KYIV: The owner of Russia’s Wagner Group military contractor claimed Wednesday that his troops have extended their gains in the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut, but it remained unclear how long the grinding fight might go on.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky on extending an agreement that allows Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports and permits Russia to export food and fertilizers.
The battle for the city the Ukrainians have dubbed “fortress Bakhmut” has become emblematic of the way each side has tried to wear down the other. Russian forces must go through Bakhmut to push deeper into parts of the Donetsk province they do not yet control, though Western officials say that capture of the city is unlikely to change the course of the war.
The battle for Bakhmut has lasted six months and reduced the city with a prewar population of more than 70,000 to a smoldering wasteland. It’s not clear which side has paid a higher price.
Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose troops have spearheaded the fight in Bakhmut, said they have taken full control of all districts east of the Bakhmutka River that crosses the city. The city’s center lies west of the river.
Neither Russian nor Ukrainian officials commented on Prigozhin’s claim. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank that closely monitors the fighting, said Russian forces were likely in control in the areas cited by Prigozhin following a Ukrainian withdrawal.
Russian troops have enveloped the city from three sides, leaving only a narrow corridor leading west. The only highway west has been targeted by Russian artillery fire, forcing Ukrainian defenders to rely increasingly on country roads, which are hard to use before the muddy ground dries.
Zelensky vowed Monday not to retreat from Bakhmut after chairing a meeting with his top generals.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that seizing the city would allow Russia to press its offensive farther into the Donetsk region, one of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed in September.
In a blustery video statement recorded near a World War II monument in Bakhmut, Prigozhin echoed that rationale, saying the prospective Russian push would make “the entire world shudder.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged that the Russians could seize the city soon.
“What we see is that Russia is throwing in more troops, more forces, and what Russia lacks in quality they try to make up in quantity,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an EU defense ministers meeting in Stockholm. “They have suffered big losses, but at the same time we cannot rule out that Bakhmut may eventually fall in the coming days.”
But like other Western officials, he played down the significance of Bakhmut’s potential capture, arguing that this “does not necessarily reflect any turning point of the war, and it just highlights that we should not underestimate Russia.”
The Ukrainian military has already strengthened defensive lines west of Bakhmut to block the Russian advance, including in the nearby town of Chasiv Yar that sits on a hill. Farther west are the heavily fortified Ukrainian strongholds of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
The ISW observed that Russia was also likely short of the mechanized forces it would need to push on from Bakhmut.
On Wednesday, Russian forces shelled scores of towns and villages in the Donetsk region and other areas in Ukraine’s east and south, Ukraine’s presidential office said.
In Kyiv, UN chief Guterres was discussing the possibility of extending the agreement that has kept at least some of the country’s exports flowing.
Ukraine and Russia are leading global suppliers of wheat, sunflower oil and other agricultural products, and Moscow’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine drove food prices higher across the world.
The current 120-day agreement expires on March 18, and Guterres said extending it for a second time is of “critical importance.”
“Exports of Ukrainian — as well as Russian — food and fertilizers are essential to global food security and food prices,” Guterres said.
In other developments:
— Germany’s defense minister voiced caution over media reports that a pro-Ukraine group was involved in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year, as some media have reported. Boris Pistorius said more information is needed to understand who was behind the explosion — and whether they acted with the Ukrainian government’s knowledge.
— Pistorius also said nearly two dozen advanced battle tanks provided by European countries will arrive in Ukraine in the coming weeks. He said that included 18 German Leopard 2 tanks and three from Portugal. The Leopards are part of a larger package of heavy tanks Western countries recently promised to Ukraine.
— A top European Union court has annulled the bloc’s sanctions against the mother of Wagner Group owner Prigozhin because the measures are based solely on the fact that the two are related. Violetta Prigozhina was put on the EU sanctions list because she was considered to be the owner of Concord Management and Consulting LLC, part of the group founded and owned until 2019 by her son. But the Luxembourg-based General Court said she stopped being owner of the company in 2017, even though she did retain some shares in it.
— Authorities in the Russian-held city of Enerhodar, which is the main residential area for workers at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, said Ukrainian drones dropped incendiary devices along a river embankment, setting off fires that spread and endangered power lines.
Russian forces claim progress in Bakhmut but no end in sight
https://arab.news/5h33j
Russian forces claim progress in Bakhmut but no end in sight
- The battle for Bakhmut has lasted six months and reduced the city with a prewar population of more than 70,000 to a smoldering wasteland
- Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose troops have spearheaded the fight in Bakhmut, said they have taken full control of all districts east of the Bakhmutka River
Restive Indian state orders curfew after fresh violence
Manipur in India’s northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes for more than two years between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community that have killed more than 250 people.
