dnipro River to the peninsula, as a sign of his communications with the Russian leader. “It’s unlikely Elon Musk knows about this himself,” Hill said. “The reference to water is so specific that this clearly is a message from Putin.” Ian Bremmer, founder of the prominent political risk consultancy firm Eurasia Group, reported Musk told him Putin was “prepared to negotiate” with Ukraine if some of his terms were met.Musk has denied he spoke to Putin. Bremmer is sticking with his account.Hill said by using Musk as a messenger, Putin “is basically short-circuiting the diplomatic process” to advance his goals.“He wants to lay out his terms and see how many people are going to pick them up,” Hill said. “All of this is an effort to get Americans to take themselves out of the war and hand over Ukraine and Ukrainian territory to Russia.” Hill said Putin’s selection of Musk as a messenger is “fascinating” in part because the world’s richest person has been supporting Ukraine through SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, which has been used by the Ukrainian military.Musk had threatened to pull the plug on Starlink unless the Pentagon helped with costs, according to CNN. Musk has since backtracked on the demand, tweeting that SpaceX would continue funding Starlink.The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2022 Hill noted that Putin wants to reshape the international order and that his invasion of Ukraine is having a destabilizing effect by putting global energy and food security at risk. The Ukraine conflict already means “our world is not going to be the same as it was before,” she said.“It’s ironic that Elon Musk, the man who has been talking about getting us to Mars, should be Putin’s messenger for the war in Ukraine, when we’re having a really hard time getting our act together on this planet,” Hill said.Hill testified against then-President Donald Trump during his first impeachment, after working at the National Security Council as a senior European and Russian affairs expert. She also served in the administrations of Barack Obama and George W. Bush. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is as Republican as they come, but even he couldn’t allow Newsmax host Eric Bolling to pin the Afghanistan withdrawal entirely on President Joe Biden.As a result, Bolton got Bolling all riled up during a segment Thursday night when Bolling asked Bolton about his 2020 quote to ABC News. Bolton said to the outlet at the time that the U.S. is “in a weaker position around the world” as a result of Trump’s foreign policy, before adding, “I think we have given up leadership in a wide variety of areas.”Bolling then asked Bolton how he thought the world was safer now than when “we were under President Trump when he was willing to put a missile into Syrian airbases with Russians on the base? What’s going on here, sir?”If Bolling expected Bolton to run with the Biden-bashing bone, he was sorely mistaken. “[Trump] didn’t understand fundamentally much of anything about international affairs. His decisions were not based on a coherent philosophy or a coherent policy,” Bolton explained.“But we were safer,” Bolling added.The two continued talking over each other with Bolton attempting to remind Bolling that Trump made the deal with the Taliban that led to the Afghanistan withdrawal.“Did that make us safer, Eric?” Bolton asked.Bolling insisted Trump kept the Taliban on their back heels, which prompted Bolton to shake his head in protest. Bolling then tried to blame the Afghanistan withdrawal solely on Biden.“That was Trump’s deal,” Bolton told Bolling, before adding, “Same thing they would’ve done under Donald Trump. Who cut the deal, Eric?”Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 as part of an agreement the Trump administration made in February 2020 with the Taliban.“I really believe the Taliban wants to do something to show that we’re not all wasting time,” Trump said shortly after he signed the agreement, The New York Times reported. “If bad things happen, we’ll go back.”Biden drew criticism for the withdrawal last year from both Republicans and Democrats, according to the New York Times. “I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” Biden said in a speech at the time. More conversation followed before Bolton suggested Bolling “read the deal.”He added: “I know you gotta go before you’re embarrassed even further,” Watch the complete exchange below.When John Bolton says on Newsmax that we are safer under Biden then we would have been under Trump, the host loses his mind and they have an epic battle. I know people hate Bolton, but this is fantastic - he debunks every fake narrative they created about his foreign policy. pic.twitter.com/GdSr6pcfdv— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) August 12, 2022 As you might expect, many Twitter users had thoughts about the fiery exchange.I disagree with almost everything John Bolton has ever said or done, but it’s something to watch him eviscerate Newsmax (and disgraced ex-Fox News host) Eric Bolling’s fact-free talking points and even laugh at him. Perhaps Bolling’s Trumpesque makeup has seeped into his brain. https://t.co/ZIYJpYQgYr— Stephen Schwartz (@AtomicAnalyst) August 12, 2022 THE HISSY FITThen That Thing on Bolton's lip gave it an nasty stareThen That Thing on Trump's head responded with an evil hissThen That Thing on Bolton's lip moved menacinglyThen That Thing on Trump's head crouched in anticipationThen That Thing on Bolton's lip started https://t.co/VxYAIPBqgv pic.twitter.com/1Usfi8uWct— Tomi T Ahonen Desperately Hiding Nuclear Documents (@tomiahonen) August 12, 2022 | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Vladimir Putin’s threat to suspend Russian participation in New Start, the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the US, represents a blatant attempt to divide American opinion over the war on Ukraine by raising the specter of nuclear armageddon, experts and policymakers warned on Tuesday.
Putin announced his intention to halt participation in the agreement towards the end of a belligerent 100-minute speech in which he charged the US and western powers with trying to inflict “strategic defeat” on Russia. His fiery rhetoric prompted instant reaction across the political spectrum in Washington.
Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who was a Russian specialist at the White House National Security Council from 2017 to 2019, told the Guardian that Putin was “playing to the rifts in the United States”. The strategy was to increase political discord in an attempt to embolden calls for an end to US support for Ukraine.
“It’s playing to all those people who want Ukraine to surrender and capitulate to avoid a massive nuclear exchange and world war three, a kind of nuclear armageddon,” she said.
Thomas Graham, Russia director within George W Bush’s National Security Council, agreed that part of Putin’s calculation was to provoke “certain circles in the US to wonder whether the risks of supporting Ukraine are worth it”.
Graham, a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that given how politicized Washington has become, “there will be elements in the Republican party who will play this up as a way of casting aspersions on Biden’s foreign policy”.
Graham’s prediction appeared to have been fulfilled hours after Putin made his threat. Prominent rightwing Republicans heavily criticized Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Kyiv, accusing him of devoting more care to Ukraine than to his own people.
Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida who is eyeing a 2024 presidential run, told Fox News that “an open-ended blank cheque [for Ukraine] is unacceptable”. He compared Biden’s staunch support for Ukraine unfavorably with his approach to immigration at the Mexican border.
“I and many Americans are thinking to ourselves, OK, he’s very concerned about those borders halfway around the world, [but] he’s not done anything to secure our own border here at home.”
New Start was negotiated under the Obama presidency in 2010 and renewed for five years in February 2021. It was designed to ensure strategic stability between the US and Russia, which hold 90% of the world’s total number of nuclear warheads.
The practical implications of Putin’s threatened suspension are likely to be debated in Washington over the coming weeks. It is unlikely in the short term to change much on the ground, Graham pointed out, given that the treaty had already begun to unravel before the Russian president’s speech.
Last month the state department accused Russia of breaking its monitoring obligations by refusing to allow US inspectors into its nuclear weapons facilities.
Graham warned though that it will now be all but impossible to replace New Start once the treaty expires in February 2026. “We are looking at the final demise of the arms control architecture that was built up starting in the 1960s based largely on bilateral relations between the US and the Soviet Union and then Russia. We will have a much more difficult and complex environment to deal with.”
Russia experts expressed relief that the Kremlin had stopped short of withdrawing from the treaty altogether. “This does not signify that Putin is planning to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine anytime soon,” said Suzanne Loftus, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
But Loftus added that the longer-term prospects of nuclear stability were “ominous”. She said: “We’re losing the progress we’ve made on non-proliferation, even during the cold war.”
Putin’s audacious move puts the ball back in Washington’s court. Advocacy groups pressing for nuclear threat reduction urged the Biden administration to show restraint even in the face of the latest provocation.
“The goal here, as we see it, is to get Russia back into New Start, because the treaty serves the national interests of both countries,” said Emma Belcher, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a Washington and San Francisco-based funding organization devoted to reducing nuclear risk.
Belcher praised the way that Biden had so far refused to rise to Putin’s bait. In his speech to mark the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine in Warsaw on Tuesday, the US president pointedly declined to refer to his Russian counterpart’s threat to suspend participation.
Such restraint should continue to be the Biden administration’s response, Belcher said. “What the US should avoid is to use Putin’s statement to justify increasing its own nuclear arsenal – that would merely move the clock back.”
Christopher Chivvis, a senior fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, gave a more sombre assessment of the impact on US policy. Putin’s move would make it more difficult for the US to monitor Russia’s nuclear forces and how they were deployed, he said, and a growing lack of clarity about Russia’s nuclear actions would in turn darken the mood in Washington.
Chivvis said: “It will very likely drive Washington toward a more conservative, more hawkish, approach to the US’s own nuclear arsenal – just to err on the safe side.”
The result, Chivvis suggested, could be exactly the arms-race dynamics the New Start treaty was intended to prevent. The US and Russia will, he said, would likely now increase spending on their nuclear arms, which is not what anyone – Russia included – would logically want.
Such a gloomy prognosis makes Hill’s warning that Putin was attempting to provoke rifts within American opinion all the more disconcerting. “Unity is extraordinarily important at this moment on the domestic front, because it determines our own ability to respond,” Hill said.
“Putin is looking for any cracks. We need to be united as Americans, and resist the temptation to play silly politics over this.” | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Afghan special forces soldiers who fought alongside American troops and then fled to Iran after the chaotic US withdrawal last year are now being recruited by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, three former Afghan generals have told the Associated Press.They said the Russians want to attract thousands of the former elite Afghan commandos into a “foreign legion” with offers of steady, $1,500-a-month payments and promises of safe havens for themselves and their families so they can avoid deportation home to what many assume would be death at the hands of the Taliban.“They don’t want to go fight – but they have no choice,” said one of the generals, Abdul Raof Arghandiwal, adding that the dozen or so commandos in Iran with whom he has texted fear deportation most. “They ask me, ‘Give me a solution? What should we do? If we go back to Afghanistan, the Taliban will kill us.’”Arghandiwal said the recruiting was led by the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group. Another general, Hibatullah Alizai, the last Afghan army chief before the Taliban took over, said the effort was also being helped by a former Afghan special forces commander who lived in Russia and speaks the language.The Russian recruitment follows months of warnings from US soldiers who fought with Afghan special forces that the Taliban was intent on killing them and that they might join with US enemies to stay alive or out of anger with their former ally.“We didn’t get these individuals out as we promised, and now it’s coming home to roost,” said Michael Mulroy, a retired CIA officer who served in Afghanistan, adding that the Afghan commandos were highly skilled, fierce fighters. “I don’t want to see them in any battlefield, frankly, but certainly not fighting the Ukrainians.”Details of the effort were first reported by Foreign Policy magazine last week based on unnamed Afghan military and security sources. The recruitment comes as Russian forces reel from Ukrainian military advances and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, pursues a sputtering mobilization effort, which has prompted nearly 200,000 Russian men to flee the country to escape service.Russia’s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Yevgeny Prigozhin, who recently acknowledged being the founder of the Wagner Group, dismissed the idea of an ongoing effort to recruit former Afghan soldiers as “crazy nonsense”.The US defense department also did not reply to a request for comment, but a senior official suggested the recruiting was not surprising given that Wagner has been trying to sign up soldiers in several other countries.It is unclear how many Afghan special forces members who fled to Iran have been courted by the Russians, but one told the AP he was communicating through the WhatsApp chat service with about 400 other commandos who are considering offers.The commando said his offer included Russian visas for himself as well as his three children and wife who are still in Afghanistan. Others have been offered extensions of their visas in Iran. He said he was waiting to see what others in the WhatsApp groups decide but thought many would take the deal.US veterans who fought with Afghan special forces have described to the AP nearly a dozen cases, none confirmed independently, of the Taliban going house to house looking for commandos still in the country, torturing or killing them, or doing the same to family members.Human Rights Watch has said more than 100 former Afghan soldiers, intelligence officers and police were killed or forcibly “disappeared” just three months after the Taliban took over despite promises of amnesty. The brother of an Afghan commando in Iran who has accepted the Russian offer said Taliban threats make it difficult to refuse. He said his brother had to hide for three months after the fall of Kabul, shuttling between relatives’ houses while the Taliban searched his home.“My brother had no other choice other than accepting the offer,” said the commando’s brother, Murad, who would only give his first name because of fear the Taliban might track him down. “This was not an easy decision for him.”One former soldier sent a text to Arghandiwal, reading: “You get military training in Russia for two months, and then you go to the battle lines.” | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks with the media as he arrives prior to the EU-Israel Association Council at the EU Council building in Brussels on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo) BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top diplomat criticized Monday the bloc’s slow pace of action in setting up a military training mission for the Ukrainian armed forces, as foreign ministers prepare to discuss the plan next week. “We had been discussing about the Ukrainian training mission before the war. Before the war. For months, for months before the war,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told a conference of the 27-nation bloc’s ambassadors. “Then the war comes and people said, ‘Oh, we should have done it. Yeah, we should have done it. And now we are doing it quickly.’ Well, quickly. For the standards of European standards,” Borrell said to laughter from the envoys. “Quickly for the European standard means a couple of months.” EU foreign ministers are scheduled to discuss the training mission at talks in Brussels on Oct. 17, almost eight months after Russia launched the war. Several EU and NATO member nations are already helping to train the Ukraine armed forces on a bilateral basis. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Tags | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
