Russia ramps up attacks on key cities in eastern Ukraine

A man looks at the damage as Ukrainian firefighters extinguish a fire following an overnight Russian drone strike in Kharkiv on November 3, 2023. (AFP/File)
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Updated 12 November 2023
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Russia ramps up attacks on key cities in eastern Ukraine

KYIV: Russian forces have ramped up attacks in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to gain ground near two key front line cities, Ukrainian military officials said Sunday.

Moscow’s troops have begun a push to regain territory near Bakhmut, the eastern mining city that was the site of the war’s bloodiest battle before falling into Russian hands in May, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukrainian troops had recaptured the heights over Bakhmut and made some advances to the city’s west, north and south since Kyiv launched its summer counteroffensive.

“Toward Bakhmut, the Russians have become more active and are trying to recapture previously lost positions,” Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote in a Telegram update on Sunday afternoon.

Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive has so far resulted in only incremental gains and heavy losses, with Ukrainian troops struggling to punch through Russian lines in the south. Meanwhile, Moscow’s forces have attempted to press forward in the northeast, likely with a view to distract Kyiv and minimize the number of troops it is able to send to key southern and eastern battles.

The Ukrainian ground forces’ spokesperson similarly reported that Russian troops had “switched from defense to active defense” near Bakhmut, “putting pressure” on Ukrainian troops south of the city. Vladimir Fityo made the remarks on Ukrainian TV, adding that Russian troops were searching for weak points in Ukrainian defenses and ramping up artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions.

Ukraine’s General Staff said that Russian troops were also continuing their weekslong push to encircle Avdiivka, an Ukrainian stronghold south of Bakhmut and a key target since the beginning of the war. It’s considered the gateway to parts of the eastern Donetsk region under
Kyiv’s control. 


Three men to go on trial next year over fires linked to UK PM Starmer

Updated 7 sec ago
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Three men to go on trial next year over fires linked to UK PM Starmer

LONDON: Three men all linked to Ukraine will go on trial next April accused of involvement in a series of arson attacks on houses and a vehicle in London connected to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a London court heard on Friday.
Over five days last month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader. Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, is charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life. Fellow Ukrainian Petro Pochynok, 34, and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, are accused of conspiracy to commit arson.
Lavrynovych and Carpiuc appeared by video-link at London’s Old Bailey court on Friday where Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb set the trial for April 27 next year. Pochynok was not present for the hearing.
In earlier hearings, prosecutors said the motive for the arsons was unclear.
The men will enter formal pleas at a hearing in October, but the lawyers for Carpiuc and Pochynok said their clients denied involvement.
Counter-terrorism police have led the investigation but none of the men have been charged with offenses under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act, which was brought in to target hostile state activity.
Police said the first fire involved a Toyota RAV4 car that Starmer used to own and sold to a neighbor. Days later, there was a blaze at a property where Starmer previously resided and the following day there was an attack on a house in north London that he still owns.
Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents “an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for.”
Earlier this week a fourth man, aged 48, who had been arrested at London Stansted Airport in connection with the arson, was released on police bail.

Canada and China agree to ‘regularize communications’

Updated 40 min 19 sec ago
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Canada and China agree to ‘regularize communications’

MONTREAL: Canada and China have agreed to regularize channels of communication, the office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday, after a period of strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.
“Mark Carney, spoke with the Premier of China, Li Qiang. The leaders exchanged views on bilateral relations, including the importance of engagement, and agreed to regularize channels of communication between Canada and China,” it said in a statement.
They also discussed trade and “committed their governments to working together to address the fentanyl crisis.”
Ties between Beijing and Ottawa have been tense in recent years following the arrest of a senior Chinese telecom executive on a US warrant in 2018.
Li told Carney that “in recent years, China-Canada relations have faced unnecessary disturbances and encountered serious difficulties,” Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
He added that China is “willing to work with Canada to jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade” in the face of growing unilateralism and protectionism, Xinhua reported, noting that the call came at Carney’s request.
Both countries have been targeted by US President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes and have condemned them.