The latest violence was triggered Saturday after reports of the arrest of five members, including a commander, of Arambai Tenggol, a radical Meitei group.
Incensed mobs demanding their release stormed a police post, set fire to a bus and blocked roads in parts of the state capital Imphal.
Manipur police announced a curfew in five districts, including Imphal West and Bishnupur, due to the “developing law and order situation.”
“Prohibitory orders have been issued by District Magistrates. Citizens are requested to cooperate with the orders,” the police said in a statement.
Arambai Tenggol, which is alleged to have orchestrated the violence against the Kuki community, has also announced a 10-day shutdown in the valley districts.
The state’s home ministry has ordered all Internet and mobile data services in volatile districts to be shut off for five days in order to bring the latest unrest under control.
Internet services were shut down for months in Manipur during the initial outbreak of violence in 2023, which displaced around 60,000 people from their homes according to government figures.
Thousands of the state’s residents are still unable to return home owing to ongoing tensions.
Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and public jobs.
Rights activists have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.
Travel ban may shut door for Afghan family to bring niece to US for a better life
- Trump suspended refugee resettlement on his first day in office
IRMO: Mohammad Sharafoddin, his wife and young son walked at times for 36 hours in a row over mountain passes as they left Afghanistan as refugees to end up less than a decade later talking about their journey on a plush love seat in the family’s three-bedroom suburban American home.
He and his wife dreamed of bringing her niece to the United States to share in that bounty. Maybe she could study to become a doctor and then decide her own path.
But that door slams shut on Monday as America put in place a travel ban for people from Afghanistan and a dozen other countries.
“It’s kind of shock for us when we hear about Afghanistan, especially right now for ladies who are affected more than others with the new government,” Mohammad Sharafoddin said. “We didn’t think about this travel ban.”
President Donald Trump signed the ban Wednesday. It is similar to one in place during his first administration but covers more countries. Along with Afghanistan, travel to the US is banned from Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Trump said visitors who overstay visas, like the man charged in an attack that injured dozens of demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this month, are a danger to the country. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, which isn’t included in the ban.
The countries chosen for the ban have deficient screening of their citizens, often refuse to take them back and have a high percentage of people who stay in the US after their visas expire, Trump said.
The ban makes exceptions for people from Afghanistan on Special Immigrant Visas who generally worked most closely with the US government during the two-decade war there.
Thousands of refugees came from Afghanistan
Afghanistan was also one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month period through September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement on his first day in office.
It is a path Sharafoddin took with his wife and son out of Afghanistan walking on those mountain roads in the dark then through Pakistan, Iran and into Turkiye. He worked in a factory for years in Turkiye, listening to YouTube videos on headphones to learn English before he was resettled in Irmo, South Carolina, a suburb of Columbia.
His son is now 11, and he and his wife had a daughter in the US who is now 3. There is a job at a jewelry maker that allows him to afford a two-story, three-bedroom house. Food was laid out on two tables Saturday for a celebration of the Muslim Eid Al-Adha holiday.
Sharafoddin’s wife, Nuriya, said she is learning English and driving — two things she couldn’t do in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
“I’m very happy to be here now, because my son is very good at school and my daughter also. I think after 18 years they are going to work, and my daughter is going to be able to go to college,” she said.
The family wants to help a niece
It is a life she wanted for her niece too. The couple show videos from their cellphones of her drawing and painting. When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, their niece could no longer study. So they started to plan to get her to the US at least to further her education.
Nuriya Sharafoddin doesn’t know if her niece has heard the news from America yet. She hasn’t had the heart to call and tell her.
“I’m not ready to call her. This is not good news. This is very sad news because she is worried and wants to come,” Nuriya Sharafoddin said.
While the couple spoke, Jim Ray came by. He has helped a number of refugee families settle in Columbia and helped the Sharafoddins navigate questions in their second language.
Ray said Afghans in Columbia know the return of the Taliban changed how the US deals with their native country.
But while the ban allows spouses, children or parents to travel to America, other family members aren’t included. Many Afghans know their extended families are starving or suffering, and suddenly a path to help is closed, Ray said.
“We’ll have to wait and see how the travel ban and the specifics of it actually play out,” Ray said. “This kind of thing that they’re experiencing where family cannot be reunited is actually where it hurts the most.”