SummaryProtester, 23, is second to be executed within a weekActivists say executions are aimed at discouraging dissentCall for added nationwide protests over Rahnavard's hangingEuropean Union to impose more sanctions on Iran, backs protestsTehran accuses the West of meddling, targets it with sanctionsDUBAI, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The Islamic Republic on Monday hanged a man in public who state media said had been convicted of killing two members of the security forces, the second execution in less than a week of people involved in protests against Iran's ruling theocracy.Nationwide unrest erupted three months ago after the death while in detention of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic's mandatory dress code laws.The demonstrations have turned into a popular revolt by furious Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of the worst legitimacy challenges to the Shi'ite clerical elite since the 1979 Islamic Revolution."Majid Reza Rahnavard was hanged in public in (the holy Shi'ite city of) Mashhad this morning ... He was sentenced to death for 'waging war against God' after stabbing to death two members of the security forces," the judiciary's Mizan news agency reported.Mizan published pictures of the execution at dawn, showing Rahnavard hanging from a construction crane, with his hands and feet bound and his head covered with a black bag.The semi-official Fars news agency said Rahnavard killed two members of the Basij volunteer force and wounded four others. The Basij force, affiliated with the elite Revolutionary Guards, has been at the forefront of the state crackdown on protests.Calling for added protests across the country, activists on social media criticised the execution of the 23-year-old Rahnavard as "a criminal act" by the clerical rulers to deter dissent."They called Rahnavard's family at 7 a.m. (local time) and told them to go to the Behesht-e Reza cemetery. 'We executed your child and buried him,' they said," widely followed activist account 1500Tasvir posted on Twitter.The contents of the post could not be verified by Reuters.On Thursday, Iran hanged Mohsen Shekari, who had been convicted of injuring a security guard with a knife and blocking a street in Tehran, the first such execution after thousands of arrests over the unrest, drawing a chorus of Western condemnation and sanctions.Rights groups have said Shekari was tortured and forced to confess. Molavi Abdolhamid, an outspoken Sunni Muslim cleric in the Shi'ite-ruled Islamic Republic, has said the death sentence of Shekari violated sharia (Islamic law), his website said.State media published a video of a man, which it identified as Rahnavard, stabbing another man who fell against a parked motorcycle, and then stabbing another person immediately afterward and then running away.State television showed a video in which Rahnavard said in the court that he came to hate the Basij forces after seeing them beating and killing protesters in videos posted on social media. Activists said he was forced to confess under torture.MORE SANCTIONSAmnesty International has said Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in what it called "sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran".The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday the EU will agree on a "very tough" package of sanctions against Iran to show its support for peaceful protesters.Blaming the unrest on foreign foes such as the United States and Israel, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Monday rejected Western criticism of rights abuses during the crackdown as meddling in Iran's state matters.Tehran on Monday imposed sanctions on dozens of EU and British officials and entities "over their support and instigation" of the unrest, state television reported.The unrest has been watched closely by Israel, where a national security official said the executions did not appear to be deterring protesters and could further "box in the regime"."Because it can only respond with force, that has reinforced for the public the grievance being protested over," the Israeli official told Reuters. "There is no returning this genie to the bottle."Rights group HRANA said that as of Sunday 488 protesters had been killed, including 68 minors. It said 62 members of the security forces had also been killed. As many as 18,259 protesters are believed to have been arrested, it said.While the United Nations says the protests have cost more than 300 lives, a top Iranian state security body has said that 200 people, including members of the security forces, had died in the unrest.Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; writing by Parisa Hafezi; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Hugh Lawson and Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Republicans are moving to undermine the Democrats’ midterm election prospects by shifting voters’ attention from a summer of legislative achievement and foreign policy success to the one-year anniversary of the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Democrats saw their dire 2022 odds improve amid President Joe Biden’s announcement that U.S. forces killed a top al Qaeda leader in Kabul and the passage of key legislation. Democratic majorities in Congress cleared bills to increase domestic microchip manufacturing, improve veterans’ healthcare, and invest in social and climate programs. Republicans countered in August with reminders of Biden’s mishandling of the military pullout from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. TOP CONSERVATIVE GROUP SPENDS BIG IN UTAH TO PROTECT MIKE LEE FROM EVAN MCMULLIN CHALLENGE This GOP effort to put the Democrats back on their heels is expected to intensify this week. Friday marks 12 months to the day since a deadly terrorist attack at the Kabul airport took the lives of 13 U.S. service members and nearly 200 civilians as Americans and U.S. allies attempted a hasty exit from Afghanistan while the Taliban tightened their grip on the country. “No one has been held accountable for Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. That will change with a Republican majority,” said Mike Berg, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Democrats still refuse to hold Joe Biden and his administration accountable for the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that cost 13 American service members their lives and ceded control of Afghanistan to the Taliban,” added Chris Hartline, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Americans are still trapped there, and Senate Democrats don’t care.” The Democratic National Committee did not provide a comment by press time. The Democrats still face significant midterm election headwinds with the post-Labor Day homestretch of the fall campaign just around the corner. Biden’s job approval rating is still languishing just above 40%, and the generic congressional ballot, gauging which party voters prefer to be in charge on Capitol Hill, is virtually tied at 44%, which, historically, means good things for the Republicans. However, nonpartisan political handicappers have recently downgraded predictions for Republican gains in Congress, coinciding with polls showing Democratic enthusiasm to vote this November has risen and now trails the GOP only narrowly. There are fresh doubts about whether Republicans will succeed in winning control of a 50-50 Senate. Meanwhile, the GOP is still likely to reclaim the House, although the size of its new majority might be smaller than the historic levels previously predicted. Skyrocketing inflation and the deepening of an economic slump continue to register as voters’ top concerns, and that’s where Republicans are focusing most of their energy in their campaigns against the Democrats. Indeed, the NRCC, NRSC, and super PACs aligned with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are not engaged in any concerted messaging effort regarding the one-year anniversary of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. But GOP officials, broadly, view the commemoration as crucial to reminding voters why electing Republican majorities in Congress is so important. Without GOP control of the House and Senate floors and committees, it’s impossible to put the brakes on Biden's agenda and conduct serious oversight of his administration. To that end, House Republicans marked the anniversary of the pullout by criticizing the president's Afghanistan policy and produced a 100-page report critical of his handling of the withdrawal. On the political side, the Republican National Committee is in the process of a monthlong messaging campaign to spotlight Biden's management of the U.S. exit from Kabul. RNC officials confirmed this effort, which includes research papers, videos, op-eds, and rapid-response press releases, would continue in the months ahead. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER "One year after Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, Americans are still left with more questions than answers,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “Americans will always remember the 13 service members who died, the countless who were left behind, and that Biden is responsible for one of the most catastrophic foreign policy decisions in U.S. history,” she added. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
China has brokered an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Two nations will reopen their respective embassies within two months and pursue trust-building measures. The detente is unlikely to last long, however. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are simply too distrustful of one another to build a durable partnership.
Still, China has scored an unambiguous diplomatic victory. Facing escalating diplomatic pressure over his balloon adventures and quiet support for Russia's war in Ukraine, Xi Jinping needed a public relations win. This agreement delivers that. It will play particularly well in Europe, which values diplomatic accords that have more value in pretense than in practice.
For Saudi Arabia, however, this deal has as much to do with Washington as it does with Tehran.
Mohammed bin Salman is seeking major U.S. concessions in return for establishing formal diplomatic relations with Israel. By reaching this agreement via Beijing, with which Riyadh already has warm relations, the de facto Saudi ruler knows he will trigger alarm bells in Washington. Today's U.S. foreign policy priority, after all, is the alignment of partners against China. This accord allows bin Salman to not so subtly hint that the U.S. might want to be nicer to him or see Beijing become Riyadh's new primary patron. China notwithstanding, considering bin Salman's social and economic reform program, Saudi trade and energy engagement with the U.S., and the counterterrorism efficacy of the Saudi GIP intelligence service, the U.S. should boost relations with Riyadh. Albeit disgraceful, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi should no longer define U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia.
Regardless, Iran and Saudi Arabia aren't becoming true friends anytime soon. The fundamental strain on this relationship remains the oldest and deepest one. Namely, that the two regimes are defined by fundamentally divergent ideologies and ambitions.
For Iran, Saudi Arabia represents a historic nemesis characterized by arrogance and immorality. For the Iranian hardliners who generally drive Iran's foreign policy, the 7th century Battle of Karbala remains an enduring source of, and ideological requirement for, hate toward the Saudis. That battle saw the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali and his Shia followers at the hands of the Sunni Umayyad Caliphate. In the modern day, Iran's ambition for regional hegemony drives it to undermine Saudi interests and broader Sunni political Islamic movements. And evinced by incidents such as Iran's 2011 plot to blow up the then-Saudi ambassador at Washington, D.C.'s Cafe Milano restaurant, Khamenei will roll the dice to hurt the Saudis. Does this agreement mean Khamenei has now changed course?
Forget about it. The continued hawkishness of Iranian foreign policy is best evinced by Tehran's effort, exclusively reported on by the Washington Examiner, to assassinate former and senior U.S. government and military officials. What Iran is doing here is playing nice for its Chinese patron and buying breathing room amid escalating pressure from the West.
Other contentions in the Saudi-Iranian relationship underline the paper nature of this diplomacy. The two governments are active adversaries in the Yemeni civil war and the Lebanese political crisis. Tensions over Syria and Iraq also abound. And the Iranian nuclear program is seen by the Saudis in much the same way as it is seen by Israel: an existential threat of intolerable nature. If Iran continues enriching uranium to near weapons-grade purity levels, this diplomatic engagement may wither even before the embassies are up and running.
