Salisbury: Yulia Skripal has left hospital more than five weeks after she and her father, a former Russian spy, were poisoned with a nerve agent in an attack that has sparked one of the biggest crises in the West’s relations with the Kremlin since the Cold War.
Yulia and Sergei Skripal, 66, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service, were found unconscious on a public bench in the English cathedral city of Salisbury on March 4.
Britain accused Russia of being behind the nerve agent attack and Western governments including the United States expelled over 100 Russian diplomats. Russia has denied any involvement in the poisoning and retaliated in kind.
The Skripals were in a critical condition for weeks and doctors at one point feared, even if they survived, they might have suffered brain damage. But the Skripals’ health since then has begun to improve rapidly.
Yulia, 33, has been discharged from Salisbury District Hospital, Christine Blanshard, medical director of the hospital, told reporters on Tuesday and her father could be discharged in due course.
“We have now discharged Yulia,” Blanshard said. “This is not the end of her treatment, but marks a significant milestone.”
“Her father has also made good progress,” Blanshard said. ” “Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course.”
Yulia has been taken to a secure location, the BBC said. The Sunday Times reported that Britain was considering giving the Skripals new identities and a fresh life in the United States to protect them from further attacks.
Russia said it would consider any secret resettlement of the Skripals as an abduction of its citizens.
“The world, while having no opportunity to interact with them, will have every reason to see this as an abduction of the two Russian nationals or at least as their isolation,” a spokesman for the Russian embassy in London said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a deadly group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.
Russia has denied Britain’s charges of involvement in the first known offensive use of such a nerve agent on European soil since World War Two and suggested Britain carried out the attack itself to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.
Russia has said it does not have such nerve agents and President Vladimir Putin said it was nonsense to think that Moscow would have poisoned Skripal and his daughter.
Blanshard, a doctor with 25 years experience, said nerve agents work by attaching themselves to particular enzymes in the body that then stop the nerves from functioning. She said this had resulted in sickness and hallucinations.
Giving the first details about the medical treatment of the Skripals, she said doctors had first sought to stabilize them to ensure that they could breathe and that blood could circulate.
“We then needed to use a variety of different drugs to support the patients, until they could create more enzymes to replace those affected by the poisoning,” Blanshard said. “We also used specialized decontamination techniques to remove any residual toxins.”
She did not say when Yulia had been discharged.
Both Britain and Russia congratulated Skripal, a Russian citizen, on her recovery.
“We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery,” the Russian embassy in London said, adding that it had not been granted consular access to her.
Sergei Skripal, who was recruited by Britain’s MI6, was arrested for treason in Moscow in 2004. He ended up in Britain after being swapped in 2010 for Russian spies caught in the United States.
Since emerging from the John le Carre world of high espionage and betrayal, Skripal lived modestly in Salisbury and kept out of the spotlight until he was found poisoned. He has British citizenship.
Yulia Skripal leaves British hospital five weeks after nerve agent attack
Yulia Skripal leaves British hospital five weeks after nerve agent attack
- Salisbury District Hospital: Yulia Skripal has been discharged and her father could be discharged in due course.
- Reports that Britain is considering giving the Skripals new identities and a fresh life in the United States to protect them from further attacks.
Russia has plans to test NATO’s resolve, German intelligence chief warns
- Germany has pledged to step up its support further under the new government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, promising to help Ukraine develop new missiles that could strike deep into Russian territory
BERLIN: Russia is determined to test the resolve of the NATO alliance, including by extending its confrontation with the West beyond the borders of Ukraine, the Germany’s foreign intelligence chief told the Table Media news organization.
Bruno Kahl, head of the Federal Intelligence Service, said his agency had clear intelligence indications that Russian officials believed the collective defense obligations enshrined in the NATO treaty no longer had practical force.
“We are quite certain, and we have intelligence showing it, that Ukraine is only a step on the journey westward,” Kahl told Table Media in a podcast interview.
“That doesn’t mean we expect tank armies to roll westwards,” he added. “But we see that NATO’s collective defense promise is to be tested.”
Germany, already the second-largest provider of armaments and financial support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, has pledged to step up its support further under the new government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, promising to help Ukraine develop new missiles that could strike deep into Russian territory.
Without detailing the nature of his intelligence sources, Kahl said Russian officials were envisaging confrontations that fell short of a full military engagement that would test whether the US would really live up to its mutual aid obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
“They don’t need to dispatch armies of tanks for that,” he said. “It’s enough to send little green men to Estonia to protect supposedly oppressed Russian minorities.”
Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea involved occupation of buildings and offices by Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms and civilian clothes, who came to be known as the “little green men” when Moscow initially denied their identity.
Kahl did not specify which officials in Moscow were thinking along these lines.
Merz, who visited Donald Trump in Washington last week, pushed back against the US president’s assertion that Ukraine and Russia were like two infants fighting, telling Trump that where Ukraine targeted Moscow’s military, Russia bombed Ukraine’s cities.
Kahl said his contacts with US counterparts had left him convinced they took the Russian threat seriously.
