BERLIN: Despite the murders of four of her colleagues for their reporting, Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko never considered she had been poisoned when she fell ill on a train to Berlin.
“When you work as an investigative reporter in Russia you are always careful,” she told Reuters. “You have lots of protocols you’re following all the time. But when I found myself in Europe I totally forgot all these security measures.”
German prosecutors are investigating whether Kostyuchenko, who is now living in hiding, was the victim of an attempted murder when she became ill last October.
Her symptoms started with disorientation and stomach ache on the train journey from Munich to Berlin and persisted for several weeks. By the time she realized she may have been poisoned, it was too late to identify any toxins.
“I had to take off my rings because my fingers looked like sausages,” she said, describing the swelling that was among her symptoms. Months later, she is still exhausted and only able to work three hours a day.
Enemies of Russian President Vladimir Putin living abroad have been poisoned in the past, including former secret agents Sergei Skripal, who survived, and Sergei Litvinenko, who did not. A former Chechen rebel died in Berlin in what a German court said was a Russian state assassination.
The Kremlin denies involvement with these killings.
“That fitted Putin’s narrative, that we can’t forgive traitors,” Kostyuchenko said. “But I was never working with secret services... Somehow I was thinking that in Europe, I’m safe.”
At a time when European Union capitals are seen as potential safe havens by Russian activists and reporters who consider themselves at risk at home, the possibility that they too might be targeted abroad amounts to a chilling step change.
“When I found myself in Europe, I totally forgot about security measures, like when I discussed my trip to Munich I used Facebook Messenger,” said Kostyuchenko, a foreign correspondent who exposed alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
When doctors told her she had likely been poisoned her initial reaction was to laugh.
She was one of three Russian independent woman journalists who were apparently poisoned while abroad in a similar period. All three suffered similar symptoms.
“We can confirm that an investigation into the attempted murder of Elena Kostyuchenko is pending,” a spokesperson for Berlin prosecutors said on Friday.
Exiled Russian journalist describes ‘poisoning’ ordeal on German train
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Exiled Russian journalist describes ‘poisoning’ ordeal on German train
- “When you work as an investigative reporter in Russia you are always careful,” Kostyuchenko told Reuters
- German prosecutors are investigating whether Kostyuchenko, who is now living in hiding, was the victim of an attempted murder when she became ill last October
UN releases emergency aid reserves after ‘brutal’ cuts from donors
- The emergency fund will help neglected crises around the world, including Sudan
GENEVA: The United Nations has released $110 million from an emergency fund to help neglected crises around the world, including Sudan, after donors like the United States ordered major cuts.
The UN forecasts that funding levels, which were dwindling long before US President Donald Trump ordered foreign aid frozen in January, are projected to drop to a record low this year.
The Trump administration announced last month it was canceling nearly 10,000 foreign aid grants and contracts worth almost $60 billion, ending about 90 percent of the US Agency for International Development global work.
Other donors like Britain have also announced cuts as countries face growing pressure to boost defense spending.
“For countries battered by conflict, climate change and economic turmoil, brutal funding cuts don’t mean that humanitarian needs disappear,” said Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
The UN is seeking $45 billion in 2025 to help around 185 million people fleeing conflict and battling starvation in what Fletcher described as “an unprecedented level of suffering.” So far it has received just 5 percent of this.
The money released from the Central Emergency Response Fund will go toward underfunded and neglected crises across Africa, Asia and Latin America, the UN statement said. Around a third of the money will go support Sudan, where nearly two years of civil war has triggered a huge displacement of people and a hunger crisis, and neighboring Chad which has taken in more than a million Sudanese refugees.
Other recipients include Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Niger and Somalia.
Russia says Macron address 'detached from reality'
- Macron called Russia a “threat to France and Europe” and said the French were “legitimately worried”
Moscow: Russia on Thursday criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for an address this week in which he mulled extending France’s nuclear umbrella to European partners.
In a speech to the French nation on Wednesday, Macron called Russia a “threat to France and Europe” and said the French were “legitimately worried” about the United States shifting its position on the Ukraine conflict under US President Donald Trump.
“Every day, he makes some absolutely... contradictory statements” which are “detached from reality,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of Macron.
Zakharova compared him to Ole Lukoje, a mythical creature in a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale who holds umbrellas over sleeping children.
“I listened to all this, looked at him and realized who he reminds me of — the nuclear Ole Lukoje,” she said.
Macron said he would launch a debate on extending France’s nuclear deterrent to other European nations, following a phone conversation with Friedrich Merz, likely to be Germany’s next chancellor, on extending that umbrella of protection.
EU leaders open emergency talks on defense and Ukraine aid as US support wanes
- EU gathering underscores sea change that has happened in the two months since Donald Trump took office
BRUSSELS: Facing the possibility of a fundamental disengagement under US President Donald Trump, European Union leaders opened a day of emergency summit talks Thursday to beef up their own military defenses and make sure that Ukraine will still be properly protected by its allies.
Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor of Germany, was conferring with summit host Antonio Costa over breakfast on how to meet the challenge on a short deadline only days after he and his prospective coalition partner pushed plans to loosen the nation’s rules on running up debt to allow for higher defense spending.
At the same time, the 27-nation bloc was waking up to the news from French President Emmanuel Macron would confer with EU leaders the possibility of using France’s nuclear deterrent to protect the continent from Russian threats.
It all underscored the sea change that has happened in the two months since Trump took office and immediately started questioning the cornerstones of cooperation between the United States and Europe which had been the bedrock of Western security since World War II.
“Given these profound shifts in US policy, and the existential threat of another war on the continent, Europe, must manage its essential defense tasks,” the European Policy Center think tank said in a commentary.