Top line: the Saudis and the Iranians are putting lipstick on their enduring political pig. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (C) meet soldiers during a visit at a military training centre of the Western Military District for mobilized reservists, outside the town of Ryazan on October 20, 2022.Mikhail Klimentyev | Afp | Getty ImagesWhile the U.S. midterm election results roll in, and point to a far tighter-than-expected race between Republicans and Democrats as they vie for control of Congress, the vote is being closely watched in Ukraine and Russia with both gauging how the election could impact the war and geopolitics.Although it has not commented publicly, Moscow is seen to favor a win for the Republicans in the midterms in the hope that a big power shift could bring about a change in the U.S.' foreign policy toward Ukraine — and could deepen rumblings of discontent among Republicans over the massive financial support the U.S. is giving Kyiv to fight Russia.Nine months into the ongoing conflict and the Biden administration has now committed more than $18.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, according to the Department of Defense's latest figures.There are some signs that bipartisan support for such immense and ongoing aid could be waning, however, with prominent Republicans starting to question how long the U.S.' largesse can continue, particularly against a backdrop of inflation, potential recession and rising living costs.For one, prominent Republican Kevin McCarthy said in an interview in October there would be no "blank check" for Ukraine if the Republicans win a majority in the House of Representatives in the midterms.Shift in power ... and Ukraine support?Russia could well hope that a shift in power after the the midterm elections could herald a cooler attitude toward Ukraine. But analysts say Moscow could be disappointed unless former leader Donald Trump is able to return to power, having signaled he could announce next week a plan to run for the presidency again in 2024."There's no significant downside pressure on U.S. military support for Ukraine through the end of 2023," Ian Bremmer, founder and head of the Eurasia Group consultancy, said in emailed comments this week."Further, most Republicans remain staunchly committed to Ukraine support, despite House minority leader Kevin McCarthy's announcement of 'no blank check' for the Ukrainians under a Republican-led House. The GOP congressional position, at least near-term, will be 'the U.S. gives military aid, the Europeans give financial aid,' which changes little on the ground," he added.Russia's President Vladimir Putin listens while then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, in 2019.Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty ImagesThe bigger question comes from Trump announcing his presidential run, Bremmer said, adding that he expected such an announcement imminently.That, he added, was likely to be accompanied by blaming Biden for the war with a populist opposition to billions of taxpayer dollars being spent on Ukraine, a position that "will gain momentum with MAGA supporters in Congress and undermine longer-term U.S. alignment with NATO allies," he noted.The U.S. has sought to calm any nerves in Kyiv about a shift in Washington's attitude toward the country with Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, making clear "that the United States' commitment to Ukraine is unwavering" when she met Ukraine's president on Tuesday.Moscow's bad reputationMoscow has earned itself a dubious reputation when it comes to U.S. democratic processes, found to have interfered in the 2016 election and suspected of continuing to sow political discord and in the country.Russia has done little to dispel doubts over its involvement in a string of nefarious activities in recent years, from alleged cyberattacks to disinformation campaigns aimed at swaying U.S. voters and elections.Putin's close confidante Yevgeny Prigozhin, an increasingly powerful oligarch who leads a state-backed private military group fighting in Ukraine, known as the Wagner Group — as well as several companies implicated in 2016 U.S. election interference — openly alluded to interfering in the U.S. midterms this week."We have interfered [in U.S. elections], we are interfering and we will continue to interfere. Carefully, accurately, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do," Prigozhin said in comments posted by the press service of his Concord catering firm on Russia's Facebook equivalent VKontakte.Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and close ally of Vladimir Putin. He recently admitted to creating the Wagner Group, a private military company fighting in Ukraine, in 2014.Mikhail Svetlov | Getty ImagesU.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said that the Biden administration was not surprised by Prigozhin's admission, telling a briefing "his bold confession, if anything, appears to be just a manifestation of the impunity that crooks and cronies enjoy under President Putin and the Kremlin."Prigozhin did not say whether the election interference was aimed at propelling Republican candidates to power, but Russia was found to have interfered in the 2016 U.S. election in order to undermine Hillary Clinton's campaign while boosting that of Trump, under whose presidency relations between the U.S. and Russia thawed.For its part, the Kremlin said Wednesday that the midterm elections would not improve the "bad" relations between Moscow and Washington and dismissed allegations that Russia was meddling in the vote."These elections cannot change anything essential. Relations still are, and will remain, bad," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Reuters.Bipartisan support firm, for nowAnalysts tend to agree that what we could see potentially is a paring back of financial support but by no means a complete withdrawal of aid — for now at least."We consider it as quite unlikely but not fully impossible that the new U.S. Congress may scale back U.S. military and financial support for Ukraine over time," Chief Economist at Berenberg Bank Holger Schmieding said in a note Wednesday."If so, that could impact the situation on the battlefield, prolong the war, impair Ukraine's ability to cope with the costs of war and trigger a further wave of refugees into the EU."For now, however, time — and the U.S. political establishment — appear to be on Ukraine's side."So far, a solid bi-partisan consensus has underpinned U.S. support for Ukraine," Schmieding noted, adding thatdespite some recent grumblings on the fringes of both U.S. political parties, Berenberg Bank expects this consensus to hold, "at least for as long as no Trump-style 'America First' populist occupies the White House.""The potential signal that a U.S. shift might send to China about the U.S. commitment to defend a beleaguered democracy (Ukraine - or Taiwan?) against aggression should be a strong argument to stay the course. Still, we need to watch the tail risk," he said.Timothy Ash, senior emerging markets sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, said it was in the U.S.' interest to continue supporting Ukraine, given it erodes the Putin regime."The war in Ukraine must provide the U.S. with the best chance for regime change in Russia, of taking Putin out. He is being weakened militarily, economically, diplomatically. And yes, the U.S. would absolutely love to see Putin removed from power - the calculation will be the next Russian leader cannot be as bad as Putin."Europe watches onAnalysts have noted that the military situation on the ground in Ukraine could well determine how much, and for how long, U.S. support for Ukraine continues, with Kyiv striving to show its allies that it can, and will, win the war, as long as Western military aid continues to flow to it."Judging by conversations with military experts, time is currently on the side of Ukraine's armed forces," Schmieding noted.Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his press conference at the Rus Sanatorium, October,31,2022, in Sochi, Russia.Contributor | Getty Images"A steady supply of advanced Western weapons and Ukraine's will to resist will probably shape the situation on the ground more than Russia's forced mobilization of ever more — often unmotivated — manpower. However, that only holds for as long as the Western world stands squarely behind Ukraine."He noted that in the unlikely case that the U.S. were to reduce its support for Ukraine, the impact on Europe could be significant with the region forced to do more for Kyiv, while finding it almost impossible "to fully offset a reduced flow of U.S. weapons (and cash) to Ukraine."This could encourage President Vladimir Putin to hold out for longer, waiting for Western support for Ukraine to crumble further, he noted. "In turn, anything that prolongs the war and its impact on energy and food prices could hold back Europe's recovery from the looming winter recession," he warned."Russia poses the only significant military threat to Europe for the foreseeable future. By degrading Russia's military machine, Ukraine is currently making Europe safer by the month. But if the war ends in a way that Putin can count at least as a partial success, Europe would have to spend much more than otherwise to guard itself against Russian aggression in the future." | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Former Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard, who recently made headlines for leaving the party and endorsing a slew of Republican candidates, has drawn scrutiny for the party over dovish foreign policy in connection with Russia.
Politico highlighted Gabbard's past statements defending the Russian rationale for invading Ukraine and her skepticism about providing Kyiv with continued funding. The outlet observed that Republicans previously derided the former Hawaii lawmaker as a "socialist seeking to appease dictators like Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin."
In June of this year, she sharply criticized the Biden administration's response to the invasion, saying "every time this Admin has been asked what the goal of our war with Russia is, using Ukrainians as our proxy, they’ve dodged the question by declaring the president of Ukraine will make that decision & the U.S. will follow."
"The most important foreign policy position our country has faced in the last 60 years is not being made by US Congress or an American president, but by the leader of a foreign country. ... If handing over American sovereignty to a foreign country isn’t treason, what is?" she added.
Gabbard left the party in early October, saying it was now run by an "elitist cabal" and had moved too far to the left. She subsequently threw her support behind Republican candidates, including Washington House candidate Joe Kent and Arizona gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake.
Republicans, meanwhile, have enthusiastically embraced her, despite the party struggling to keep consistent messaging on its Ukraine position.
"Many campaigns are embracing her because she’s a former Democrat who has woken up to the left’s extreme policies," one anonymous GOP lawmaker told Politico. "Yes, her views have tended to be isolationist, but we have always had civil and respectful engagements on a personal level."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has indicated that a GOP-led Congress would not write a "blank check" to Ukraine, but rather take a more cautious approach to aiding Kyiv against Moscow. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
The Biden administration Thursday granted Hong Kong residents in U.S. a two-year reprieve from deportation, citing human rights concerns in communist-run China, which has control over the region.
The Deferred Enforced Departure program for Hong Kong residents who would have normally been deported for overstaying their visas was set to expire in less than two weeks.
In his extension of the program, President Joe Biden said it is in the "foreign policy interest of the United States" to defer most removals of Hong Kong residents to Jan. 26, 2025.
Some people will still be eligible for removal, such as those who are subject to extradition or are determined to present a danger to public safety.
China "has undermined the enjoyment of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong," since imposing a national security law on the special administrative region in June 2020, the White House said.
The Chinese Communist Party has cracked down on dissent in Hong Kong, largely on residents wanting more Democratic freedoms, by limiting freedom of the press and academia and arresting prominent critics. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
JERUSALEM — One day after warning that military force would be an option to stop Iran's nuclear advances, President Joe Biden said time was running out. “We’re not going to wait forever,” Biden said during a press conference in Jerusalem on Thursday. Standing with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Biden said he still believed in diplomacy to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. But months of negotiations have yielded little, and pressure is mounting on the president to find other ways to curtail the country's rapidly advancing nuclear program. EMBATTLED BIDEN LOOKS FOR FOREIGN POLICY 'PLAN B' IN TRIP TO ISRAEL Still, Biden declined to give a timeline for when the clock would run out on Tehran for a return to the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran’s timeline to acquiring a weapon has shrunk to a week or less by some estimates. Speaking moments earlier, Lapid stressed the need to threaten force against Iran and other countries threatening peace and stability, something Biden has conceded as an option. “The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing if they continue to develop their nuclear program, the free world will use force,” Lapid said. “The only way to stop them is to put a credible military threat on the table.” Mentioning 9/11, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and impugning those “who do not play by the rules,” Lapid said the threat posed by Iran to Israel’s way of life could not be tolerated. In order to protect freedom, Lapid said, “sometimes, force must be used.” And Biden promised an “iron-clad” commitment that Israel will have the tools to protect itself, recalling the long history between the two nations dating back to Israel’s founding. “That’s what this visit is about, affirming those ties,” Biden said. “We’re here to stay, Mr. Prime Minister. Like it or not.” The president has repeated his promise to do all he can to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, including Thursday after meeting one-on-one with Israel's interim leader. “There will be no nuclear Iran,” Biden said. “This is not only a threat to Israel, but to the world, and we discussed some other issues we are going to keep to ourselves." He had said one day earlier that he would be willing to use force if necessary “as a last resort.” “The only thing more dangerous than the Iran that exists now is an Iran with nuclear weapons,” Biden told Israel’s Channel 12. But the president said he still hoped for a mutual return to the 2015 nuclear accord, a deal brokered by the Obama administration during his time as vice president. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER The deal forced checks on to Iran’s nuclear fuel program and imposed a cap on its enrichment levels. A return to the pact would allow the U.S. to “hold them tight,” Biden said of Iran. Biden arrived in Jerusalem Wednesday for the start of a four-day swing across the Middle East with stops in Israel, the West Bank, and Saudi Arabia. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday lobbed insults at Russian President Vladimir Putin and slammed his invasion of Ukraine as “incompetent” and “foolish.”
At a speech in Seoul, Mattis compared Putin to the kind of paranoid characters created by Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky.
“Putin is a creature straight out of Dostoevsky. He goes to bed at night angry, he goes to bed at night fearful, he goes to bed at night thinking Russia is surrounded by nightmares,” Mattis said.
Mattis was speaking at a forum organized by the Seoul Forum for International Affairs, the Korea Society, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has made relatively few public comments since resigning as Pentagon chief in 2018 over a foreign policy disagreement with former U.S. President Donald Trump. In his speech, Mattis did not address those disagreements in a direct way, saying only Trump had overseen a nontraditional foreign policy that had challenged U.S. relations with its allies.
Mattis’ most pointed comments focused on Putin, whom he portrayed as unhinged and unable to make smart decisions due to the lack of people giving him sound advice.
Asked about the biggest lesson that could be drawn from Russia’s war in Ukraine, Mattis replied, “Don’t have incompetent generals in charge of your operations.”
He also said the Russian invasion was “tactically incompetent" and “strategically foolish.” Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting on the sidelines of the Caspian Sea littoral states summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 29, 2022. “War is enough of a tragedy without adding stupidity on top,” he said.
Mattis also criticized China’s growing relations with Russia and its unwillingness to oppose the war in Ukraine.
A country “cannot be great if they support Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine,” he said.
Addressing his tenure under Trump, Mattis spoke of “raucous times” and called Trump an “unusual leader” but did not directly criticize the former president.
“Democracies will at times go popularist and will at times break with tradition,” he said. “It’s the nature of democracies at times to be testing ideas and all.”
Americans, Mattis said, should respond by “keep[ing] faith in the institutions” and “in those that disagree with you.”
Mattis’ speech was in South Korea, a U.S. ally that dramatically felt the effects of Trump’s nontraditional foreign policy.
Asked how he felt about Trump’s summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Mattis said he was never optimistic about the talks, but that the diplomatic effort was the “right thing to do.”
“As far as what came out of it, nothing. I saw nothing that came out of it,” he said.
Mattis also praised South Korea’s new president, former chief prosecutor Yoon Suk Yeol, for wanting South Korea to play a bigger role in the world.
Yoon, a conservative who has explicitly embraced the United States, has said he wants South Korea to become a “global pivotal state.” This week, Yoon attended the NATO summit in Madrid, the first time a South Korean leader had attended such a meeting.
Mattis praised Yoon’s presence at the NATO summit, saying “a globally pivotal state in South Korea is in all our best interests.”
He warned, however, against voices in Seoul who have recently called for South Korea to acquire its own nuclear weapons.
“You don’t need nuclear weapons on the peninsula to ensure an extended deterrence so long as there is trust between the ROK and the United States,” he said, referring to an abbreviation of South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
Opinion polls consistently show that most South Koreans support their country acquiring their own nuclear weapons, especially as North Korea continues developing its own arsenal.
As a candidate, Yoon said he would ask the United States to agree to a nuclear weapons sharing arrangement, or to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons that Washington withdrew from South Korea in the early 1990s -- notions quickly rejected by the U.S. State Department.
To avoid such an outcome, the United States and South Korea should continue to build trust, including by demonstrating “extended deterrence” against North Korea’s nuclear weapons, Mattis said.
“I think anything you can do to avoid having these weapons yourselves, you should do. They are horrible weapons,” he said. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT.
12:05 p.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will discuss Ukrainian grain exports at their meeting on Tuesday in Tehran, an adviser to Putin has said, according to RFE/RL. Putin is scheduled to travel to Tehran to meet Erdogan and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as part of the so-called Astana format of talks related to Syria, the Kremlin said last week. Yury Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, said that Putin's discussions with Erdogan would also include a plan to unblock shipments of Ukrainian grain. Russia has captured some Black Sea ports and bombarded others, including Odesa, while Ukraine has mined the approaches to some of its ports to protect them from a Russian amphibious assault. Negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the United Nations are reportedly close to a deal to allow shipments of grain to begin moving through the ports. 10:47 a.m.: It may take years to hold perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine accountable, the European Union's top justice official told Reuters on Monday, but those responsible should know the threat of prosecution will hang over them "forever."
EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders spoke as the United States and more than 40 other countries work to align evidence to help prosecution and trials for atrocities Russian troops committed in Ukraine.
"It will be for the next weeks, next months, next years, maybe for the next decades. For some cases, it will be very fast. It will be longer for others," said Reynders.
"But it is also a clear message to the Russian authorities - the risk of these investigations and prosecutions and trials will hang over them for the rest of their lives. It's forever."
Russia has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine.
9:38 a.m.: Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations will most likely meet this week to discuss resuming Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports, Ankara said on Monday, while a Turkish official said lingering "small problems" should be overcome, Reuters reported.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine - two major global wheat suppliers - has sent prices for grains and other food products soaring. It has stalled Kyiv's exports, leaving dozens of ships stranded and some 20 million tons of grain stuck in silos at Odesa.