UN rights chief demands US withdraw sanctions on ICC judges

Updated 29 min 32 sec ago
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UN rights chief demands US withdraw sanctions on ICC judges

  • Volker Turk: ‘I call for the prompt reconsideration and withdrawal of these latest measures’

GENEVA: The United Nations human rights chief on Friday demanded the United States lift sanctions it imposed on four International Criminal Court judges, saying they were contrary to the rule of law.

“I am profoundly disturbed by the decision of the Government of the United States of America to sanction judges of the International Criminal Court,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

“I call for the prompt reconsideration and withdrawal of these latest measures,” he said.

“Attacks against judges for performance of their judicial functions, at national or international levels, run directly counter to respect for the rule of law and the equal protection of the law – values for which the US has long stood.

“Such attacks are deeply corrosive of good governance and the due administration of justice,” he said.

The US on Thursday imposed sanctions on four ICC judges.

Two of the targeted judges, Beti Hohler of Slovenia and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin, took part in proceedings that led to an arrest warrant issued last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The two other judges, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, were part of the court proceedings that led to the authorization of an investigation into allegations that US forces committed war crimes during the war in Afghanistan.


Lufthansa to restart Tel Aviv flights on June 23

Updated 06 June 2025
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Lufthansa to restart Tel Aviv flights on June 23

  • Lufthansa suspended its flights to Israel’s main airport following a May 4 rocket attack launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and extended the suspension several times since

BERLIN: Germany’s Lufthansa airline group said Friday it would restart flights to and from Tel Aviv on June 23, having suspended them early last month amid the ongoing regional conflict.

The group said in a statement that the decision would affect Lufthansa, Austrian, SWISS, Brussels Airlines Eurowings, ITA and Lufthansa Cargo but that “for operational reasons,” the individual airlines would only resume services “gradually.”

“The decision is based on an extensive security analysis and in coordination with the relevant authorities,” it added.

The group suspended its flights to Israel’s main airport following a May 4 rocket attack launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and extended the suspension several times since.

The missile landed near a car park at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport and injured six people, the first time a missile had penetrated the airport perimeter.

The Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the war in Gaza began in October 2023 with Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month Gaza ceasefire that ended in March, but began again after Israel resumed its military campaign in the territory.

The Israeli army has reported several such launches in recent days, with most of the projectiles being intercepted.


Japan allows longer nuclear plant lifespans

Updated 06 June 2025
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Japan allows longer nuclear plant lifespans

  • The world’s fourth-largest economy is targeting carbon neutrality by 2050 but remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels
  • Many of the country’s nuclear reactors were taken offline after the 2011 Fukushima meltdown

TOKYO: A law allowing nuclear reactors to operate beyond 60 years took effect in Japan on Friday, as the government turns back to atomic energy 14 years after the Fukushima catastrophe.

The world’s fourth-largest economy is targeting carbon neutrality by 2050 but remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels – partly because many nuclear reactors were taken offline after the 2011 Fukushima meltdown.

The government now plans to increase its reliance on nuclear power, in part to help meet growing energy demand from artificial intelligence and microchip factories.

The 60-year limit was brought in after the 2011 disaster, which was triggered by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan.

Under the amended law, nuclear plants’ operating period may be extended beyond 60 years – in a system similar to extra time in football games – to compensate for stoppages caused by “unforeseeable circumstances,” the government says.

This means, for example, that one reactor in central Japan’s Fukui region, suspended for 12 years after the Fukushima crisis, will now be able to operate up until 2047 – 72 years after its debut, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.

But operators require approval from Japan’s nuclear safety watchdog for the exemption. The law also includes measures intended to strengthen safety checks at aging reactors.

The legal revision is also aimed at helping Japan better cope with power crunches, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked energy market turmoil.

Japan’s Strategic Energy Plan had previously vowed to “reduce reliance on nuclear power as much as possible.”

But this pledge was dropped from the latest version approved in February, which includes an intention to make renewables the country’s top power source by 2040.

Under the plan, nuclear power will account for around 20 percent of Japan’s energy supply by 2040 – up from 5.6 percent in 2022.

Also in February, Japan pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent in the next decade from 2013 levels, a target decried by campaigners as far short of what was needed under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming.

Japan is the world’s fifth largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide after China, the United States, India and Russia.