KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was planning to call up more troops for a major new offensive, even as Moscow was facing some of its biggest internal criticism of the war over a strike that killed scores of fresh conscripts.
Kyiv has been saying for weeks that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to order another mass conscription drive and shut his borders to prevent men from escaping the draft.
“We have no doubt that the current masters of Russia will throw everything they have left and everyone they can round up to try to turn the tide of the war and at least delay their defeat,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Tuesday.
“We have to disrupt this Russian scenario. We are preparing for this. The terrorists must lose. Any attempt at their new offensive must fail.”
Russia’s defense ministry on Wednesday blamed mobile phone use by its soldiers for a Ukrainian strike on New Year’s Eve it said had killed 89 servicemen, the deadliest incident Moscow has acknowledged for its troops since the start of the war.
If Russia is planning a new mobilization, the deaths of scores of conscripts on New Year’s Eve could undermine morale. Hundreds of thousands of men fled Russia when Putin ordered the first call-up of reservists since World War Two in September after military setbacks.
Putin said last month there was no need for further mobilization. But in a sign the Kremlin may now be considering one, a little known group claiming to represent widows of Russian soldiers released a call on Tuesday for Putin to order a large-scale mobilization of millions of men. The Kremlin has not commented on that appeal.
Russian anger
Russia has effectively shut down all direct opposition to the war, with open criticism banned by severe media rules. But it has given comparatively free rein to pro-war bloggers, some with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Many are increasingly vocal about what they consider a half-hearted and incompetently led campaign, and have expressed anger this week over the strike that killed Russian troops housed in a vocational school in Donetsk province on New Year’s Eve.
Criticism has been directed at military commanders rather than at Putin, who has not commented publicly on the attack.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, which raised the official death toll in the attack to 89 from 63, blamed soldiers for illegally using mobile phones, which it said led Ukraine to locate the base in Makiivka, twin city of regional capital Donetsk.
Semyon Pegov, a war correspondent decorated by Putin, said on Telegram the mobile phone explanation “looks like an outright attempt to smear the blame,” and there were other ways Ukraine could have spotted the base.
Other pro-Russian bloggers have said the strike was worsened because ammunition was stored at the site. Moscow has not confirmed this.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute think-tank, said Moscow had a problem safely housing freshly mobilized troops near the front in winter.
“It is more difficult to disperse them because of a lack of small unit leadership, and they will do worse in the cold than trained soldiers,” he tweeted. But housing them near ammunition “is simply a leadership failure,” he added.
Armored vehicles
French President Emmanuel Macron told Zelensky France would send light AMX-10 RC armored combat vehicles to help in the war, a French official said after a phone call between the two men, adding this would be the first time Western-made armored vehicles are being delivered in support of the Ukrainian army.
An official from the Ukrainian defense ministry’s intelligence section, Andriy Cherniak, said in comments to the RBC-Ukraine media outlet that Kyiv expected no let-up in Russia’s offensive this year despite the heavy human toll.
“According to Ukrainian military intelligence’s estimates, in the next four-five months the Russian army may lose up to 70,000 people. And the occupying country’s (Russia’s) leadership is ready for such losses,” Cherniak said.
Russian leaders “understand they will lose but they do not plan to end the war,” he said.
In a signal to the West that Russia will not back down over Ukraine, Putin sent a frigate on Wednesday to the Atlantic Ocean armed with new generation hypersonic cruise missiles, which can travel at more than five times the speed of sound.
Ukraine’s military General Staff said in its daily update that Russia had launched seven missile strikes, 18 air strikes and more than 85 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems in the past 24 hours on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
“There are casualties among the civilian population,” it said. Russia denies deliberately attacking civilians.
The battlefield reports could not be independently verified by Reuters.
Ukraine’s General Staff also said Russian forces continued to concentrate on advancing near the Donetsk province city of Bakhmut, where both sides are believed to have lost thousands of troops in weeks of intense trench warfare.
Putin plans to talk to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax. Turkiye acted as mediator alongside the United Nations to establish a deal allowing grain exports from Ukrainian ports.
Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine on Feb. 24, citing threats to its own security and a need to protect Russian speakers. Ukraine and its allies accuse Moscow of an unprovoked war to seize territory.
Ukraine says Russia plans new mobilization to ‘turn tide of war’
https://arab.news/z9m26
Ukraine says Russia plans new mobilization to ‘turn tide of war’
- If Russia is planning a new mobilization, the deaths of scores of conscripts on New Year’s Eve could undermine morale
- Macron told Zelensky France would send light AMX-10 RC armored combat vehicles to help in the war
Apartment building collapses in central Turkiye, trapping 2 people
ISTANBUL: Rescuers were battling to reach two people trapped under a collapsed apartment building in central Turkiye on Saturday, officials said, with three others had already been rescued. No deaths were reported.