“They take it as seriously as us, thank God,” he said.
US State Dept resumes processing Harvard student visas after judge’s ruling
- Under that order granted to Harvard late on Thursday, US District Judge Allison Burroughs blocked Trump’s proclamation from taking effect pending further litigation of the matter
WASHINGTON: The US State Department directed all US missions abroad and consular sections to resume processing Harvard University student and exchange visitor visas after a federal judge in Boston last week temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s ban on foreign students at the Ivy-League institution.
In a diplomatic cable sent on June 6 and signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department cited parts of the judge’s decision, saying the fresh directive was “in accordance with” the temporary restraining order.
Under that order granted to Harvard late on Thursday, US District Judge Allison Burroughs blocked Trump’s proclamation from taking effect pending further litigation of the matter.
Trump had cited national security concerns as justification for barring international students from entering the United States to pursue studies at Harvard.
The Trump administration has launched a multi-pronged attack on the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, freezing billions of dollars in grants and other funding and proposing to end its tax-exempt status, prompting a series of legal challenges.
Harvard argues the administration is retaliating against it for refusing to accede to demands to control the school’s governance, curriculum and the ideology of its faculty and students.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the cable, the State Department added that all other guidance regarding student visas remained in effect, including enhanced social media vetting and the requirement to review the applicants’ online presence.
Macron calls for release of Gaza activists as thousands demonstrate in French cities
- Tens of thousands of people staged rallies after Israel stopped the boat, the Madleen, that was carrying 12 activists, including Greta Thunberg
- In Switzerland, several hundred people blocked train stations in Geneva and Lausanne to protest Israel’s military operations in Gaza
NICE: French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to quickly free activists, including Greta Thunberg, on a boat that was seized Monday as it headed for Gaza in an operation that sparked angry protests in several European cities.
Tens of thousands of people staged rallies after Israel stopped the boat, the Madleen, that was carrying 12 activists.
In France, rallies in Paris and at least five other cities were called by left wing parties. Jean-Luc Melenchon, head of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, called the seizure of the Gaza boat by the Israeli military “international piracy.”
In Switzerland, several hundred people blocked train stations in Geneva and Lausanne to protest Israel’s military operations in Gaza, media reports said.
Some 300 protesters carrying Palestinian flags occupied two tracks at Geneva’s main station for about an hour, leading to delays and cancellations, the reports said. A similar protest was staged in nearby Lausanne, where police cleared the tracks.
Macron, meanwhile, urged the immediate liberation of French nationals among the 12 activists on the vessel.
Macron had “requested that the six French nationals be allowed to return to France as soon as possible,” his office said.
France was “vigilant” and “stands by all its nationals when they are in danger,” he added. The French government had also called on Israel to ensure the “protection” of the activists. Macron also called the humanitarian blockade of Gaza “a scandal” and a “disgrace.”
Israel’s foreign ministry said earlier that “all the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed,” and it expected the activists to return to their home countries.
Israel has virtually sealed off Gaza as part of its military operation in the Palestinian territory since the Hamas militant group’s attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
UAE-based comedian Shawn Chidiac brings Dubai ‘comedy gold’ to London audience
- Standup comic’s ‘Laughing in Translation’ will feature a range of accents, personas from the multicultural Gulf city
- ‘Comedy has been the most healing part of my life,’ Chidiac says ahead of 1st solo show in the UK
LONDON: For those who want to experience the hustle and bustle of Dubai without actually booking a flight, Shawn Chidiac’s stand-up comedy show in London will offer an insight into the multicultural city that provides inspiration for his jokes and stage personas.
The UAE-based comedian will perform “Laughing in Translation” live at the Shaw Theatre in London on June 15. He told Arab News that storytelling and sharing experiences with the audience are at the heart of his stand-up comedy.
Chidiac began sharing his humorous content on Instagram with the handle “Laughing in Arabic,” aiming to introduce Western satire and wit to the Arab region, where it is often unfathomable. He later changed his username to the more personal @myparents_are_divorced, which has grown to more than 645,000 followers.
The comedian’s parents are, indeed, divorced, though some people question this when they meet him. He was born in Canada to a family originally from Lebanon, which he still visits a few times a year, and he appreciates the resilience it instilled in him, which saved him from ending up “in a ditch many times,” he said.
Chidiac grew up mainly in Dubai with his mother, who at times worked two jobs and started her own business to make ends meet. In this “City of Gold” on the Arabian Gulf, home to 3.65 million people representing over 200 nationalities and speaking 150 different languages, Chidiac sharpened his wit, picked up various accents, and drew inspiration from stories from all walks of life.
Comedy has been the most healing part of my life so far and will continue to heal me in many different ways
Shawn Chidiac
The stand-up comedian tells astonishing stories about life in Dubai. His comedy is inspired by his experiences interacting with people, while his goal is to connect with audiences through shared similarities, or to educate them about his family upbringing, culture, and history.
“The inspiration comes from the people I know and see, and the things I do, and my interaction with them. So, the more interaction I have, the better it is, which is hard because I’m a massive introvert,” he told Arab News in a video call from Dubai.