The Taliban criticize the travel ban
The Taliban have criticized Trump for the ban, with their top leader Hibatullah Akhundzada saying the US was now the oppressor of the world.
“Citizens from 12 countries are barred from entering their land — and Afghans are not allowed either,” he said on a recording shared on social media. “Why? Because they claim the Afghan government has no control over its people and that people are leaving the country. So, oppressor! Is this what you call friendship with humanity?”
Raising school fees torments many Africans. Some expect the Catholic Church to do more to help
- The Catholic Church is the region’s largest nongovernmental investor in education
- Catholic schools have long been a pillar of affordable but high-quality education, especially for poor families
KAMPALA: A crying parent with an unpaid tuition balance walked into the staff room of a Catholic private school and begged the teachers to help enroll her son.
The school’s policy required the woman pay at least 60 percent of her son’s full tuition bill before he could join the student body. She didn’t have the money and was led away.
“She was pleading, ‘Please help me,’” said Beatrice Akite, a teacher at St. Kizito Secondary School in Uganda’s capital city, who witnessed the outburst. “It was very embarrassing. We had never seen something like that.”
Two weeks into second term, Akite recounted the woman’s desperate moment to highlight how distressed parents are being crushed by unpredictable fees they can’t pay, forcing their children to drop out of school. It’s leaving many in sub-Saharan Africa — which has the world’s highest dropout rates — to criticize the mission-driven Catholic Church for not doing enough to ease the financial pressure families face.
Legacy of Catholic education across Africa
The Catholic Church is the region’s largest nongovernmental investor in education. Catholic schools have long been a pillar of affordable but high-quality education, especially for poor families.
Their appeal remains strong even with competition from other nongovernmental investors now eying schools as enterprises for profit. The growing trend toward privatization is sparking concern that the Catholic Church may price out the people who need uplifting.
Akite hopes Catholic leaders support measures that would streamline fees across schools of comparable quality. Firm fee ceilings need to be set, she said.
Kampala’s St. Kizito Secondary School, where Akite teaches literature, was founded by priests of the Comboni missionary order, known for its dedication to serving poor communities. Its students come mostly from working-class families and tuition per term is roughly $300, a substantial sum in a country where GDP per capita was about $1,000 in 2023.
Yet that tuition is lower than at many other Catholic-run schools in Kampala, where many students report later in the term because they can’t raise school fees in time, Akite said.
Late starts, long lines, extension requests
One of the most expensive private schools in Kampala, the Catholic-run Uganda Martyrs’ Secondary School Namugongo, maintains a policy of “zero balance” when a child reports to school at the beginning of a three-month term. This means students must be fully paid by the time they report to school.
Tuition at the school was once as high as $800 but has since dropped to about $600 as enrollment swelled to nearly 5,000, said deputy headmaster James Batte. On a recent morning, there was a queue of parents waiting outside Batte’s office to request more time to clear tuition balances.
Daniel Birungi, an electrical engineer in Kampala whose son enrolled this year at St. Mary’s College Kisubi, a leading school for boys in Uganda, said the emerging risk for traditional Catholic schools is to cater only to the rich.
There is hot water in the bathrooms, he said, describing what he felt was a trend toward levels of luxury he never imagined as a student there in the 1990s. Now, students are prohibited from packing snacks and instead encouraged to buy what they need from school-owned canteens, he said.
That has “put us under a lot of pressure,” he said.
Tuition at St. Mary’s College Kisubi is roughly $800 per term, and Birungi doubts he will be able to regularly pay school fees on time. “You can go there and see the brother and negotiate,” he said, referring to the headmaster. “I am planning to go there and see him and ask for that consideration.”
The effects of a private education system
The World Bank reported in 2023 that 54 percent of adults in sub-Saharan Africa rank the issue of paying school fees higher than medical bills and other expenses. That’s partly because education is largely in private hands, with the most desirable schools controlled by profit-seeking owners.
Schools run by the Catholic Church are not usually registered as profit-making entities, but those who run those schools say they wouldn’t be competitive if they were run merely as charities. They say they face the same maintenance costs as others in the field and offer scholarships to exceptional students.
Regulating tuition is not easy, said Ronald Reagan Okello, a priest who oversees education at the Catholic Secretariat in Kampala. He urges parents to send their children to schools they can afford.
“As the Catholic Church, also we are competing with those who are in the private sector,” said Okello, the national executive secretary for education with the Ugandan bishops conference. “Now, as you are competing, the other ones are setting the bar high. They are giving you good services. But now putting the standard to that level, we are forced to raise the school fees to match the demands of the people who can afford.”