The collapse comes as there is renewed focus on building safety following the deaths of 78 people in a hotel fire Tuesday.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 79 people were registered as living in the four-story apartment block in the city of Konya, some 260 kilometers (160 miles) south of the capital Ankara.
TV images showed emergency workers sifting through a large pile of rubble Saturday morning following the building’s collapse Friday evening.
Those remaining under the debris were Syrian nationals, Yerlikaya said, adding that the cause of the building collapse was not immediately known. “If there is a fault, negligence or anything else, we will learn it together,” he told journalists.
The incident occurred just three days after a fire ripped through a 12-story hotel at a ski resort in northwestern Turkiye, killing 78 people. The investigation into the blaze is examining whether proper fire prevention measures were in place.
Questions over building safety have resurfaced two weeks before the second anniversary of an earthquake that hit southern Turkiye and north Syria, killing more than 59,000. The high death toll was due in part to building safety regulations being ignored.
In 2004, a 12-story apartment building collapsed in Konya, claiming the lives of 92 people and injuring some 30 others. Structural flaws and negligence were blamed for the collapse.
Nearly 250 million children missed school last year due to extreme weather— UNICEF
- Heatwaves, cyclones and other extreme weather interrupted schools in 85 countries in 2024, says report
- Around 74 percent of the total children affected in 2024 were in middle- and low-income countries, says UNICEF
CAPE TOWN, South Africa: At least 242 million children in 85 countries had their schooling interrupted last year because of heatwaves, cyclones, flooding and other extreme weather, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in a new report Friday.
UNICEF said it amounted to one in seven school-going children across the world being kept out of class at some point in 2024 because of climate hazards.
The report also outlined how some countries saw hundreds of their schools destroyed by weather, with low-income nations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa hit especially hard.
But other regions weren’t spared the extreme weather, as torrential rains and floods in Italy near the end of the year disrupted school for more than 900,000 children. Thousands had their classes halted after catastrophic flooding in Spain.
While southern Europe dealt with deadly floods and Asia and Africa had flooding and cyclones, heatwaves were “the predominant climate hazard shuttering schools last year,” UNICEF said, as the earth recorded its hottest year ever.
More than 118 million children had their schooling interrupted in April alone, UNICEF said, as large parts of the Middle East and Asia, from Gaza in the west to the Philippines in the southeast, experienced a sizzling weekslong heatwave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
“Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of weather-related crises, including stronger and more frequent heatwaves, storms, droughts and flooding,” UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement. “Children’s bodies are uniquely vulnerable. They heat up faster, they sweat less efficiently, and cool down more slowly than adults. Children cannot concentrate in classrooms that offer no respite from sweltering heat, and they cannot get to school if the path is flooded, or if schools are washed away.”
Around 74 percent of the children affected in 2024 were in middle- and low-income countries, showing how climatic extremes continue to have a devastating impact in the poorest countries. Flooding ruined more than 400 schools in Pakistan in April. Afghanistan had heatwaves followed by severe flooding that destroyed over 110 schools in May, UNICEF said.
Months of drought in southern Africa exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon threatened the schooling and futures of millions of children.
And the crises showed little sign of abating. The poor French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean off Africa was left in ruins by Cyclone Chido in December and hit again by Tropical Storm Dikeledi this month, leaving children across the islands out of school for six weeks.
Cyclone Chido also destroyed more than 330 schools and three regional education departments in Mozambique on the African mainland, where access to education is already a deep problem.
UNICEF said the world’s schools and education systems “are largely ill-equipped” to deal with the effects of extreme weather.
US migrant deportation flights arrive in Latin America
- A total of 265 Guatemalans arrived on three flights – two operated by the military, and one a charter
- Donald Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign
GUATEMALA CITY: US military planes carrying dozens of expelled migrants arrived in Guatemala, authorities said Friday, as President Donald Trump moved to crack down on illegal immigration.
A total of 265 Guatemalans arrived on three flights — two operated by the military, and one a charter, the Central American country’s migration institute said, updating earlier figures.
Washington also sent four deportation flights to Mexico on Thursday, the White House press secretary said on X, despite multiple US media reports that authorities there had turned at least one plane back.
The Mexican government has not confirmed either the arrival of flights or any agreement to receive a specific number of planes with deportees.
But Mexico’s foreign ministry said Friday it was ready to work with Washington over the deportation of its citizens, saying the country would “always accept the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms.”