His upbringing was mainly Arab, but also blends various cultures, mainly from Southeast Asia, as well as European and African countries. He discovered his talent for adopting different personas and accents at a young age when his mother heard him speaking with an Indian-English accent and asked him to perform it for her friends.
The closest he lived to Europe was Sharjah, an emirate just 10 minutes from Dubai, he said. In addition to working in a software company in the UAE, Chidiac also worked for two months in Amsterdam. In 2023, he decided to quit his 9-5 job and become a full-time content creator and stand-up comedian.
Last summer, he performed for the first time in London at Cadogan Hall alongside a group of stand-up comedians, and he recently had two performances at Dubai Opera and in Bahrain.
In mid-June, he will visit London for the second time to perform his first solo show. The audience can expect to see and hear various Dubai characters and their distinct accents, such as an Egyptian salesman in a supermarket, a caring Indian father with his son, a Filipino flight attendant ensuring that seat belts are fastened, and possibly a Persian prince wearing a golden necklace secured by a golden lock.
“I’m connecting as many people as possible through (comedy stories about) my upbringing. Whoever has lived in the Gulf will have a similar story or narrative in their minds… The London audience will be experiencing it live, but in their own way and through their own lenses,” Chidiac said.
He said that UK audiences are spoiled for choice when it comes to stand-up comedy shows, and their “palate” is different from those in Dubai, where most of his audience are first-timers. Nevertheless, he said that it matters to him that they find his show “funny, whether they’re black, white, Asian, or Arab.”
I’m connecting as many people as possible through (comedy stories about) my upbringing. Whoever has lived in the Gulf will have a similar story or narrative in their minds
Shawn Chidiac
Dubai is a popular destination for British expats, with an estimated 240,000 living there and many more visiting the city or using it as a transfer hub. Chidiac is working on his British accents, including one similar to the documentary-maker David Attenborough’s and a thick Cockney version from London’s East End.
In Dubai, he operates “Comedy Kitchen,” a community project that hosts open-mic nights to support other stand-up comedians, and he plans to launch a school to train and teach media skills.
Chidiac said that being a full-time content creator and comedian during the past two years “had its ups and downs.” Still, this has provided him with a solid platform on which to thrive and give back to his family.
“It’s a very scary place to call home, but it has changed my life for the better for sure. I never, never look back with any regrets at all.
“Comedy has been the most healing part of my life so far and will continue to heal me in many different ways,” he said.
* Laughing in Translation by Shawn Chidiac at the Shaw Theatre, London; 8pm, Sunday 15 June 2025
NATO chief calls for ‘quantum leap’ in defense and says Russia could attack in 5 years
- Rutte said Russia is outpacing the far bigger NATO in producing ammunition
LONDON: NATO members need to increase their air and missile defenses by 400 percent to counter the threat from Russia, the head of the military alliance said Monday, warning that Moscow could be ready to attack it within five years.
Secretary-General Mark Rutte said during a visit to London that he expects the 32 NATO members to agree to a big hike in military spending at a summit in the Netherlands this month.
Speaking at the Chatham House think tank, Rutte said Russia is outpacing the far bigger NATO in producing ammunition, and the alliance must take a “quantum leap” in collective defense.
“Wishful thinking will not keep us safe,” Rutte said. “We cannot dream away the danger. Hope is not a strategy. So NATO has to become a stronger, fairer and more lethal alliance.”
Rutte has proposed a target of 3.5 percent of economic output on military spending and another 1.5 percent on “defense-related expenditure” such as roads, bridges, airfields and sea ports. He said he is confident the alliance will agree to the target at its summit in The Hague on June 24-25.
At the moment, 22 of the 32 members meet or exceed NATO’s current 2 percent target, which was set in 2014. Rutte said he expects all to reach 2 percent by the end of this year.
The new target would meet a demand by US President Donald Trump that member states spend 5 percent of gross domestic product on defense. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and complained that the US provides security to European countries that don’t contribute enough.
Rutte said he agreed that “America has carried too much of the burden for too long.”
Rutte said NATO needs thousands more armored vehicles and millions more artillery shells, as well as a 400 percent increase in air and missile defense.
“We see in Ukraine how Russia delivers terror from above, so we will strengthen the shield that protects our skies,” he said.
“Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years,” Rutte added. “We are all on the eastern flank now.”
Rutte also held talks Monday with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and praised the UK’s commitment to increase defense spending as “very good stuff.” Starmer has pledged to boost military spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2027 and to 3 percent by 2034.
Like other NATO members, the UK has been reassessing its defense spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
European NATO members, led by the UK and France, have scrambled to coordinate their defense posture as Trump transforms American foreign policy, seemingly sidelining Europe as he looks to end the war in Ukraine.
Last week the UK government said it would build new nuclear-powered attack submarines, prepare its army to fight a war in Europe and become “a battle-ready, armor-clad nation.” The plans represent the most sweeping changes to British defenses since the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.