The bloc of 27 will “take decisive steps forward,” Macron told the French nation Wednesday evening. “Member states will be able to increase their military spending” and “massive joint funding will be provided to buy and produce some of the most innovative munitions, tanks, weapons and equipment in Europe.”
Adding to the ebullient message he said that “Europe’s future does not have to be decided in Washington or Moscow.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to be up to the task and has proposed an 800 billion euro ($840 billion) plan that would allow EU member states to spend much more on defense despite their current budgetary woes and profit from loans to kickstart the process.
Part of any plan is also to protect the increasingly beleaguered position of Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to take part in the talks.
Early this week, Trump ordered a pause to US military supplies to Ukraine as he sought to press Zelensky to engage in negotiations to end the war with Russia, bringing fresh urgency to the EU summit in Brussels.
“Europe faces a clear and present danger on a scale that none of us have seen in our adult lifetime. Some of our fundamental assumptions are being undermined to their very core,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned in a letter to the EU’s 27 leaders, who will consider ways to access more money for defense spending and ease restrictions on it.
But perhaps the biggest challenge for the EU on Thursday will be to take a united stance at a moment when it’s fractured, since much of what the bloc does requires unanimous support.
Even if the challenges are so daunting, Thursday’s summit is unlikely to produce immediate decisions on spending for Ukraine or its own defenses. Another EU summit where the real contours of decisions would be much clearer is set for March 20-21.
UN report finds women’s rights weakened in quarter of all countries
- Number of women with social protection benefits increased by a third between 2010 and 2023
- Though two billion women and girls still live in places without such protections
UNITED NATIONS, United States: Women’s rights regressed last year in a quarter of countries around the world, according to a report published by UN Women on Thursday, due to factors ranging from climate change to democratic backsliding.
“The weakening of democratic institutions has gone hand in hand with backlash on gender equality,” the report said, adding that “anti-rights actors are actively undermining long-standing consensus on key women’s rights issues.”
“Almost one-quarter of countries reported that backlash on gender equality is hampering implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action,” the report continued, referring to the document from the 1995 World Conference on Women.
In the 30 years since the conference, the UN said that progress has been mixed.
In parliaments around the world, female representation has more than doubled since 1995, but men still comprise about three-quarters of parliamentarians.
The number of women with social protection benefits increased by a third between 2010 and 2023, though two billion women and girls still live in places without such protections.
Gender employment gaps “have stagnated for decades.” Sixty-three percent of women between the ages of 25 and 54 have paid employment, compared to 92 percent of men in the same demographic.
The report cites the COVID-19 pandemic, global conflicts, climate change and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) as all new potential threats to gender equality.
Data presented by the UN Women report found that conflict-related sexual violence has spiked 50 percent in the past 10 years, with 95 percent of victims being children or young women.
In 2023, 612 million women lived within 50 kilometers of armed conflict, a 54-percent increase since 2010.
And in 12 countries in Europe and Central Asia, at least 53 percent of women have experienced one or more forms of gender-based violence online.
“Globally, violence against women and girls persists at alarming rates. Across their lifetime, around one in three women are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence by a non-partner,” the report said.
The report sets out a multi-part roadmap to address gender inequality, such as fostering equitable access to new technologies like AI, measures toward climate justice, investments to combat poverty, increasing participation in public affairs and fighting against gendered violence.
Cyclone Alfred stalls off Australia’s east as millions brace for impact
- Cyclone Alfred is now likely to make landfall by Saturday morning near Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city
- The storm’s destructive reach will stretch across the border regions of the states of Queensland and New South Wales
SYDNEY: Cyclone Alfred stalled off Australia’s east coast on Thursday as officials shut airports, schools and public transport while residents stockpiled supplies and sandbagged homes against flooding expected when the category-two storm hits.
The storm is now likely to make landfall by Saturday morning near Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city, the Bureau of Meteorology said in its latest update, compared with a prior projection of landfall by early Friday.
The storm’s destructive reach will stretch across the border regions of the states of Queensland and New South Wales, the bureau said, bringing heavy rain, flooding and damaging wind.
“Alfred is behaving at the moment like a completely unwanted houseguest. It’s told us it’s going to be late but linger even longer,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told reporters.
“Unfortunately that means the window for destruction in our community – heavy rains, winds, powerful surf – is longer than we would have otherwise liked.”
Storm warnings on Thursday stretched for more than 500km across the northeast coast, as huge waves whipped up by the cyclone eroded beaches, and officials urged residents in flood-prone areas to evacuate soon.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the defense force would be ready to support emergency services.
Heavy rain from the weather system has already drenched some regions, said Dean Narramore, forecaster at Australia’s weather bureau.
Narramore said the cyclone’s stalling could result in “a longer and prolonged period of heavy rainfall, particularly in northern New South Wales” leading to life-threatening flash flooding.
New South Wales resident Sara Robertson and her family has moved all their valuables from their home in the rural town of Murwillumbah to a motel ahead of the storm.
“I’m glad we’ve got a little bit more of a breather, feeling very tired today and we still have a lot to do,” Robertson told ABC News after moving computers and electronics into the motel.
More than 5,000 properties in southeast Queensland and thousands in northern New South Wales are without power as officials warned there would be more outages when the wind speed increases.
Brisbane airport said it will suspend operations around 4 p.m. (0600 GMT) on Thursday but keep its terminals open for defense operations.
Qantas Airways said its international operations from Brisbane would remain suspended until Saturday noon and domestic flights until Sunday morning.
More than 1,000 schools in southeast Queensland and 250 in northern New South Wales were closed on Thursday, while public transport in Brisbane has been suspended.
Alfred has been called by officials a “very rare event” for Brisbane, Queensland’s state capital, with the city last hit by a cyclone more than half a century ago in 1974. The city of around 2.7 million had near misses from cyclones in 1990 in 2019.