Last week Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. would sign a deal this week on the grain exports corridor after talks in Istanbul. But U.N. chief Antonio Guterres warned there was still "a long way to go" before there would be peace talks to end the war
8:00 a.m.: Six people have been killed after Russia’s military shelled a building in the eastern Ukrainian town of Toretsk, Ukrainian emergency service officials said on Monday, RFE/RL reported.
"Early in the morning, the town of Toretsk was shelled. A two-story building with people inside was destroyed," the Ukrainian State Service for Emergency Situations said in a statement on social media.
The service posted photographs on social media of rescue workers digging through rubble and what was left of the devastated building, and said the search for survivors had ended.
Toretsk, a town with an estimated population of 30,000 people, is located some 50 kilometers south of Kramatorsk, one of the last Ukrainian-controlled towns in the industrial east.
7:21 a.m.: European Union foreign ministers are zooming in Monday on tightening the extensive package of sanctions on Russia and looking at ways to add a ban on gold exports in hopes that the measures might finally start to have a decisive impact on the war in Ukraine, the Associated Press reports.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said that at the moment “the most important thing is a ban on Russian gold,” which is Moscow's second largest export industry after energy.
The G-7 group of leading industrial nations last month already committed to a gold ban, arguing the Russia has used its gold to back up its currency to circumvent the impact of several rounds of sanctions that nations around the world had already imposed on Moscow for its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
5:50 a.m.: The Kyiv Independent reports that prosecutors say Russia's war on Ukraine has killed or injured hundreds of children. 4:45 a.m.: 3:45 a.m.: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged European Union foreign ministers to provide more military aid, enact an embargo on Russian energy and put a cap on Russian oil prices. He also encouraged European support for a tribunal to punish crimes of aggression against Ukraine. 2:30 a.m.: 1:30 a.m.: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is hosting Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska for a meeting Monday in Washington.
12:08 a.m.: Amid continued Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities, European Union foreign ministers are set to meet on Monday to discuss tightening sanctions against Moscow, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Among the measures being considered – and likely to be approved – is a ban on gold purchases from Russia, a move already put in place by international partners.
The EU could also act to impose sanctions on additional Russian individuals.
"Moscow must continue to pay a high price for its aggression," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday in presenting the proposals that foreign ministers will consider Monday.
A senior EU official told AFP the EU was likely to discuss new sanctions at the meeting but would not make an immediate decision. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
A Ukrainian security official has said suspected Russian citizens, cash and documents were seized in a raid on a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv and other Orthodox sites early on Tuesday as part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services”.Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, said there was an investigation into what had been going on in the network of catacombs. The SBU website said the agency had found pro-Russia literature and more than $100,000 in cash.“We are not going to talk about money right now,” Danilov told the Guardian. “There’s certain documents were found there. And certain citizens were found there … most likely citizens of the Russian federation. And now we’re trying to find out what they do in there and why they were there.”Located south of the city centre, the sprawling Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex – or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves – is the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox church that falls under the Moscow patriarchate, as well as being a Ukrainian cultural treasure and a Unesco world heritage site.The raid on Pechersk Lavra was part of a broad sweep of the church’s property. The SBU said that in all about 850 people had their identities checked and 50 underwent “in-depth counterintelligence interviews”, including with the use of a polygraph. More than 350 church buildings were searched, including two other monasteries and the headquarters of the Moscow patriarchate’s diocese in western Ukraine, the agency said.The Russian Orthodox church, whose head, Patriarch Kirill, has strongly supported Moscow’s military actions in Ukraine, condemned the raid as an “act of intimidation”.The SBU said: “These measures are being taken … as part of the systemic work of the SBU to counter the destructive activities of Russian special services in Ukraine.”It said the search was aimed at preventing the use of the cave monastery as “the centre of the Russian world” and carried out to look into suspicions “about the use of the premises … for sheltering sabotage and reconnaissance groups, foreign citizens, weapons storage.”The “Russian world” concept is at the centre of Vladimir Putin’s new foreign policy doctrine that aims to protect Russia’s language, culture and religion. It has been used by conservative ideologues to justify intervention abroad.The SBU did not give details about the outcome of Tuesday’s raid. Armed officers were seen carrying out ID checks and searching the bags of worshippers before letting them inside.The SBU said the search was aimed at preventing the use of the cave monastery as ‘the centre of the Russian world’. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/ReutersDanilov said the investigation was still at a very sensitive stage. “All I can say is that certain institutes are carrying out actions that are not in their charters. They are not going to be able to do that,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it is civil or religious or other institutions, it is a question of the national security of our country. And for many years we closed our eyes to what was happening.“Any matter of religion is always complicated and it’s not so easy. It is quite complex and requires a lot of attention,” he added. “We need to divide religion, and the civilians that have certain positions in the church who could possibly work for the aggressor state.” The raid will further sour already tense relations between Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Christians. The Kremlin denounced the searches as the latest chapter in Kyiv’s “war” against the Russian church.“Ukraine has long been at war with the Russian Orthodox church,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. “We could see this as yet another link in the chain of these military actions against Russian Orthodoxy.”Vladimir Legoida, a spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox church, said: “Like many other cases of persecution of believers in Ukraine since 2014, this act of intimidation of believers is almost certain to go unnoticed by those who call themselves the international human rights community.”The war has sharpened the split between Ukraine and Russia’s Orthodox churches and intensified a feud over religious allegiance. The Ukrainian Orthodox church formally split from under Moscow’s leadership three years ago, with Russia losing multiple Ukrainian parishes, but many historic churches and monasteries have remained loyal in religious practice and political allegiance to Russia.Last Friday, the SBU said it had charged a senior clergyman from the western Vinnytsia region with attempting to distribute leaflets trying to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.In May, the Ukrainian Orthodox church of the Moscow patriarchate ended its ties with the Russian church over the latter’s support for what Moscow calls its “special military operation”, instead of a war of aggression.A 2020 survey by the Kyiv-based Razumkov Centre found that 34% of Ukrainians identified as members of the main Orthodox church of Ukraine, while 14% were members of Ukraine’s Moscow patriarchate church.In 2019, Ukraine was given permission by the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide to form a church independent of Moscow, largely ending centuries of religious ties between the two countries.Early in November, the Orthodox church of Ukraine said it would allow its congregations for the first time to celebrate Christmas on 25 December, in a move away from Russia and towards the west. For centuries Ukrainians have celebrated Christmas on 7 January, the date on which Jesus was born according to the Julian calendar.The move to 25 December was seen as part of a bigger national process of dismantling the symbols of Russia, the Soviet Union and communism that took off in 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea and kickstarted a pro-Moscow uprising in the eastern Donbas region.Meanwhile, Ukrainians are bracing for what is expected to be the hardest winter in the country’s history as Russia tries to destroy its energy infrastructure in an attempt to force Kyiv to negotiate a peace.Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukraine’s national power grid operator, Ukrenergo, told a briefing that practically no thermal or hydroelectric stations had been left unscathed by the Russian attacks. “The scale of destruction is colossal. In Ukraine there is a power generation deficit. We cannot generate as much energy as consumers can use,” he said. A major energy provider said on Monday that Ukrainians needed to get used to living in power outages at least until the end of March, and the government has offered evacuations to people in recently liberated Kherson, which remains mostly without electricity and running water.“Given the difficult security situation in the city and infrastructure problems, you can evacuate for the winter to safer regions of the country,” the deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app.Fighting continued in the country’s south, and in a key battlefield development a Ukrainian official acknowledged its forces were attacking Russian positions on the Kinburn Spit – a gateway to the Black Sea basin and parts of the Kherson region still under Russian control.Moscow has used the Kinburn Spit as a staging ground for missile and artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions in Mykolaiv province and elsewhere along the Ukrainian-controlled Black Sea coast.Nataliya Gumenyuk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army’s operational command south, said in televised remarks that Ukrainian forces were “continuing a military operation” in the area. Moscow appeared to be building up forces and increasing its military efforts on the eastern Donbas front around the key town of Bakhmut.Ukraine’s presidential office said on Tuesday that at least eight civilians had been killed and 16 injured over the previous 24 hours.Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday called for EU sanctions on Iran, hours after at least four people were killed in Kyiv by swarms of kamikaze drones.
Kuleba said on Twitter he “requested more air defense and supply of ammunition (and) called on (the) EU to impose sanctions on Iran for providing Russia with drones,” referring to the Iranian drones Russia has been using in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Iran for the death of Ukrainians in Russian drone strikes. Mikhailo Podolyak also warned that sanctions may not be enough to deter Tehran from supplying Moscow’s forces with the deadly suicide drones.
“A country that oppresses its own people is now giving (Russian) monsters weapons for mass murders in the heart of Europe,” Mikhailo Podolyak tweeted. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories By signing up, you agree to the terms He said there could be no “concessions to totalitarianism.”
Last week, Zelensky said Iranian drones were also used in Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian cities.
According to Ukraine, the Iranian-made drones are repainted and given Russian names before they are used in strikes across the country by Russia. Tehran has denied allegations that it has supplied the Kremlin with weapons. Earlier Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc is gathering evidence about Iran’s alleged sale of drones to Russia and will respond if the allegations prove true.
“We are following very closely this use of drones. We are gathering evidence and we will be ready to react with the tools at our disposal.”
Borrell spoke after chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, where the bloc decided to slap sanctions on Iranian officials deemed responsible for the crackdown on anti-government protesters. A drone flies over Kyiv during an attack on October 17, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP) Borrell said that Kuleba denounced the use of drones in a speech to the ministers via video link from a bomb shelter. Borrell did not specify what kind of measures the EU would consider.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said there was general agreement among EU member states on sanctioning Iran over the drones.
On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that Tehran is preparing its first delivery of short-range ballistic missiles to Moscow during the war. Last month, Kyiv blasted Tehran for providing the attack drones to the Russian military and announced it was taking diplomatic action against the Islamic Republic, revoking its ambassador’s accreditation and ordering a significant reduction of embassy staff.
According to US Deputy Director of National Intelligence Morgan Muir, Russia has lost more than 6,000 pieces of equipment since the beginning of the war. In addition to the pressure applied by Western sanctions, Moscow is therefore forced to turn to pariah states such as North Korea and Iran for military supplies. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
September 14, 2022 03:11 PM Once again belying his carefully cultivated status as a conservative friend of America, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban threw another wrench into U.S. foreign policy on Tuesday. Unsatisfied with turning Hungary into the Chinese Communist Party's primary European outpost, Orban apparently now intends to cripple Ukrainian and European security amid the approaching winter. As a result of high demand and politically motivated Russian supply restrictions, gas prices across Europe are soaring hundreds of percentage points higher than this time last year. This is causing massive harm to European households and businesses — which is the exact point. The price war underlines Russian President Vladimir Putin's effort to force the European Union into suspending its support for Ukraine's resistance against him and abandoning the Western sanctions imposed since the war began in February. If highly belated (see Angela Merkel), top European leaders are, at least for the moment, standing firm against Putin's energy war. They recognize that Moscow's attempt to eliminate Ukraine as a sovereign state and turn its people into serfs is utterly incompatible with the foundation of post-1945 European stability and prosperity: namely, the right of peoples to live free and at peace. Ukraine's increasingly effective resistance to Russia has consolidated European attitudes. But as bitterly cold winter temperatures approach, Putin intends to use the cold to cultivate European political currents in his warmer favor. A new Italian government skeptical of EU sanctions is highly likely to take office following elections on Sept. 25. But whatever happens in Rome, Putin has his buddy Viktor to rely upon. Evincing as much, a Hungarian government minister optimistically claimed on Tuesday that winter temperatures would cause the EU to reconsider its Russia sanctions. Tamas Menczer added that "if Brussels and the European Union change their sanctions policy, the energy shortage and high prices could be stopped soon." Ukraine and Western security are irrelevant, it seems. Note, here, that Menczer is not discussing the idea of an EU price cap on Russian gas imports. That idea is legitimately controversial. Instead, Orban's man is talking about the EU's sanctions policy at large. His rhetoric reflects Orban's belief that Ukraine and Western security can go to hell as long as Hungary gets cheap gas and Putin is kept happy. If such a deal with the devil rewards Putin's war of aggression, sees Ukrainians sacrificed, and encourages Chinese leader Xi Jinping to believe that Western security architecture is in name only? Well, so be it. Orban may be a friend of the Conservative Political Action Conference. But a friend of America's closest non-freeloading British, Polish, and Eastern European allies, he is not. Comrade Viktor stands with communist China and imperial Russia. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Biden’s trip to Ukraine was a mission with an inspiring message
This week marks the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and President Biden pulled out all the stops to display his commitment to the survival of the fledgling democracy.
His stroll through the streets of the Ukrainian capital on President’s Day with the nation’s president Volodymyr Zelensky amidst the wailing of air raid alarms captured the international stage and the attention of the world media.
The dramatic presidential trip to Kyiv was a mission with an inspiring message.
Biden reminded embattled Ukrainians that the United States has their backs in their struggle against the bloody Russian onslaught. He showed Russian dictator Vladimir Putin that Ukrainian survival has become a bedrock element of American national security policy. Finally, Biden encouraged the American public to remain steadfast in support of their democratic allies.
