KYIV/SIVERSK: Russia has stepped up a powerful assault on Soledar in eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, forcing Ukrainian troops to repel waves of attacks led by the Wagner contract militia around the salt mining town and nearby fronts.
Soledar, in the industrial Donbas region, lies a few miles from Bakhmut, where troops from both sides have been taking heavy losses in some of the most intense trench warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.
Ukrainian forces repelled an earlier attempt to take the town but a large number of Wagner Group units quickly returned, deploying new tactics and more soldiers under heavy artillery cover, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Monday on the Telegram messaging app.
“The enemy literally step over the corpses of their own soldiers, using massed artillery, MLRS systems and mortars,” Malyar said.
Russia’s defense ministry did not mention either Soledar or Bakhmut in a regular media briefing on Monday, a day after facing criticism for an apparently false claim of a missile strike on a temporary Ukrainian barracks.
Wagner was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Drawing some recruits from Russia’s prisons and known for uncompromising violence, it is active in conflicts in Africa and has taken a prominent role in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Prigozhin has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at the cost of many lives on both sides. He said on Saturday its significance lay in a network of cavernous mining tunnels below the ground, which can hold big groups of people as well as tanks and other war machines.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting in Bahkmut and Soledar is “the most intense on the entire frontline,” with little advancement by either side in the freezing conditions.
“So many (pro-Russian fighters) remain on the battlefield ... either dead or wounded,” he said on YouTube.
“They attack our positions in waves, but the wounded as a rule die where they lie, either from exposure as it is very cold or from blood loss. No one is coming to help them or to collect the dead from the battlefield.”
Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports.
NO BUILDINGS INTACT
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in nightly video remarks on Monday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction.
He cited new and fiercer attacks in Soledar, where he said no walls have been left standing and the land is covered with Russian corpses.
“Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers in Soledar, we have won for Ukraine additional time and additional strength,” Zelensky said. He did not spell out what he meant by gaining time or strength.
But Ukrainian officials, led by the commander in chief General Valery Zaluzhniy, have warned that Russia is preparing fresh troops for a new, major offensive on Ukraine, possibly on the capital Kyiv.
Zelensky also appears to be banking on securing more, sophisticated weapons from Ukraine’s Western partners to beat off attacks and eventually expel Russian troops.
On Monday, he pressed on with diplomatic efforts, speaking to Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, current chair of the 27-member European Union.
“I am certain that our soldiers at the front will get these weapons and equipment. Very soon,” he said.
France, Germany and the United States all pledged last week to send armored fighting vehicles, fulfilling a long-standing Ukrainian request. Britain is considering supplying Ukraine with tanks for the first time, Sky News reported, citing a Western source. Britain’s Defense Ministry did not comment.
Iran could be contributing to war crimes in Ukraine by providing drones to Russia, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.
The United States has imposed sanctions on companies and people it accused of producing or transferring Iranian drones used by Russia. The White House said last week it is considering ways to target Iran’s production of the unmanned weaponized aircraft through sanctions and export controls.
WAVES OF ATTACK
Military analysts say the strategic military benefit for Russia of capturing Bakhmut and Soledar would be limited.
Taras Berezovets, a Ukrainian journalist, political commentator and officer in the Ukrainian army, said capturing Soledar made little sense, except as a personal victory for Prigozhin, however it would be easier to take than Bakhmut.
“It’s his personal war,” Berezovets said on YouTube.
A US official has said Prigozhin is eyeing the salt and gypsum from the mines, believed to extend over 100 miles underground and contain auditorium-scale caverns.
Berezovets said Ukrainian troops fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar say attacks come in waves of small groups, no more than 15, with the first wave usually wiped out. The pro-Russian forces retrench and leave white ribbons for the next wave to follow.
“The complexity of fighting in cities like Bakhmut and Soledar is that it is hard to determine who is with you and who is the enemy,” he said.
In an evacuee center in nearby Kramatorsk, Olha, 60, said she had fled Soledar after moving from apartment to apartment as each was destroyed in tank battles.
“There isn’t one house left intact. Apartments were burning, breaking in half,” said Olha, who gave only her first name.