The flights came as the White House said it had arrested more than a thousand people in two days with hundreds deported by military aircraft, saying that “the largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway.”
Some 538 illegal immigrant “criminals” were arrested Thursday, it said, followed by another 593 on Friday.
By comparison, under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden deportation flights were carried out regularly, with a total of 270,000 deportations in 2024 — a 10-year record — and 113,400 arrests, making an average of 310 per day.
The Guatemalan government did not confirm whether any of the migrants arrested this week were among the deportees that arrived Friday.
“These are flights that took place after Trump took office,” an official in the Guatemalan vice president’s office said.
A Pentagon source said that “overnight, two DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft conducted repatriation flights from the US to Guatemala.”
Early Friday the White House posted an image on X of men in shackles being marched into a military aircraft, with the caption: “Deportation flights have begun.”
And Trump told reporters that the flights were to get “the bad, hard criminals out.”
“Murderers, people that have been as bad as you get. As bad as anybody you’ve seen,” he said.
Friday’s deportees were taken to a reception center at an air force base in Guatemala’s capital, away from the media.
Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States.
On his first day in office he signed orders declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport “criminal aliens.”
His administration said it would also reinstate a “Remain in Mexico” policy under which people who apply to enter the United States from Mexico must remain there until their application has been decided.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Friday on X that program had been reinstated, and that Mexico had deployed some 30,000 National Guard troops to its border.
The Mexican foreign ministry did not confirm either claim in its statement.
The White House has also halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Mexican side of the border.
Philippines accuses China’s forces of harassing fisheries vessels in the South China Sea
- The Chinese coast guard and navy’s harassment of the Philippine vessels took place Friday near Sandy Cay
- China has repeatedly asserted sovereignty over most of the South China Sea and accused rival claimant states
MANILA: Chinese coast guard ships and a Chinese navy helicopter harassed a group of Philippine fisheries vessels conducting a scientific survey in a hotly disputed area of the South China Sea, forcing them to cancel the operation, the Philippine coast guard said Saturday.
The Chinese coast guard and navy’s harassment of the Philippine vessels took place Friday near Sandy Cay, three small uninhabited sandbars planked by an artificial island base of Chinese forces and a Philippines-occupied island in the Spratlys archipelago, the coast guard said.
The coast guard ships approached two larger vessels, which maneuvered to avoid a collision, and a Chinese navy helicopter flew low over two smaller boats deployed by the ships, forcing the survey to be called off.
Videos released by the Philippine coast guard show a Chinese coast guard ship sailing very close to a ship officials identified as one of the Philippine vessels. Another video shows a Chinese military helicopter hovering low over the rough seas near a vessel flying a Philippine flag.
There was no immediate response from Chinese officials, but China has repeatedly asserted sovereignty over most of the South China Sea and accused rival claimant states, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia of encroachment. China has demarcated its territorial claims with a 10 dashed-line printed in maps but has not provided the exact coordinates.
The latest flare-out of the long-simmering territorial disputes in one of the world’s busiest trade and security passageways could test President Donald Trump’s commitment to maintain America’s role as a counterweight to China, which has increasingly carried out assertive actions in the disputed waters.
His predecessor, Joe Biden, strengthened an arc of security alliances in Asia while in office in a bid to curb China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea, East China Sea and around Taiwan, a self-governed island which Beijing has vowed to take by force if necessary.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a telephone call on Wednesday with his Philippine counterpart, Enrique Manalo, discussed issues of mutual concern, including “the People’s Republic of China’s dangerous and destabilizing actions in the South China Sea,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
Rubio “conveyed that that the PRC’s behavior undermines regional peace and stability and is inconsistent with international law,” Bruce said in a readout of the call.
Rubio “underscored the United States’ ironclad commitments to the Philippines under our Mutual Defense Treaty,” Bruce said.
Biden and his administration had repeatedly warned China that the US is obligated to help defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under armed attack including in the South China Sea. China has warned the US to stay away from what it says is a purely Asian dispute.
Hegseth narrowly wins confirmation to become US defense secretary
- Only second cabinet secretary ever confirmed in tie-break vote
- Hegseth promises to bring major changes to military
WASHINGTON: Pete Hegseth narrowly secured enough votes on Friday to become the next US defense secretary, a major victory for President Donald Trump after fierce opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to his controversial nominee.
Hegseth was confirmed after a 50-50 vote in the Senate, when Vice President JD Vance came to the chamber to break the tie in his role as president of the Senate, after three Republicans joined every Democrat and independent in voting no.
Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and decorated veteran, is promising to bring major changes to the Pentagon. But his leadership will be under intense scrutiny after a bruising confirmation review that raised serious questions about his qualifications, temperament and views about women in combat.
“We have not had a secretary of defense like Hegseth before,” said Jeremi Suri, a University of Texas, Austin, history professor and presidential scholar.
Hegseth is the most divisive candidate to clinch the US military’s top job, a position that has historically gone to candidates with deep experience running large organizations and who enjoy broad bipartisan support.
It was only the second time in history a cabinet nominee needed a tie-break to be confirmed. The first was also a Trump nominee, Betsy DeVos, who became secretary of education in 2017.
The three Republican senators who voted against Hegseth were Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell, was the party’s leader in the chamber until this month.
McConnell said Hegseth had failed to demonstrate that he had the ability to effectively manage an organization as large and complex as the military. “Mere desire to be a ‘change agent’ is not enough to fill these shoes,” McConnell said in a statement.
Hegseth will lead 1.3 million active-duty service members and the nearly 1 million civilians who work for the US military, which has a nearly $1 trillion annual budget. Hegseth told lawmakers that, up until this point, the largest group he had managed was 100 people and the largest budget was $16 million.
His nomination was rocked by a series of accusations, including one this week by his former sister-in-law, who said he abused his second wife to the extent that she hid in a closet and had a code word to use with friends if she had to be rescued. Hegseth strongly denied the accusations and his wife had previously denied any physical abuse.
TRUMP STAUNCHLY BEHIND PICK
Trump, whose nominees for FBI and intelligence chief are also under Senate scrutiny, stood staunchly by his pick and he put extensive pressure on his fellow Republicans to back the 44-year-old television personality.
Suri said the vote demonstrated the extent of Trump’s power at the start of his second term in office.
“It means certainly that Trump has enormous leverage over the Republican Party and over members of the Senate,” he said.
Ahead of Friday’s vote, Trump had admonished two fellow Republicans, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who voted against Hegseth in a procedural test vote on Thursday.
“I was very surprised that Collins and Murkowski would do that,” Trump told reporters on Friday morning.
But most Senate Republicans fell into line to defend the nominee who they said would restore a “warrior” mentality to the US military.
Hegseth has criticized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military, and, in his latest book, asked whether the top US general has the job because he is Black. Reuters has previously reported about the possibility mass firing among top brass, something Hegseth repeatedly refused to rule out during his confirmation process.
OPPOSED WOMEN IN COMBAT
For years, Hegseth also strongly opposed women in combat roles but walked back that stance as he courted support for his confirmation, including from military veterans like Republican Senator Joni Ernst.
Ernst was one of the 14 Armed Services Committee Republicans who voted for Hegseth when the committee backed him by 14 to 13, with every Democrat opposing his nomination.
A number of episodes have sparked concern about Hegseth, including a 2017 sexual assault allegation that did not result in charges and which Hegseth denies. Sexual assault is a persistent problem in the US military.
Hegseth has also been accused of excessive drinking and financial mismanagement at veterans’ organizations. He has vowed to abstain from alcohol if confirmed and said he made financial errors but denied wrongdoing.
In a 2021 incident first reported by Reuters, Hegseth was branded an “insider threat” by a fellow member of the Army National Guard over his tattoos. Hegseth noted the incident during the hearing, which led him to be pulled from Guard duty in Washington during Biden’s inauguration.
He takes over as the Trump administration has said that border security and immigration will be a focus for the US military.
On Friday, US military C-17 aircraft began flying detained migrants out of the country following orders from Trump, in the first such involvement by the US military in deportations in recent memory.
The Pentagon has announced plans to send 1,500 active-duty troops to the border in response to Trump’s orders, a number that looks poised to quickly grow. US officials on Friday told Reuters that the military was preparing to send a second wave of troops, likely from the 82nd Airborne.
Little is known about where Hegseth stands on key foreign policy issues like arming Ukraine, how to prepare the US military for a potential conflict with China and whether he would seek to scale back the US military footprint in places like Syria and Iraq.
The nearly party-line confirmation vote was a departure for a position that Republican and Democratic administrations have long sought to ensure was bipartisan.
Former President Joe Biden’s defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, was confirmed by a 93-2 vote in 2021, and Jim Mattis, Trump’s first defense secretary in his last administration, was confirmed 98-1 in 2017.
Hegseth’s Republican supporters in the Senate have argued that he has acknowledged personal failings, including infidelities and past drinking, and is the right person to bring the Pentagon’s core mission of winning wars back into focus.
The last nominee for defense secretary who was defeated was former Senator John Tower in 1989. Tower was investigated over claims of drunkenness and inappropriate behavior with women.