Polls conducted by the Pew Research Center demonstrated the need for the president to buttress public support for the U.S. commitment to Ukraine.
Last March, just after the beginning of the Russian invasion, three out of every four Americans felt that the United States was doing the right amount or too little to assist the beleaguered Eastern European nation. By late January of this year, support for American backing had dropped to just more than half of the public.
The ideal of American foreign policy is that politics stops at the water’s edge. But reality dictates that domestic politics intrudes into national security policy the longer a war continues as partisans question the value of the American involvement.
Now, domestic politics reaches across the water’s edge, all the way across the Atlantic Ocean into the Black Sea. Last March, there was little difference between party partisans on military assistance for Ukraine. More than seven of every 10 Democrats and Republicans favored military help to the Ukrainians threatened by the Russian military advance. But former President Donald Trump’s, who remains the Republican’s de facto leader, affinity for dictatorial regimes has apparently become part of the GOP DNA. By last month, the bipartisan consensus had become a chasm as wide as the Grand Canyon, with Democrats much more supportive of sustenance to the vulnerable country than Republicans.
The disgraced former president seems to have a soft spot for tyrants like the Russian leader, and apparently saw the war in Ukraine merely as a political pawn in his campaign against Biden. His first impeachment came out of the reported heavy-handed attempts to pressure President Zelensky into providing possible dirt on Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, in return for military aid.
Republican control of the House of Representatives has altered the balance of power in Washington and become a threat to American support of Ukrainian independence against Russian aggression.
Ominously, the new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that Republicans wouldn’t write a “blank check” for Ukraine. Republicans are backing down from some spending cut threats — including one to cut Social Security and Medicare — in return for a deal to raise the federal debt limit. This means House Republicans may follow their “America First” instincts and target financial support for Ukraine as a top priority for budget cuts.
There are still Republicans who continue to favor support for Ukraine, but their voices are drowned out by the American Firsters.
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) recently made a strong pitch for Ukrainian aid on Fox News which features prominent skeptics of the Biden policy such as Tucker Carlson, arguably the most prominent voice among Republicans besides Trump. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), an influential member of McCarthy’s team and one of the loudest voice in the House GOP caucus, even called for the impeachment of Biden for traveling to Ukraine to show solidarity with the people there.
Americans normally don’t pay much attention to foreign policy at election time, but Ukraine could become a big issue in next year’s presidential campaign. Republican presidential candidates including Trump will challenge the president’s steadfast support for Ukraine and argue that domestic problems should be the priority.
Putin appears willing to sacrifice Russian and Ukrainian lives and persist in a long and grinding war. He likely expects Americans will grow disenchanted as the conflict continues and then turn to a GOP president who doesn’t have the stomach to resist Putin’s imperial ambitions. Republicans call for more freedom in the United States, but they apparently don’t have the will to protect it abroad from an autocratic threat to world peace.
Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster, CEO of Bannon Communications Research and the host of his weekly aggressively progressive podcast, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon. Follow him on Twitter at @BradBannon. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
European Union foreign ministers have agreed to bolster their military support for Ukraine and study a new package of sanctions targeting Russian individuals and certain sectors of the Russian economy. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters late Wednesday after convening a special ministerial meeting in New York that the details of the sanctions package still need to be determined by EU officials, but that he is sure there will be unanimous support. Borrell said it was important for the ministers to meet and send a “powerful message” on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the partial mobilization of his country’s military reserves, a call-up of 300,000 fighters. Borrell said Putin was “trying to destroy Ukraine.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the mobilization was necessary because Russia was "de facto facing all of NATO,” the U.S.-led Western military alliance that has shipped billions of dollars of armaments to Ukraine to help fend off Russia’s invasion of Ukraine The EU foreign ministers’ meeting came as Russia and Ukraine agreed to what appeared to be their largest prisoner swap since the war began in late February, with 215 Ukrainians freed from Russian captivity, 55 Russians and pro-Russia Ukrainians sent to Russia and 10 foreign nationals released, including two U.S. military veterans who had fought alongside Ukrainian soldiers. Despite the prisoner exchange, fighting raged on, with at least six people killed Thursday, one in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and the five others in the Russian separatist-controlled city of Donetsk. Pro-Moscow authorities in Ukraine's Russian-controlled regions are preparing to hold referendums starting Friday on becoming part of Russia, which then could allow Moscow to escalate the war in defense of the annexed territory. The votes are planned in the Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions, although Ukraine and its Western allies have called them sham referendums and have no plans to recognize the outcome as legitimate. Borrell said that in addition to “the immense suffering brought by the Russian aggression upon the Ukrainian people, Russia has chosen to further extend the cost of war also for their own Russian population.” He said Putin’s apparent reference to Russia’s willingness to use nuclear weapons if necessary to protect itself represented “an irresponsible and cynical attempt to undermine our steadfast support to Ukraine.” “These threats jeopardize in an unprecedented scale international peace and security,” Borrell said. “But they will not shake our determination. They will not shake our resolve, our unity to stand by Ukraine and our comprehensive support to Ukraine’s ability to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty as long as it takes.” Russian President Vladimir Putin makes an address in the course of Russia-Ukraine military conflict in Moscow, Russia, in this still image taken from video released Sept. 21, 2022. Putin said in a televised address Wednesday the mobilization of reserves, which followed Ukrainian gains in a counteroffensive in northeastern Ukraine, is necessary to protect Russia’s homeland and sovereignty. Putin said the West is trying to weaken and destroy Russia, and that his country will “use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people.” "In its aggressive anti-Russian policy, the West has crossed every line," he said. "This is not a bluff. And those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the weathervane can turn and point towards them." Britain’s defense ministry said Thursday that Russia’s mobilization “is likely to be highly unpopular with parts of the Russian population” and that Putin is taking “considerable political risk in the hope of generating much needed combat power.” Street protests against the mobilization erupted in Moscow and other Russian cities, with police arresting 1,300 demonstrators. Riot police detain a demonstrator during a protest against mobilization in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 21, 2022. Prisoner exchange
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that most of the freed Ukrainian fighters in the prisoner swap had defended a steel plant during Russia’s siege of Mariupol early in the conflict. Zelenskyy also said five of the 10 foreign nationals released were from Britain, with the others from Croatia, Morocco and Sweden, along with the two former U.S. service members. The most prominent of the 55 Russians and pro-Russia Ukrainians sent to Russia was Viktor Medvedchuk, a Putin ally who had escaped house arrest days before Russia’s invasion only to be recaptured in April.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
A leading human rights organization—the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center—on Thursday named soaring anti-Jewish hate crimes in Democratic controlled Chicago and New York and on elite U.S. college campuses as some of the top ten worst outbreaks of antisemitism in 2022. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, presented the list titled "2022 Top Ten Worst Global Anti-Semitic Incidents," in Jerusalem Thursday."Parents and students at a Jewish girls’ school for parent-teacher conferences witnessed a Chicago man threaten to ‘burn a rabbi in a gas oven’ just days before the Hanukkah festival. The man was arrested and held on bail. Other incidents involving obviously religious people occurred in Jewish neighborhoods during 2022," wrote the Wiesenthal experts of the sixth spot of the list. Wiesenthal noted hate incidents increased by 71% in Chicago, and the main targets were Jews and African-Americans. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is named after the legendary Nazi-hunter who survived the Holocaust. Number six on the Wiesenthal List of worst outbreaks of antisemitism also noted that "Crime is way up in New York City including hate crimes. Physical attacks on openly identifiable Orthodox Jews in New York City are the highest they’ve been in decades. A scourge of anti-Semitic attacks are plaguing the nation’s largest city. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, especially in Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn, have been beaten, spat upon, their hats torn off their heads, and cursed in a barrage of attacks over the last year." ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS SPIKED DURING SQUAD'S ANTI-ISRAEL RHETORIC, BLUE STATES AT TOP OF LIST Several headstones at the AM Echod Cemetery in Waukegan, Illiniois were vandalized with antisemitism. (WFLD Chicago)The Wiesenthal document listed a running bill of particulars covering violent antisemitism in America’s largest Jewish community in New York City. "In November, two men, Christopher Brown, and Matthew Mahrer, were arrested by the FBI/NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force and the NYPD Counterterrorism and Intelligence Bureau for threatening an armed attack on a synagogue. The two were taken into custody before they could act on their plan to murder members of the local Jewish community. They were found carrying several weapons including a Glock semi-automatic handgun, and a ghost gun with an extended 30-roundmagazine and laser sight." "This was not an idle threat," New York Mayor Eric Adams said, adding, "This was a real threat." America’s university system was not immune from the rapidly spreading virus of antisemitism. A number of U.S. universities in Massachusetts, New York, California, Arizona and New Jersey secured the seventh spot for outbreaks of antisemitism. The Wiesenthal Center cited a report by the group AMCHA Initiative, which is dedicated to combating antisemitism in institutions of higher education, that "there were more incidents of anti-Semitism at Harvard University…than at any other U.S. university in 2022. Some of the telling examples of alleged antisemitism at Harvard include ‘the tearing down of Harvard Hillel posters, anti-Israel stickers attached to tubs of kosher hummus in the dining halls, and the posting of anti-Harvard College Israel Trek signs.’" A Jewish man was beaten and robbed on his way to his synagogue in Brooklyn, New York. (Shomrim Flatbush Safety Patrol)CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL STUDENT ORGS PLEDGE TO BOYCOTT ZIONIST, PRO-ISRAEL SPEAKERS Also at Harvard "Attempts were also made to disrupt pro-Israel speakers. A swastika was found in an undergraduate dorm, the school paper endorsed the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee erected a wall with Holocaust imagery replete with anti-Semitic statements." The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation of nine student groups at University of California Berkeley’s law school. "The groups amended their by-laws to prohibit Zionists or anyone who supports Israel from speaking at events on campus, "wrote Wiesenthal. The City University of New York (CUNY) was permeated with an anti-Jewish atmosphere in 2022, according to Wiesenthal. "In 2022, a toxic environment beset Jewish students and professors leading to lawsuits by Jewish professors, hearings at the New York City Council and a U.S. Department of Education investigation. A joint Hillel-ADL survey finds that one-third of the Jewish students at CUNY experienced on-campus anti-Semitism, leading some to drop out," wrote Wiesenthal. Kanye West, also known as Ye, wore a Balenciaga boxing mouthguard, outside Givenchy, during Paris Fashion Week. Ye topped the Wiesenthal list as he "used his unparalleled social media influence to morph these historic [anti-Jewish] tropes into a firestorm of real-time anti-Semitism—absorbed by millions, and inspiring acts of hate against Jews—living and dead." (Edward Berthelot)YE, AKA KANYE WEST, DOUBLES DOWN AFTER FALLOUT FROM ANTISEMITIC COMMENTSRapper Kayne West, also known as Ye, garnered the number one spot on the list because he "used his unparalleled social media influence to morph these historic [anti-Jewish] tropes into a firestorm of real-time anti-Semitism—absorbed by millions, and inspiring acts of hate against Jews—living and dead." Ye fell under the rubric "The Influencers" on the list. NBA star Kyrie Irving, who has 22.5 million social media followers, was also listed in "The Influencers’ section because he "shared a promotion of an anti-Semitic movie." Iran’s regime was listed as number four. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been branded antisemitic for "keeping with the best traditions of the Nazis and Soviet Communists, the Iranian Regime’s serial genocidal and theological hatred of Jews is led by a so-called Center for Jewish Studies. Iran’s Center for Jewish Studies has published more than 1,000 blatantly anti-Semitic essays weaving a toxic mix of theology, historic hatred of Jews, and anti-Israel screeds on behalf of the nefarious Khamenei regime." Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting in Tehran, Iran in 2020. The Simon Wiesenthal Center placed Iran 4th on its list for worst outbreaks of antisemitism in 2022. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei has denied the Holocaust and repeatedly urged the destruction of the Jewish state. Spot five on the list went to Malik Akram, a British Pakistani who "On Shabbat morning January 15th, 2022... traveled thousands of miles to target a small synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, a suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Akram, took four hostages at Congregation Beth Israel. Akram was demanding the release of an al Qaeda operative convicted of attempted murder of Americans. Hours later, Akram was killed by an FBI rescue team and none of the hostages were injured." The president of the Palestinian Authority was ranked number 3 on the list because Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of having committed ‘50 Holocausts’ while standing alongside German Chancellor Scholz during a press conference in Berlin. Wiesenthal also took Scholz to task because he "only condemned the remarks the next day." Police gather in front of the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022, in Colleyville, Texas. In January, four people were taken hostage by a pistol-wielding man during a Shabbat service. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade, File)GERMAN CHANCELLOR SPEAKS WITH ISRAELI PM LAPID FOLLOWING ABBAS HOLOCAUST REMARK IN BERLIN Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, whose father survived the Holocaust, said about Abbas, "History will not forgive him." Wiesenthal cited German bureaucrats Michael Blume and Gerhard Ulrich, who are tasked with fighting antisemitism but are accused of stoking antisemitism. Blume was classified as antisemitic in the Wiesenthal’s 2021 list for his alleged activities against Jews and Israel. Wiesenthal wrote, "Jewish leaders are deeply worried over the continuing hate crimes and the fact that two of Germany’s antisemitism czars are themselves accused of anti-Semitism. Also troubling is Germany’s continuing close economic ties with the Holocaust-denying, genocide-threatening Iranian regime." Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president, left, and Olaf Scholz, Germany's chancellor, during a news conference in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022. Scholz and Abbas were speaking following their bi-lateral meeting in the German capital. (Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Widespread antisemitism in Germany has jolted the country’s tiny Jewish population of under 100,000 from a population of roughly 84 million. Semen Gorelik, chairman of a Jewish community in the state of Brandenburg declared in a "blistering public letter that he is leaving Germany for Israel and urged German Jews to follow suit due to the rising tide of anti-Semitism in the country," said Wiesenthal. Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe for Fox News Digital. Benjamin has contributed articles to The Wall Street Journal, The Jerusalem Post, Foreign Policy, Haaretz, Forbes and The New York Post. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