Fierce fighting in Ukraine’s Soledar leaves battlefield strewn with corpses — Zelensky
https://arab.news/9c6q7
Fierce fighting in Ukraine’s Soledar leaves battlefield strewn with corpses — Zelensky
- Zelensky says no walls left standing in Soledar
- Wagner Group sending waves of fighters, Ukraine says
The ‘super year’ of elections has been super bad for incumbents as voters punish them in droves
- Around 70 countries accounting for about half the world’s population went to the polls this year
- Except for a few, notably in Mexico, the parties in power were either toppled or suffered diminished advantages
BANGKOK: Whether on the left or the right, regardless of how long they’ve been in power, sitting governments around the world have been drubbed this year by disgruntled voters in what has been called the “super year” for elections.
Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election was just the latest in a long line of losses for incumbent parties in 2024, with people in some 70 countries accounting for about half the world’s population going to the polls.
Issues driving voter discontent have varied widely, though there has been almost universal malaise since the COVID-19 pandemic as people and businesses struggle to get back on their feet while facing stubbornly high prices, cash-strapped governments and a surge in migration.
“There’s an overall sense of frustration with political elites, viewing them as out of touch, that cuts across ideological lines,” said Richard Wike, director of global attitudes research at the Pew Research Center.
He noted that a Pew poll of 24 countries found that the appeal of democracy itself was slipping as voters reported increasing economic distress and a sense that no political faction truly represents them.
“Lots of factors are driving this,” Wike said, “but certainly feelings about the economy and inflation are a big factor.”
Since the pandemic hit in 2020, incumbents have been removed from office in 40 of 54 elections in Western democracies, said Steven Levitsky, a political scientist at Harvard University, revealing “a huge incumbent disadvantage.”
In Britain, the right-of-center Conservatives suffered their worst result since 1832 in July’s election, which returned the center-left Labour Party to power after 14 years.
But just across the English Channel, the far right rocked the governing parties of France and Germany, the European Union’s biggest and most powerful members, in June elections for the parliament of the 27-nation bloc.
The results pushed French President Emmanuel Macron to call a parliamentary election in hope of stemming a far-right surge at home. The anti-immigration National Rally party won the first round, but alliances and tactical voting knocked it down to third place in the second round, producing a fragile government atop a divided legislature.
In Asia, a group of South Korean liberal opposition parties, led by the Democratic Party, defeated the ruling conservative People Power Party in April’s parliamentary elections.
India’s Narendra Modi, meanwhile, had been widely expected to easily sweep to a third straight term in June but instead voters turned away from his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in droves, costing it its majority in parliament, though it was able to remain in power with the help of allies.
Likewise, Japanese voters in October punished the Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed the country nearly without interruption since 1955.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will stay in power, but the greater-than-expected loss ended the LDP’s one-sided rule, giving the opposition a chance to achieve policy changes long opposed by the conservatives.
“If you were to ask me to explain Japan in a vacuum, that’s not too difficult,” said Paul Nadeau, an adjunct assistant professor at Temple University’s Japan campus in Tokyo.
“Voters were punishing an incumbent party for a corruption scandal, and this gave them a chance to express a lot more frustrations that they already had.”
Globally, however, it’s harder to draw conclusions.
“This is pretty consistent across different situations, different countries, different elections — incumbents are getting a crack on the shins,” he said. “And I don’t have any good big picture explanations for why that is.”
Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said inflation has been a major driver of “the greatest wave of anti-incumbent voting ever seen” — though the reasons behind the backlash may also be “broader and more diffuse.”
“It could be something directly to do with the long-term effects of the COVID pandemic — a big wave of ill health, disrupted education, disrupted workplace experiences and so forth making people less happy everywhere, and they are taking it out on governments,” he said.
“A kind of electoral long COVID.”
In South Africa, high unemployment and inequality helped drive a dramatic loss of support for the African National Congress, which had governed for three decades since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule. The party once led by Nelson Mandela lost its parliamentary majority in May’s election and was forced to go into coalition with opposition parties.
Other elections in Africa presented a mixed picture, said Alex Vines, director of the African Program at the international affairs think tank Chatham House, partially clouded by countries with authoritarian leaders whose reelections were not in doubt, like Rwanda’s long-serving President Paul Kagame who got 99 percent of the vote.
In African countries with strong democratic institutions, however, the pattern of incumbents being punished holds, Vines said.
“The countries with stronger institutions — South Africa, Senegal, Botswana — have witnessed either a government of national unity or change of party of government,” he said.