Across the region, the Catholic Church has built a reputation as a key provider of formal education in areas often underserved by the state. Its schools are cherished by families of all means for their values, discipline and academic success.
In Zimbabwe, the Catholic Church operates about 100 schools, ranging from dozens in impoverished areas where annual tuition is as low as $150 to elite boarding schools that can charge thousands of dollars.
But a legacy of inclusion is under pressure in the southern African nation due to fee increases at boarding schools and efforts by Catholic leaders to fully privatize some schools. Many boarding schools already charge tuition fees between $600 and $800, prohibitive for the working class in a country where most civil servants make less than a $300 per month.
Privatization will raise tuition fees even higher, warned Peter Muzawazi, a prominent educator in Zimbabwe.
Muzawazi, who attended Catholic schools, once was the headmaster of Marist Brothers, a top Catholic school for boys in Zimbabwe. That school in Nyanga is among those earmarked for privatization.
“I know in the Catholic Church there is a lot of space for reasonable fees for day scholars, but for boarders there is need to be watching because the possibility that they would be out of reach for the vulnerable is there,” he said.
The church needs to be actively engaged, he said. “How do we continue to guarantee education for the poor?”
Efforts to privatize church-founded schools have sparked debate in Zimbabwe, which for years has been in economic decline stemming in part from sanctions imposed by the US and others. Authorities say privatizing these schools is necessary to maintain standards, even as critics warn Catholic leaders not to turn their backs on poor people.
“Schools have now turned into businesses,” Martin Chaburumunda, president of the Zimbabwe Rural Teachers’ Union, told The Manica Post, a state-run weekly. “Churches now appear only hungry for money as opposed to educating the communities they operate in.”
Rather than privatizing old mission schools, the church should invest in building new ones if it’s useful to experiment with different funding models, said Muzawazi, a lay Catholic who serves on the governing council of the Catholic University of Zimbabwe.
“The bright people who advance the cause of countries are not the rich ones,” he said. “We want every church and every nation to tap the potential of every person, regardless of economic status.”
Italians vote on citizenship and job protections amid low awareness and turnout concerns
- Referendum to make it easier for children born in Italy to foreigners to obtain citizenship
- Supporters say reform to bring Italy’s citizenship law in line with many other European countries
ROME: Italians vote over two days starting Sunday on referendums that would make it easier for children born in Italy to foreigners to obtain citizenship, and on providing more job protections. But apparent low public awareness risks rendering the vote invalid if turnout is not high enough.
Campaigners for the change in the citizenship law say it will help second-generation Italians born in the country to non- European Union parents better integrate into a culture they already see as theirs.
Italian singer Ghali, who was born in Milan to Tunisian parents, urged people to vote in an online post, noting that the referendum risks failure if at least 50 percent plus one of eligible voters don’t turn out.
“I was born here, I always lived here, but I only received citizenship at the age of 18,’’ Ghali said, urging a yes vote to reduce the residency requirement from 10 to five years.
The new rules, if passed, could affect about 2.5 million foreign nationals who still struggle to be recognized as citizens.
The measures were proposed by Italy’s main union and left-wing opposition parties. Premier Giorgia Meloni has said she would show up at the polls but not cast a ballot — an action widely criticized by the left as antidemocratic, since it will not help reach the necessary threshold to make the vote valid.
“While some members of her ruling coalition have openly called for abstention, Meloni has opted for a more subtle approach,” said analyst Wolfango Piccoli of the Teneo consultancy based in London. ”It’s yet another example of her trademark fence-sitting.’’
Rights at stake
Supporters say this reform would bring Italy’s citizenship law in line with many other European countries, promoting greater social integration for long-term residents. It would also allow faster access to civil and political rights, such as the right to vote, eligibility for public employment and freedom of movement within the EU.
“The real drama is that neither people who will vote ‘yes’ nor those who intend to vote ‘no’ or abstain have an idea of what (an) ordeal children born from foreigners have to face in this country to obtain a residence permit,” said Selam Tesfaye, an activist and campaigner with the Milan-based human rights group “Il Cantiere.”
“Foreigners are also victims of blackmail, as they can’t speak up against poor working conditions, exploitation and discrimination, due to the precariousness of the permit of stay,” she added.
Activists and opposition parties also denounced the lack of public debate on the measures, accusing the governing center-right coalition of trying to dampen interest in sensitive issues that directly impact immigrants and workers.