CNN — President Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House visit Wednesday will symbolically bolster America’s role as the arsenal of democracy in the bitter war for Ukraine’s survival and send a stunning public rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin. That his first trip outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February is to the United States will also highlight President Joe Biden’s historic role in reviving the Western alliance that kept the Soviet Union at bay and is now countering new expansionism by Moscow in an effective proxy war between nuclear superpowers. Zelensky’s arrival will draw poignant echoes of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s arrival in Washington, 81 years ago on Thursday, days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That Christmas visit cemented the alliance that would win World War II and built the post-war democratic world. Zelensky compared his nation’s resistance against Russia with Britain’s lonely defiance of the Nazis in the days before the US entered World War II during a video address to the UK Parliament earlier this year, and his arrival in the US capital will sharpen the parallels to the earlier meeting of Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt. His visit is unfolding amid extraordinary security. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t even confirm the early reports that she’d welcome Zelensky to the US Capitol in an unexpected coda to her speakership, saying on Tuesday evening, “We don’t know yet. We just don’t know.” A White House reception for Zelensky, who sources said was traveling to the US on Tuesday night, will above all be an unmistakable sign of US and Western support for Ukraine’s battle against Putin, who says the country has no right to exist. The war exemplifies what Biden has framed as a global struggle between democracy and totalitarianism, which he has put at the center of his foreign policy. Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who visited Ukraine earlier this month, said on CNN’s “AC360” that Zelensky was coming to Washington on a specific mission. “What he is trying to do is draw a direct correlation between our support and the survival and support and future victory of Ukraine,” Gallego, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said. Biden will announce an additional $1.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine during the visit, with the coveted Patriot missile systems as part of that package, a US official told CNN’s Phil Mattingly. Washington also plans to send Ukraine precision bomb kits to convert less sophisticated munitions into “smart bombs” that could help it target Russian defensive lines, sources told CNN’s Pentagon team. Zelensky’s visit also comes as Congress is poised to sign off on another $45 billion in aid for Ukraine and NATO allies, deepening the commitment that has helped Kyiv’s forces inflict an unexpectedly bloody price on Putin’s forces. The decision on Patriots, which would satisfy a long-standing Ukrainian request, reflects a US process of matching its aid to the shifting strategy of Russia’s assault. The system would help Kyiv better counter Russia’s brutal missile attacks on cities and electricity installations, which it has mounted in an effective attempt to weaponize bitter winter weather to break the will of Ukrainian civilians. The meeting between Biden and Zelensky, who have spoken multiple times by phone and video link-ups but have not met in person since the invasion, comes at a vital moment in the war. Biden has for months cautiously calibrated US shipments of arms and weapons systems in a way designed to save Ukraine but to avoid escalating the conflict into a disastrous direct clash between NATO and Russia. He, for instance, rejected Ukrainian calls for the West to enforce a no-fly zone over the country. The Patriots – a long range-aerial defense system – would represent the deepest US dive into the conflict so far. Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, Wesley Clark said that Zelensky’s trip reflects a critical moment when the destiny of a war that Ukraine cannot win without upgraded US support could be decided before Russia can regroup. “This is a window of opportunity for Ukraine and a window of danger as well,” Clark told CNN’s John Berman on “AC360” on Tuesday. “Russia’s weak, (but) Russia will be stronger. This is a period where the United States needs to pour in the support. … This is the window, President Zelensky knows it – if he is going to defeat, with US support, the Russian aggression in Ukraine,” Clark said. “Wait until the summer and it will be an entirely different battlefield.” But the highly public nature of Zelensky’s visit, and the expected announcement regarding Patriots, also risks further provoking Putin when he is signaling that, as disastrous as the war has been for Russia’s troops, he’s in for the long haul, betting the West’s commitment will eventually ebb. His visit to Congress will also play into an increasingly important debate on Capitol Hill over Ukraine aid with Republicans set to take over the House majority in the new year. Some pro-Donald Trump members, who will have significant leverage in the thin GOP majority, have warned that billions of dollars in US cash that have been sent to Ukraine should instead be shoring up the US southern border with a surge of new migrants expected within days. Conscious of pressure from his right flank, the possible next speaker, GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, has warned that Ukraine should not expect a “blank check” from the new House. Even though Ukraine still has strong Republican support in the Senate, it’s this kind of shifting political dynamic that appears to inform Kremlin perceptions about how long US resolve will last in a conflict on which Putin’s political survival may well depend. Zelensky’s pre-Christmas trip promises to be the greatest public relations coup yet for the media savvy comic actor-turned-president, who has cleverly tapped into the history and patriotic mythology of Western nations in a series of video addresses to lawmakers from war-torn Kyiv. Often, while grateful for outside support, he has seemed to be trying to shame the West to do more and to create a deeper understanding among voters for the trials facing Ukraine. In March, for instance, Zelensky evoked Mount Rushmore and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream Speech” during a virtual address to Congress. He also referred to two days of infamy in modern history when Americans directly experienced the fear of aerial bombardment. “Remember Pearl Harbor, terrible morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you. Just remember it,” Zelensky said. “Remember September 11, a terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, into battlefields. When innocent people were attacked, attacked from air, just like nobody else expected it, you could not stop it. Our country experiences the same every day.” When Zelensky arrives in Washington, he might well experience the same revelation that Churchill did over the capital’s blazing lights at Christmas after months in the dark of air raid blackouts back home. The wartime British leader sailed to the United States aboard HMS Duke of York, dodging U-boats in the wintery Atlantic and took a plane from the coast of Virginia to Washington, where he was met on December 22, 1941, by President Franklin Roosevelt before their joint press conference the next day. Over days of brainstorming and meetings – fueled by Churchill’s regime of sherry with breakfast, Scotch and sodas for lunch, champagne in the evening and a tipple of 90-year-old brandy before bed – the two leaders plotted the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and laid the foundation of the Western alliance that Biden has reinvigorated in his support for Ukraine. Churchill, who had pined for US involvement in World War II for months and knew it was the key to defeating Adolf Hitler, said during his visit, “I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, and yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home.” Zelensky is sure to get that kind of hero’s welcome and will hope that extra US support will mean that Washington has truly “drawn the sword for freedom and cast away the scabbard,” as Churchill said of the Roosevelt administration in his address to Congress on December 26, 1941. The Ukrainian leader is likely to appreciate the historical parallels. He paraphrased one of Churchill’s most famous wartime speeches in an emotional address to British members of parliament in March. “We will not surrender, we will not lose, we will go to the end,” he said. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
September 01, 2022 04:37 PM A group of 50 members of the House, made up of mostly Democrats, expressed their concern to President Joe Biden about reports regarding a possible new nuclear agreement with Iran. The 34 Democrats and 16 Republicans wrote a letter explaining their concerns to the president on Thursday. “We are deeply concerned about multiple provisions that reportedly may be contained in the final language of any agreement with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” they wrote, urging the administration to consult with Congress prior to an agreement being reached. IRAN SOFTENS DEMAND ON MAJOR NUCLEAR DEAL STUMBLING BLOCK, US OFFICIAL SAYS Biden has made reentering the nuclear agreement a signature part of his foreign policy platform, arguing that President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 deal allowed Iran's nuclear program to grow. After more than 16 months of negotiations, National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby told reporters last week that Iran’s decision to abandon several sticking points had allowed for progress. Iran has made some concessions “that allowed us to get to where we are in the process … so that’s a positive step forward,” Kirby said, noting that the sides are “closer now than we were even just a couple of weeks ago.” “We’re not there yet,” Kirby added, noting that “a lot of gaps remain.” The lawmakers specifically mentioned one reported concession — that non-U.S. individuals doing business with Iranians who are not on the U.S. sanctions list will not be exposed to possible sanctions, because those Iranians engage in separate and barred transactions. This scenario was first floated by Politico, which obtained excerpts of a draft of the text, though the U.S. special envoy for the Iran talks, Rob Malley, denied that any such plan was being implemented. "While we commend you for refusing to remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) — one of our most powerful tools used to compel state sponsors of terror to change — the aforementioned reported provision creates a troubling precedent," they wrote. "We are concerned that it could significantly dilute the effectiveness of terrorism-related sanctions on the IRGC, Iran’s paramilitary terror arm and provides the organization with a pathway for sanctions evasion." They went on to discuss Russia’s supposed involvement in a nuclear agreement and said the administration should not allow Russia to receive “Iran’s enriched uranium or have the right to conduct near work with the Islamic Republic.” The lawmakers also noted Iran's support of Russia's war in Ukraine — specifically, Iran provided drones to the Russians earlier this month. The lawmakers also touched on other recent incidents involving the U.S. and Iran. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER The Justice Department unsealed charges earlier this month accusing Shahram Poursafi of attempting to murder former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, likely in retaliation for the United States’s successful strike killing Quds Force leader Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. The same week, controversial author Salman Rushdie was stabbed, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed the Iranian government. "Amid Iran-sponsored terror plots to assassinate former U.S. officials and Iranian-American dissidents on American soil, this is no time to remove, suspend, or dilute U.S. terrorism sanctions on Iran or the IRGC," the congress members said. "As Secretary Blinken said in his confirmation hearing, America should do 'everything possible, including the toughest possible sanctions, to deal with Iranian support for terrorism.'" | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden took office looking to reshape U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, putting a premium on promoting democracy and human rights. In reality, he has struggled on several fronts to meaningfully separate his approach from former President Donald Trump’s.
Biden’s visit to the region this week includes a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the oil-rich kingdom’s de facto leader who U.S. intelligence officials determined approved the 2018 killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.
Biden had pledged as a candidate to recalibrate the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, which he described as a “pariah” nation after Trump’s more accommodating stand, overlooking the kingdom’s human rights record and stepping up military sales to Riyadh.
READ MORE: Turkish court moves trial of 26 Saudis suspected of gruesome Khashoggi killing to Saudi Arabia
But Biden now seems to be making the calculation that there’s more to be gained from courting the country than isolating it.
Biden’s first stop on his visit to the Mideast will be Israel. Here, again, his stance has softened since the firm declarations he made when running for president.
As a candidate, Biden condemned Trump administration policy on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. As president, he’s been unable to pressure the Israelis to halt the building of Jewish settlements and has offered no new initiatives to restart long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Biden also has let stand Trump’s 2019 decision recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which reversed more than a half-century of U.S. policy.
A view shows the Israeli settlement of Har Homa in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 27, 2021 Photo by Ammar Awad/REUTERS
The Biden administration ”has had this rather confusing policy of continuity on many issues from Trump — the path of least resistance on many different issues, including Jerusalem, the Golan, Western Sahara, and most other affairs,” says Natan Sachs, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
Now Biden appears to be trying to find greater equilibrium in his Mideast policy, putting focus on what’s possible in a complicated part of the world at a time when Israel and some Arab nations are showing greater willingness to work together to isolate Iran — their common enemy — and to consider economic cooperation.
“Biden is coming in, in essence making a choice,” Sachs said. “And the choice is to embrace the emerging regional architecture.”
Biden on Saturday used an op-ed in the Washington Post — the same pages where Khashoggi penned much of his criticism of Saudi rule before his death — to declare that the Middle East has become more “stable and secure” in his nearly 18 months in office and he pushed back against the notion that his visit to Saudi Arabia amounted to backsliding.
“In Saudi Arabia, we reversed the blank-check policy we inherited,” Biden wrote. He also acknowledged “there are many who disagree” with his decision to visit the kingdom.
READ MORE: Report says ‘perpetual’ Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas is the root of tensions
He pointed to his administration’s efforts to push a Saudi-led coalition and Houthis to agree to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire — now in its fourth month — after seven years of a war that has left 150,000 people dead in Yemen. Biden also cited as achievements his administration’s role in helping arrange a truce in last year’s 11-day Israel-Gaza war, the diminished capacity of the Islamic State terrorist group in the region and ending the U.S. combat mission in Iraq.
But Biden’s overall Mideast record is far more complicated. He has largely steered away from confronting some of the region’s most vexing problems, including some that he faulted Trump for exacerbating.
Biden often talks about the importance of relationships in foreign policy. His decision to visit the Mideast for a trip that promises little in the way of tangible accomplishments suggests he’s trying to invest in the region for the longer term.