In Botswana, voters unexpectedly ejected a party that had ruled for 58 years since independence from Britain in an October election.
Vines said that across the continent, “you’ve got this electorate now who have no memory of decolonization or the end of apartheid and so have different priorities, who are also feeling the cost-of-living pressures.”
In Latin America, one major country stands out for bucking the anti-incumbent wave – Mexico.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, limited to a single term, selected Claudia Sheinbaum, a member of his party, to succeed him. Sheinbaum easily won the presidency in June’s election.
Wike noted that Mexico is one of the few countries in Pew’s survey where voters reported satisfaction with economic conditions.
Some newcomers to office have already found that the honeymoon following their victories has been short, as people have rapidly turned on them.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has seen his approval ratings plummet from a jaded electorate that wants lower prices and better public services — but is deeply skeptical of politicians’ intention and ability to deliver change.
Ford, of the University of Manchester, said it’s a problem for democracy when voters, whose task is to hold governments to account, are so quick to pass judgment.
“If voters are the electoral equivalent of a hanging judge, putting politicians to the gallows whether they be guilty or innocent, then what incentive is there for governments to try?” he asked. “The angels and the devils get chucked out alike, but being an angel is harder.”
Trump first came to power as a challenger in the 2016 election, and then lost as an incumbent in the 2020 election to Joe Biden. This year, he defeated Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, who stepped in late in the race when the president unexpectedly dropped out.
Trump’s win is one of the conservative populist movement’s highest-profile triumphs. But another icon of the cause, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, saw his own party suffer its worst showing in decades in this year’s European Union election, demonstrating that no movement is safe from backlash.
Nadeau, of Temple University, suggested that perhaps analysts had previously misunderstood global electoral trends — parsing them as ideological shifts — “when all along it was actually an anti-incumbent mood.”
“Maybe it has always been anti-incumbent, and we were just misdiagnosing it,” he said.
Trump’s pick for top defense post paid woman after sex assault allegation but denies wrongdoing, his lawyer says
- Lawyer Timothy Parlator tries to turn the tables on Hegseth's accuser by portraying her as the "aggressor"
- While admitting that the Fox News host paid the accuser, the lawyer accused the woman of blackmail and extortion
WASHINGTON: Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault to head off the threat of a baseless lawsuit, according to Hegseth’s lawyer.
Hegseth was accused of sexual assault in 2017 after a speaking appearance at a Republican women’s event in Monterey, California, according to a statement released by the city. No charges were filed.
His lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the sexual encounter was consensual and that the woman who made the accusation to police several days later was the “aggressor.” That assertion has not been confirmed in the statement released by the city.
Parlatore said a payment was made to the woman as part of a confidential settlement a few years after the police investigation because Hegseth was concerned that she was prepared to file a lawsuit that he feared could have resulted in him being fired from Fox News, where he was a popular host. Parlatore would not reveal the amount of the payment.
“He was falsely accused and my position is that he was the victim of blackmail,” Parlatore said, calling it a case of “successful extortion.”
The Washington Post earlier reported details of the payment. The newspaper also reported it obtained a copy of a memo sent to Trump’s transition team this past week by a woman who said she is a friend of the accuser that details the sexual assault allegations.
Trump’s transition team had no immediate comment Sunday on the memo.
The person who reported the assault — whose name, age and sex were not released — had bruises on the right thigh, according to the city’s statement. No weapons were involved in the encounter, the person told police.
The incident occurred sometime between 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 7 and 7 a.m. the following morning, according to the city’s statement.
Hegseth was in Monterey at the time to address the California Federation of Republican Women during a banquet dinner held at the group’s biennial convention, according to social media posts and promotional materials from the time.
Monterey officials said they were withholding further details included in the police report because it included analysis and conclusions by law enforcement officials that are exempt from release under state public records law.
At the time of the 2017 accusations, Hegseth, now 44, was going through a divorce with his second wife, with whom he has three children. She filed for divorce after he had a child with a Fox News producer who is now his wife, according to court records and social media posts by Hegseth. His first marriage ended in 2009, also after infidelity by Hegseth, according to court records.
After the accusations first surfaced last week, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump transition who has been named White House communications director, issued a statement saying the president-elect is “nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration.”
“Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed. We look forward to his confirmation as United States Secretary of Defense so he can get started on Day One to Make America Safe and Great Again,” Cheung said.