In May, Italy’s AGCOM communications authority lodged a complaint against RAI state television and other broadcasters for a lack of adequate and balanced coverage.
“This referendum is really about dignity and the right to belong, which is key for many people who were born here and spent most of their adult life contributing to Italian society. For them, a lack of citizenship is like an invisible wall,” said Michelle Ngonmo, a cultural entrepreneur and advocate for diversity in the fashion industry, who has lived most of her life in Italy after moving as a child from Cameroon.
“You are good enough to work and pay taxes, but not to be fully recognized as Italian. This becomes a handicap for young generations, particularly in the creative field, creating frustration, exclusion and a big waste of potential,” she said.
The four other referendums aim to roll back labor reforms, making it harder to fire some workers and increase compensation for those laid off by small businesses, reversing a previous law passed by a center-left government a decade ago. One of the questions on the ballot also addresses the urgent issue of security at work, restoring joint liability to both contractors and subcontractors for workplace injuries.
Many expected to abstain from voting
Opinion polls published in mid-May showed that only 46 percent of Italians were aware of the issues driving the referendums. Turnout projections were even weaker for a vote scheduled for the first weekend of Italy’s school holidays, at around 35 percent of around 50 million electors, well below the required quorum.
“Many believe that the referendum institution should be reviewed in light of the high levels of abstention (that) emerged in recent elections and the turnout threshold should be lowered,” said Lorenzo Pregliasco, political analyst and pollster at YouTrend.
Some analysts note however that the center-left opposition could claim a victory even if the referendum fails on condition that the turnout surpasses the 12.3 million voters who backed the winning center-right coalition in the 2022 general election.
Trump deploys National Guard over LA immigration protests
- Border czar says National Guard to deploy on Saturday evening
- White House aide Stephen Miller calls LA protests an ‘insurrection’
- Trump’s DHS says Democrat rhetoric contributing to violence against ICE
LOS ANGELES, United States: Donald Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to the streets of Los Angeles on Saturday in what the White House said was an effort to quell “lawlessness” after sometimes-violent protests erupted over immigration enforcement raids.
The US president took federal control of California’s state military to push soldiers into the country’s second-biggest city, where they could face off against demonstrators. It is a rare move that Governor Gavin Newsom said was “purposefully inflammatory.”
The development came after two days of confrontations that had seen federal agents shoot flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants in a city with a large Latino population.
Footage showed a car that had been set alight at a busy intersection, while in video circulating on social media a man in a motorbike helmet can be seen throwing rocks at speeding federal vehicles.
In other scenes, demonstrators threw fireworks at lines of local law enforcement who had been called in to try to keep the peace.
“President Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, blaming what she called California’s “feckless” Democratic leaders.
“The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs.”
The National Guard — a reserve military — is frequently used in natural disasters, like in the aftermath of the LA fires, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local politicians.
That was not the case Saturday.
Newsom, a frequent foil for Trump and a long-time foe of the Republican, took to social media to decry Saturday’s White House order.
“That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“The federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles — not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle. Don’t give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully.”
US Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said guardsmen would be in place “within the next 24 hours.”
Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to ramp up tensions further, warning that nearby regular military forces could get involved.
“If violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert,” he wrote on social media.
Law professor Jessica Levinson said Hegseth’s intervention appeared symbolic because of the general legal restriction on the use of the US military as a domestic policing force in the absence of an insurrection.
“At this moment, it’s not using the Insurrection Act,” she said, rather Trump was relying on what is known as Title 10.
“The National Guard will be able to do (no) more than provide logistical (and) personnel support.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants — who he has likened to “monsters” and “animals.”
The Department for Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Los Angeles this week had resulted in the arrest of “118 aliens, including five gang members.”
Saturday’s standoff took place in the suburb of Paramount, where demonstrators converged on a reported federal facility, which the local mayor said was being used as a staging post by agents.
On Friday, masked and armed immigration agents carried out high-profile workplace raids in separate parts of Los Angeles, attracting angry crowds and setting off hours-long standoffs.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass acknowledged that some city residents were “feeling fear” following the federal immigration enforcement actions.
“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable,” she said on X.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said multiple arrests had been made following Friday’s clashes.
“You bring chaos, and we’ll bring handcuffs. Law and order will prevail,” he said on X.
On Saturday, amid chants for ICE agents to get out, some protesters waved Mexican flags while others set a US flag on fire, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Cement blocks and overturned shopping carts served as crude roadblocks.
The White House has taken a hard line against the protests, with deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller calling them “an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.”