In public, he has talked of insights gained from long hours over the years spent with China’s Xi Jinping and sizing up Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He’s relished building bonds with a younger generation of world leaders including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Japan’s Fumio Kishida
Biden has met every Israeli prime minister dating back to Golda Meir, has a long-standing relationship with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and was deeply involved as vice president in helping President Barack Obama wind down the Iraq War. But Biden, who came of age on the foreign policy scene during the Cold War and sees the rise of China as the most pressing crisis facing the West, has been less oriented toward the Middle East than Europe and Asia.
“He doesn’t have the personal relationships. He doesn’t have the duration of relationships,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
He arrives at an uncertain moment for Israeli leadership. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid last month dissolved the Knesset as their politically diverse coalition crumbled. Lapid, the former foreign minister, is now the caretaker prime minister.
READ MORE: Israel approves some 3,000 new settler homes according to settlement monitor
Biden also will face fresh questions about his commitment to human rights following the fatal shooting of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Independent investigations determined that she was likely shot by an Israeli soldier while reporting from the West Bank in May.
The Abu Akleh family, in a scathing letter to Biden, accused his administration of excusing the Israelis for the journalist’s death. The State Department last week said U.S. security officials determined that Israeli gunfire likely killed her but “found no reason to believe that this was intentional.”
Two of the most closely watched moments during Biden’s four-day Middle East visit will come when he meets with Israeli opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and when he sees the Saudi crown prince.
But neither encounter is likely to dramatically alter U.S.-Mideast political dynamics.
Both leaders seem to have set their eyes on a post-Biden America as the Democratic president struggles with lagging poll numbers at home driven by skyrocketing inflation and unease with Biden’s handling of the economy, analysts say.
“Both of these leaders in my judgment are now looking past the Biden administration, and looking very much forward to the return of Donald Trump or his avatar,” said Aaron David Miller, who served six secretaries of state as an adviser on Arab-Israeli negotiations and now is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “I think it’s a complex trip, and I think we should be extremely realistic about these expectations.”
Friends of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi hold posters and banners with his pictures during a demonstration outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on Oct. 25, 2018. Photo by Osman Orsal/Reuters
Biden’s prospects for progress on returning the U.S. to the Iran nuclear deal, brokered by Obama in 2015 and withdrawn from by Trump in 2018, remain elusive. The administration has participated indirectly in Vienna talks aimed at bringing both Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the deal. But the talks have thus far proved fruitless.
As a candidate, Biden promised the Saudis would “pay the price” for their human rights record. The sharp rhetoric helped Biden contrast himself with Trump, whose first official foreign trip as president was to the kingdom and who praised the Saudis as a “great ally” even after the Khashoggi killing.
Biden’s tough warning to the Saudis came at a moment when oil was trading at about $41 barrel; now, prices are closer to $105. The elevated oil prices are hurting Americans at the gas pump and driving up prices on essential goods, while helping the Saudis’ bottom line.
White House officials have said energy talks would make up one component of the Saudi leg of the president’s visit, but they have played down the prospect of the Saudis agreeing to further increase oil production because the kingdom says it is nearly at production capacity.
But Bruce Riedel, who served as a senior adviser on the National Security Council for four presidents, said the Saudi Arabia visit is “completely unnecessary” under the circumstances.
“There’s nothing that Joe Biden is going to do in Jeddah that the secretary of state or the secretary of defense, or frankly, a really good ambassador couldn’t do on his own.,” Riedel said. “There’s no outcome that’s going to come from this that really warrants a presidential visit.”
Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
THE HIMARS FACTOR: Ukraine has only a small number of the satellite-guided U.S. rocket artillery system known as HIMARS, an acronym for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, a shoot-and-scoot mobile launcher that can put a munition on a target with precision accuracy. On Friday, the Pentagon pledged four more of the Lockheed Martin systems, which would bring Ukraine’s total to an even dozen. The HIMARS are part of a $400 million package of arms and ammunition that includes 1,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery shells, which are said to have greater precision. Despite the small number of HIMARS in the battle, they are having an outsize impact, according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. “HIMARS have already made a HUUUGE difference on the battlefield,” Reznikov tweeted over the weekend. “More of them as well as [US] ammo & equipment will increase our strength and help to demilitarize the terrorist state.” In recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have used the deadly-accurate HIMARS system to target Russian ammunition depots, destroying as many as 20, according to media reports from Kyiv and social media posts. BIDEN ADMINISTRATION COMMITS ANOTHER $400 MILLION TO UKRAINE THE COMING BATTLE IN THE SOUTH: President Volodymyr Zelensky has reportedly ordered an all-out counteroffensive to retake areas along its southern coast lost to Russia in the first weeks of the war. Reznikov told The Times of London that he is in the process of massing a million-strong fighting force, equipped with Western weapons, that would be made up of all elements of national defense, including police and the local defense forces. “We understand that, politically, it’s very necessary for our country. The president has given the order to the supreme military chief to draw up plans,” Reznikov told the British newspaper. “This is my job. I’m writing letters to counterparts in partner countries, the generals talk about why we need.” RUSSIA MISSILES RIP THROUGH APARTMENTS IN EASTERN UKRAINE, KILLING AT LEAST 15 QUICK STUDIES: One of the reasons the U.S. didn’t send its best weapons to Ukraine at the outset of the war is that it was believed they were too sophisticated and it would take too long to train Ukrainian soldiers how to use them. On Friday, a senior military official admitted he has been blown away by how fast the Ukrainians learned how to use the HIMARS and how they have been deployed to maximum effect. “It's impressive,” he said. “For our artillerymen, we send them to a school out at Fort Sill, they go through several months of training and then they employ them,” the official told reporters in a briefing. “In this case, the Ukrainians have literally come out of contact and they've taken a course and they are employing in a way that we would want to do so in our own fights.” PENTAGON MAINTAINS UKRAINIAN MILITARY ASSISTANCE WON'T HURT US READINESS Good Monday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Victor I. Nava. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP OR READ BACK ISSUES OF DAILY ON DEFENSE Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what's going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue! NOTE TO READERS: Daily on Defense will be taking a day off this coming Friday, July 15. We hope to be back in your inbox and online Monday, July 18. THE BIG QUESTION: Can Ukraine win? No one knows, of course, and outside experts are predictably split. Former Supreme NATO Commander retired Gen. Wesley Clark is among the pessimists. He believes the U.S. and Western aid is not being provided nearly fast enough to give Ukraine a real fighting chance, and he worries that at some point, the numerically superior Russian forces will break through Ukraine’s line of defense. “With Russian reserves being formed up, some 20 to 40 battalion groups have been held back, there could be a strategic breakthrough,” Clark said on CNN over the weekend. “That breakthrough could result in mobile warfare over relatively dried-out terrain, and it could be the key to getting the Ukrainian army defeated in Donbas.” “They have fought … a very bloody fight in the east. It’s been a slugfest,” said retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling in an appearance with Clark. “But remember, Russia started this second phase of their campaign in early April. It is now mid-July. They have not moved in an excessive distance. They have not taken that much ground.” The debate about how the war will go centers largely around the question of whether Russia can sustain its offensive as it continues to suffer heavy casualties. “The Ukrainians have really struggled, to be honest, because they're outmanned, and they're outgunned,” said retired Army Maj. John Spencer, a scholar who studies urban warfare, in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “But they have made some amazing stands in places like Severodonetsk, where it took the Russians six weeks to really take a very small Ukrainian force. And they sacrificed, I think, around 5,000 soldiers to do it.” “I'm not going to say the Russians didn't advance, but the Ukrainians made them pay for that land pretty hard,” said a senior military officer at the Pentagon. “And I've got to think that if I took the number of casualties that the Russians took to gain that portion of ground, I'd probably have to stop and refit.” Asked whether Russian troops were suffering from flagging morale, the former commander said, “Anytime over the past two years, whenever I adjusted the mask policy on post, I impacted morale. I can't imagine taking casualties on the level that the Russians have taken them and not having a morale problem.” PUTIN’S DEFIANCE: If Russian president Vladimir Putin is having any second thoughts about his costly foray into Ukraine, he’s not showing it publicly. In a meeting with members of the Russian Duma last week, Putin was defiant. “Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. Well, what can I say? Let them try,” he said. “We have already heard a lot about the West wanting to fight us ‘to the last Ukrainian.’ This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but that seems to be where it is going. But everyone should know that, by and large, we have not started anything in earnest yet.” “But here is what I would like to make clear. They should have realized that they would lose from the very beginning of our special military operation,” he said. “Everyone should understand that this process cannot be stopped. The course of history is inexorable, and the collective West’s attempts to impose its new world order on the rest of the world are doomed.” FIRST RUSSIAN 'DOOMSDAY' SUBMARINE WITH NUCLEAR DRONES ENTERS ACTIVE SERVICE WILL BIDEN SHAKE HANDS WITH MBS? As President Joe Biden heads to Saudi Arabia this week for a meeting of Middle Eastern leaders, all eyes will be on how he interacts with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, and the person the U.S. believes was behind the brutal murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Biden administration is trying to walk a thin line between condemning Saudi Arabia for human rights abuses while courting its cooperation on other common interests. “In Saudi Arabia, we reversed the blank-check policy we inherited. I released the intelligence community’s report on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, issued new sanctions, including on the Saudi Arabia’s Rapid Intervention Force involved in his killing, and issued 76 visa bans under a new rule barring entry into the United States for anyone found to be involved in harassing dissidents abroad,” Biden wrote in an op-ed published Sunday in the Washington Post. “From the start, my aim was to reorient — but not rupture — relations with a country that’s been a strategic partner for 80 years,” he said. “Today, Saudi Arabia has helped to restore unity among the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, has fully supported the truce in Yemen and is now working with my experts to help stabilize oil markets with other OPEC producers.” BIDEN DEFENDS TRIP TO SAUDI ARABIA, TOUTING US SECURITY INTERESTS The Rundown Washington Examiner: Biden administration commits another $400 million to Ukraine Washington Examiner: Pentagon maintains Ukrainian military assistance won't hurt US readiness Washington Examiner: Russia missiles rip through apartments in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 15 Washington Examiner: Germany moves to reactivate coal plants out of fear of Russia cutting off gas Washington Examiner: UK navy seized Iranian weapons from smugglers twice this year Washington Examiner: Biden speaks with Whelan family after outcry over ‘uneven’ Griner treatment Washington Examiner: First Russian 'doomsday' submarine with nuclear drones enters active service Washington Examiner: US tells China its support for Russia complicates relations Washington Examiner: Fighter jet blows off USS Truman during bad weather Washington Examiner: US sailor found dead on board the USS Carl Vinson in California Washington Examiner: Steve Bannon tells Jan. 6 committee he is willing to testify Washington Examiner: Army cuts off unvaccinated soldiers from service, threatening pay and benefits Washington Examiner: Retired three-star general Gary Volesky suspended for tweet mocking Jill Biden Washington Examiner: Biden defends trip to Saudi Arabia, touting US security interests Washington Post: Opinion: Joe Biden: Why I’m going to Saudi Arabia New York Times: Russia Uses ‘Stealth Mobilization’ To Avoid Draft New York Times: Russia Redoubles Attacks In Donetsk Province After Securing Luhansk New York Times: Blinken Presses His Chinese Counterpart About The War. AP: China Demands End To U.S.-Taiwan Military ‘Collusion’ Washington Post: North Korea Stopped Boasting About Missile Tests. Analysts Wonder Why. Washington Post: Michael Flynn cited for unauthorized foreign payments Stars and Stripes: RIMPAC Showcases Resolve To Ensure An Open Indo-Pacific, Navy Commander Says Defense Daily: Marine Corps’ Medium-Range Intercept Capability Prototype Takes Out Simultaneous Targets In Latest Test Air Force Magazine: DOD Air Defenses to Ukraine Still ‘Several Months’ Away as Aid Planning Turns to ‘Years’ Air Force Magazine: X-37B Space Plane Eclipses Its Record for Longest Flight Forbers: The Air Force Is Retiring Most of Its Global Hawk ISR Drones to a Test Role for Hypersonic Missiles 19fortyfive.com: The Secrets of Russia’s Artillery War in Ukraine 19fortyfive.com: Putin's Strategy to Win in Ukraine Is Clear: Artillery Strike the Innocent Task & Purpose: We Salute This Marine For Having A Promotion Ceremony In The Muck Calendar MONDAY | JULY 11 9 a.m. 7920 Jones Branch Dr. — National Defense Industrial Association All Domain Warfare Symposium, with Acting Assistant Defense Secretary for Acquisition Tanya Skeen; and Douglas Bush, assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology https://tinyurl.com/yck8z6dx 10 a.m. — Foundation for Middle East Peace and Jewish Currents virtual discussion: “Mr. Biden Goes to the Middle East," with Dana El Kurd, assistant professor at the University of Richmond; Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft; Lara Friedman, FMEP president; and Peter Beinart, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents https://fmep.org/event/23959/ 12 p.m. — Washington Institute for Near East Policy virtual discussion: “Biden in the Middle East: Opportunities and Challenges," with Ebtesam al-Ketbi, founder and president of the Emirates Policy Center; Tamar Hermann, senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute; Dennis Ross, WINEP counselor and fellow and former special assistant to President Obama; and Robert Satloff, WINEP executive director https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis 1 p.m. Oceanside, California — House Veterans' Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee field hearing: "Ending Veteran Hunger: Examining the Impact of COVID-19 on Food Insecurity,” with Anne Utech, national director of nutrition and food services at the Veterans Affairs Department; Matthew Rabbitt, research economist at the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service; Robert Smith, director of the San Diego VA Health Care System; Kimberly Gallo, director of aging and independence services at the Health and Human Services Agency, County of San Diego; Anahid Brakke, CEO and president of the SD Hunger Coalition; Casey Castillo, interim CEO of the Jacobs/Cushman San Diego Food Bank; Karla Samayoa, director of safety net services at 211 San Diego; Anthony Stewart, CEO of US4Warriors; and Lindsey Seegers, director of external affairs at Kitchens for Good https://veterans.house.gov/events/hearings/ending-veteran-hunger 1 p.m. — Carnegie Endowment for International Peace virtual discussion: “Getting the Intel Right," focusing on Russia, China and the Middle East," with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; and David Miller, CEIP senior fellow https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/07/11/carnegie-connects 3 p.