Bangladesh to seek extradition of ousted Sheikh Hasina: govt
- Hasina has been summoned to appear in court in Dhaka on Monday to face charges of “massacres, killings, and crimes against humanity,” but she remains in exile in India
DHAKA: Bangladesh will seek the extradition of ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina who was toppled in a revolution in August and fled to India, interim leader Muhammad Yunus said.
Dhaka has already issued an arrest warrant for 77-year-old Hasina — last seen arriving in neighboring India after fleeing by helicopter as crowds stormed her palace.
Hasina has been summoned to appear in court in Dhaka on Monday to face charges of “massacres, killings, and crimes against humanity,” but she remains in exile in India.
Yunus said his administration was focused on ensuring those guilty of cracking down on the protests to oust Hasina faced justice.
Several of her former government ministers, who were detained and held in custody, are expected in court to face similar charges.
“We have already taken initiatives to try those responsible for enforced disappearances, murders, and the mass killings during the July-August uprising,” Yunus said on Sunday.
The 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner was appointed to lead the government as “chief adviser” on August 9, days after the end of Hasina’s 15 years of iron-fisted rule.
Yunus, in a speech to the nation marking 100 days in power since a student-led revolution, said he had spoken to Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
“We will seek the extradition of the ousted autocrat from India,” Yunus said, referring to Hasina.
Earlier this month, Bangladesh said it would request an Interpol “red notice” alert for fugitive leaders of Hasina’s regime.
Red notices issued by the global police body alert law enforcement agencies worldwide about fugitives.
India is a member of Interpol, but the red notice does not mean New Delhi must hand Hasina over.
Member countries can “apply their own laws in deciding whether to arrest a person,” according to the group, which organizes police cooperation between 196 member countries.
Yunus, a microfinance pioneer, is leading a temporary administration to tackle what he has called the “extremely tough” challenge of restoring democratic institutions in the South Asian nation of around 170 million people.
He also begged the country’s “patience” to prepare for the much-awaited poll, vowing an election commission would be formed “within a few days.”
But Yunus said he could not give a timeframe for the elections, saying it was dependent on a raft of reforms.
“I promise that we will hold the much-anticipated election once the necessary and essential reforms are complete,” he said in the broadcast.
“I request your patience until then. We aim to build an electoral system that will endure for decades. For this, we need some time.”
Crisis Group analyst Thomas Kean has called the challenge facing Yunus “monumental,” warning of that “cracks are emerging in the fragile alliance” that pushed him into power.
“For now, Yunus and his colleagues have widespread support, but popular expectations are double-edged,” the thinktank said in a report on Thursday.
“If the interim administration falters in making reforms, the outcome is likely to be an early election with little progress; in the worst-case scenario, the military could assume power.”
Senegal ruling party claims ‘large victory’ in elections
- President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s Pastef party had emerged as the vote winner in most of the first polling stations giving their provisional results, according to media reports, beating the two main opposition parties
DAKAR: Senegal’s ruling party claimed it had won a comfortable victory in Sunday’s legislative elections, paving the way for it to deliver an ambitious reform agenda eight months after sweeping to power.
Voting took place peacefully across the West African country, where the governing Pastef party said 90 to 95 percent of ballots had already been counted.
“I pay homage to the Senegalese people for the large victory that it has given to Pastef,” government spokesman Amadou Moustapha Ndieck Sarre told TFM television.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s Pastef party had emerged as the vote winner in most of the first polling stations giving their provisional results, according to media reports, beating the two main opposition parties.
Faye secured victory in March pledging economic transformation, social justice and a fight against corruption — raising hopes among a largely youthful population facing high inflation and widespread unemployment.
But an opposition-led parliament hampered the government’s first months in power, prompting Faye to dissolve the chamber in September and call snap elections as soon as the constitution allowed him to do so.
“I hope that Pastef will win the elections to gain a majority so that they can better carry out their mandate,” said Pascal Goudiaby, a 56-year-old voter in Dakar.
“The priority is unemployment, young people are facing so much unemployment,” he said.
Faye appointed his firebrand mentor Ousmane Sonko as prime minister. Sonko’s own bid to run for president had been blocked following a three-year deadly standoff with the former authorities.
The pair promised a leftist pan-African agenda, vowing to diversify political and economic partnerships, review hydrocarbon and fishing contracts and re-establish Senegal’s sovereignty, which they claimed had been sold abroad.