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies Australia Chair webcast: “The U.S.-Australia Alliance: Aligning Priorities in the Indo-Pacific,” with Deputy Australian Prime Minister Richard Marles; and Charles Edel, Australia chair and senior adviser, CSIS https://www.csis.org/events/us-australia-alliance-aligning-priorities 3 p.m. — Washington Post Live virtual discussion with Debra and Marc Tice on efforts to secure the release of their son, Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in Syria in August of 2012. https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live TUESDAY | JULY 12 10 a.m. 390 Cannon — House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol Full committee hearing on the January 6th Investigation. https://january6th.house.gov 10 a.m. — American Security Project virtual discussion: “Previewing President Biden's Middle East Trip," with Linda Robinson, RAND Corporation senior policy researcher; Steven Cook, Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies; and Giorgio Cafiero, ASP adjunct fellow and CEO and founder of Gulf State Analytics https://www.americansecurityproject.org/event 10 a.m. — Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Aerospace Nation event: “Expert Perspectives on Russia/Ukraine Conflict, with Evelyn Farkas, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia; Bryan Clark, senior fellow and director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Hudson Institute; Seth Jones, senior vice president, director, International Security Program, CSIS; and Heather Penney, senior fellow for airpower studies. https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register 12 p.m. — Hudson Institute virtual discussion: “Standing with Allies Against China and Russia," with Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.; Dan Patt, senior fellow at Hudson's Center for Defense Concepts and Technology; and Bryan Clark, director of Hudson's Center for Defense Concepts and Technology https://www.hudson.org/events/2133-virtual-event 2 p.m. — Jewish Institute for National Security of America virtual discussion: “Policy Priorities for Biden's Middle East Trip," with Michael Makovsky, JINSA president and CEO; Eric Edelman, counselor at JINSA's Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy; John Hannah, senior fellow at JINSA's Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy; and Jonathan Ruhe, JINSA director of foreign policy https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register 2 p.m. — Intelligence and National Security Alliance virtual discussion: “Trusting the IC (Intelligence Community)," part of the "Future of the IC Workforce" series," with Kelli Arena, chief of strategic communications at the National Security Agency; Neil Wiley, former principal executive in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Lindy Kyzer, director of content and public relations at ClearanceJobs.com https://www.insaonline.org/event/trusting-the-ic/ WEDNESDAY | JULY 13 10:30 a.m. — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin welcomes Netherlands Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren to the Pentagon 12 p.m. — Hudson Institute virtual discussion: “Middle East Missile Defense: Is the Drug Dealer Opening Rehab Clinics?" with Jonathan Schachter, senior fellow at the Hudson Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East; Can Kasapoglu, nonresident senior fellow at the Hudson Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East; and Michael Doran, director of the Hudson Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East https://www.hudson.org/events/2131-virtual-event 1:30 p.m. — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin welcomes Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles to the Pentagon 1:30 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. — Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion on "Security Assistance to Ukraine: The State Department's Role," with Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Jessica Lewis; Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Todd Robinson; and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Kathryn Insley; and Dafna Rand, director of the State Department's Office of Foreign Assistance https://www.csis.org/events/security-assistance-ukraine-state-departments-role 2 p.m. 2154 Rayburn — House Oversight and Reform National Security Subcommittee: “Protecting Military Servicemembers and Veterans from Financial Scams and Fraud" http://oversight.house.gov 2 p.m. — Government Executive Media Group virtual discussion: "Advancing Soldier-First Modernization," with retired Army Lt. Gen. John Morgan, partner at IBM Consulting; retired Army Col. John Kuenzli, human resources branch chief at IBM Federal and Army Account Solutions; Tom Saracene, regional vice president for sales at Salesforce; and Michael Parker, vice president and business development executive at Salesforce https://www.govexec.com/feature/Advancing-Soldier 3 p.m. 290 Wood Road, Annapolis, Maryland — Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion: "Maritime Security Dialogue: Naval Aviation Update," with Navy Vice Adm. Kenneth Whitesell, commander of Naval Air Forces and commander of Naval Air Force at the U.S. Pacific Fleet; Navy Rear Adm. James Downey, program executive officer for aircraft carriers at the Navy; Rear Adm. Andrew Loiselle, director of Air Warfare Division, N98, in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations; and Ward Carroll, director of outreach at the U.S. Naval Institute https://www.csis.org/events/maritime-security-dialogue-naval-aviation-update 3:15 p.m. — Foundation for Defense of Democracies book discussion: Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, from Barack Obama to Donald Trump, with author Michael Gordon; retired Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, Michele Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense for policy; and moderator Bradley Bowman, senior director, FDD Center on Military and Political Power https://www.fdd.org/events/2022/07/13/degrade-and-destroy THURSDAY | JULY 14 10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. — Center for Strategic and International Studies conference on "Homeland Cruise Missile Defense," with Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerk, commander of the U.S. Northern Command; Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, commander of the U.S. Transportation Command; and Navy Adm. Charles Richard, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command https://www.csis.org/events/homeland-cruise-missile-defense 10 a.m. — Arab Center virtual discussion: “Biden's Trip to the Middle East: Objectives and Potential Outcomes," with Cinzia Bianco, Gulf research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations; Zaha Hasan, fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Middle East Program; Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft; Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now; and Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Center https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register 10 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: "Xi's New Global Security Initiative," with Manoj Kewalramani, chair of the Indo-Pacific research program at the Takshashila Institution; Sheena Chestnut Greitens, associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Public Affairs; and Taylor Fravel, professor of political science and director at MIT's Security Studies Program https://www.csis.org/events/xis-new-global-security-initiative 10:30 a.m. — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin welcomes Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini to the Pentagon 12 p.m. — Hudson Institute virtual event: “Regaining the High Ground against China,” with Diana Maurer, director, defense capabilities and management, Government Accountability Office; Derek Trunkey, principal analyst, Congressional Budget Office; Mark Gunzinger, director, future concepts and capability assessments, Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies; Bryan Clark, senior fellow and director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Hudson Institute; and Timothy Walton, senior fellow, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Hudson Institute https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-event-regaining-the-high-ground 2 p.m. — Brookings Institution discussion on "The National Defense Strategy and great power competition," with former Defense Secretary Mark Esper; and Michael O'Hanlon, co-director of the Brookings Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology https://www.brookings.edu/events/the-national-defense-strategy 2:30 p.m. 1200 16th St. N.W. — George Washington University Project for Media and National Security Defense Writers Group conversation with Richard Marles, deputy prime minister and defense minister of Australia https://nationalsecuritymedia.gwu.edu QUOTE OF THE DAY “I don't want to over, you know, appear overly optimistic here, but history is full of examples of small countries like this who display their will and are able to hold their own. We celebrated one of them last Monday, and I'd like to think the Ukrainians were demonstrating the same to the rest of the world right now.” A senior military official, briefing reporters at the Pentagon Friday. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing global energy crisis have emerged as a leading foreign policy priorities for Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss, as she and her US counterpart Joe Biden promised to strengthen their relationship in face of Vladimir Putin’s aggression.Truss’s call to Biden on Tuesday night followed a conversation with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and focused on what she called “the extreme economic problems caused by Putin’s war”. Biden and Truss “reinforced their commitment to strengthening global liberty, tackling the risks posed by autocracies and ensuring Putin fails in Ukraine”, according to Downing Street.No 10 noted the “enduring strength of the special relationship” with the US, something that appeared at times strained during the reign of her predecessor Boris Johnson.The leaders also committed to deepening alliances through Nato and the Aukus defence pact, established to counter China’s dominance in the Indo-Pacific region.The White House said the leaders discussed close cooperation to help Ukraine “defend itself against Russian aggression”, as well as the challenges posed by China, Iran’s ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons, securing sustainable and affordable energy and the need to protect the Good Friday Agreement.Truss’s first call to a foreign leader was to Zelenskiy. The prime minister, who is the UK’s fourth Conservative prime minister in six years, told him “Ukraine could depend on the UK’s assistance for the long term” and deplored Putin’s attempts to weaponise energy. Accepting an invitation to visit Ukraine soon, the new prime minister said it was “vital Russia’s blackmail did not deter the west from ensuring Putin fails”, according to Downing Street.Honoured to be the object of Truss’s first call, Zelenskiy hailed what he said would be a “profound and productive relationship” with the new leader, with whom he discussed how to increase the pressure on Russia and raise the costs of its invasion.“It is very important that Great Britain retains a leadership role in consolidating the free world and protecting freedom,” he said.I became the 1st foreign leader to have a conversation with the newly elected 🇬🇧 PM @trussliz. Invited her to 🇺🇦. Thanked 🇬🇧 people for the major defense & economic aid for 🇺🇦. It's important that 🇬🇧 is ready to further strengthen it. Attention was paid to security guarantees 1/2— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 6, 2022
Truss and Biden could meet as soon as the UN general assembly later this month, but issues thrown up by Brexit mean it may not be an entirely smooth welcome.Biden, who has Irish roots, raised with Truss on Tuesday night the need to protect the Good Friday Agreement, and “the importance of reaching a negotiated agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland protocol” amid reported concerns about her one-year tenure as foreign secretary which saw post-Brexit tensions in Northern Ireland surface. For its part, Downing Street said the two leaders “agreed on the importance of protecting the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement”.The protracted row over the protocol has ruptured the UK’s relations with the European Union and led to the near collapse of the Stormont assembly, with the Democratic Unionist party refusing to re-enter the executive government until the Brexit arrangements for the country change. Truss is planning an early trip to Dublin, according to a report on Sunday, in what could open a path to talks.A US trade deal that some British officials hoped could offset post-Brexit trade and economic upheaval has yet to materialise under Biden, who warned ahead of his election in 2020 that he would not consent to a deal if Brexit damaged the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.Truss leads a country in the grip of a severe economic crisis, amid soaring energy costs and Bank of England forecasts of double-digit inflation and a lengthy recession unless action was taken.With Reuters and Agence France-Presse | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Israel said Monday it would make no further concessions to Iran and continue to do everything in its power to prevent them from obtaining nuclear weapons. In a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Israel opposes a return to the Iran nuclear deal – also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – and would not be obligated by such an agreement. FILE: Meeting between the president of France and the prime minister of Israel, at the Elysee Palace. (Antoine Gyori/Corbis via Getty Images)"Israel will continue to do everything to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear capability," he said. In his phone call with Macron, Prime Minister Lapid emphasized that the Iranians are continuing to conduct negotiations on an offer which was presented as "take it or leave it." ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS: IRAN THREATENS, TARGETS DISSIDENTS ON AMERICAN SOILHe also warned that in the revised offer, there are new elements that go beyond the limits of the original JCPOA, and that it will pave the way for significant investment to flow into Iran’s terrorist network and to strengthening the Iranian military.President Macron reportedly emphasized his commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.A senior Israeli official to Fox News that "Iran has refused a final offer proposed to them, so now is the time to walk away." Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (R) attends a press conference with Josep Borell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (C) at the foreign ministry headquarters in Iran's capital Tehran on June 25, 2022. ((Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images))"The time has come for a new, stronger strategy to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. Iran's terrorist regime should be treated as the tyrannical, extremist, and oppressive regime that it is," the official said. "The money they get from this deal will go directly into funding terrorism."SALMAN RUSHDIE ATTACK SUSPECT HADI MATAR INDICTED BY GRAND JURYAccording to the official, this message was "along the lines conveyed" to the U.S. officials by Dr. Eyal Hulata, Israel's National Security Advisor.The official refused to answer further questions on the outcomes of the meeting. The meeting came after Macron spoke with President Biden on Sunday about ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, the need to strengthen support for partners in the Middle East, and joint efforts to deter and constrain Iran’s destabilizing regional activities. This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows Iran's underground Natanz nuclear site, as well as ongoing construction to expand the facility in a nearby mountain to the south, near Natanz, Iran, May 9, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)According to a new report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), Iran is poised to rake in an estimated $275 billion in the first year and balloon to an estimated $1 trillion by the early 2030s.Iran on Monday accused the United States of stalling renegotiations on the 2015 deal – which Washington denied. "The Americans are procrastinating and there is inaction from the European sides … America and Europe need an agreement more than Iran," Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, told a news conference. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPThe EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he hopes the U.S. would respond positively as early as this week to the bloc’s proposal.Fox News’ Ben Evansky and Yonat Friling contributed to this report. | US Involvement in Foreign Conflicts |
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