Mademba Ndiaye, a 20-year-old student, was voting for the first time.
“It’s one of the only ways we can really have an impact on society, and I think that if we don’t vote, we couldn’t really complain about what happens in society afterwards,” he said.
Various actors reported that the turnout on Sunday was typically lower than in the presidential election.
Senegal’s roughly 7.3 million registered voters were called to elect 165 MPs for five-year terms.
Voters have historically confirmed their presidential choice during parliamentary elections, say analysts.
“I think that whoever you gave your confidence to in the presidential election, you need to renew your confidence in him so that he can achieve what he started,” said 56-year-old voter Toure Aby.
“We want life to be less expensive for the Senegalese,” she added. “Everything’s expensive: water, electricity, food.”
Voters continued a long democratic tradition in Senegal, widely seen as a stable outlier in a coup-plagued region.
Faye and Sonko both called for calm as they cast their ballots.
“Democracy is expressed in peace and stability, and I believe that in a democracy there is no room for violence,” Sonko said in the southern city of Ziguinchor.
Reminiscent of his years as a fiery opposition leader, he had called for vengeance after attacks against his supporters, but later urged restraint.
Clashes were only sporadic in the run-up to the vote. Although some agreements have been reached between coalitions, the opposition remains fragmented.
Former president Macky Sall is leading an opposition grouping from abroad called Takku Wallu Senegal. On Sunday, it claimed the vote was marred by “massive fraud organized by Pastef,” without providing details.
Sall left power in April after triggering one of the worst crises in decades with a last-minute postponement of the presidential election.
Former prime minister and presidential runner-up Amadou Ba and Dakar Mayor Barthelemy Dias are also heading coalitions.
The opposition has accused the new government of inaction, amateurism and a desire to settle scores with the previous administration.
Unemployment stands at more than 20 percent and scores of people continue to risk their lives every month attempting to reach Europe by boat.
The government said an audit of public finances revealed a wider budget deficit than previously announced.
Moody’s downgraded Senegal’s credit rating and placed the country under observation.
The new authorities have lowered the price of household goods such as rice, oil and sugar and launched a series of reviews.
They also launched justice system reform and presented an ambitious 25-year development plan aimed at transforming the economy and public policy.
Ukraine strikes on Russia with US missiles could lead to world war, Russian lawmakers say
- “This is a very big step toward the start of World War Three,” lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov says
- Poland, defending Ukraine, said missiles against Russia is “a language Putin understands”
MOSCOW: Washington’s decision to let Kyiv strike deep into Russia with long-range US missiles escalates the conflict in Ukraine and could lead to World War III, senior Russian lawmakers said on Sunday.
Two US officials and a source familiar with the decision revealed the significant reversal of Washington’s policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict earlier on Sunday.
“The West has decided on such a level of escalation that it could end with the Ukrainian statehood in complete ruins by morning,” Andrei Klishas, a senior member of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Russian upper house’s international affairs committee, said that Moscow’s response will be immediate.
“This is a very big step toward the start of World War Three,” the TASS state news agency quoted Dzhabarov as saying.
President Vladimir Putin said in September that the West would be fighting Russia directly if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, a move he said would alter the nature and scope of the conflict.
Russia would be forced to take what Putin called “appropriate decisions” based on the new threats.
Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma lower house’s foreign affairs committee, said that US authorization of strikes by Kyiv on Russia with US ATACMS tactical missiles would lead to the toughest response, Russian news agencies reported.
“Strikes with US missiles deep into Russian regions will inevitably entail a serious escalation, which threatens to lead to much more serious consequences,” TASS news agency quoted Slutsky as saying.
NATO member Poland welcomed Biden's decision, saying missiles against Russia is “a language Putin understands.”
“With the entry into the war of North Korea troops and (Sunday’s) massive attack of Russian missiles, President Biden responded in a language that (Russian President) V. Putin understands,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski posted on X.
“The victim of aggression has the right to defend himself,” Sikorski added in his post. “Strength deters, weakness provokes.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long pushed for authorization from Washington to use the powerful Army Tactical Missile System, known by its initials ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that approval would mean that NATO was “at war” with his country — a threat he has made previously when Ukraine’s Western backers have escalated their military assistance to Kyiv.
