KYIV: Russian forces launched new deadly attacks on Ukraine, killing at least nine people on Wednesday, a day before the leaders of countries that are some of Ukraine’s biggest backers were to discuss how to slow Moscow’s offensive.
Ukrainian authorities said that along with the nine killed, 29 others, including five children, were wounded when Russian missiles hit an apartment block in Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown.
Zelensky said the strike has again proven that “Ukraine, together with its partners, must strengthen its air defenses” — something that he has repeatedly appealed for with Ukraine’s Western partners. The United States has agreed to send another Patriot missile system, two US officials said late Tuesday.
“Modern air defense systems are capable of providing maximum protection of people, our cities, and our positions,” Zelensky said. “And we need as many of them as possible.”
Earlier Wednesday, Ukraine’s air force said it shot down more than two dozen air targets, including cruise missiles, a Kinzhal ballistic missile and Shahed drones. Several people were wounded, authorities said.
Kyiv’s outgunned and outnumbered forces are battling to hold back the bigger Russian army, which is trying to exploit Ukrainian vulnerabilities. Ukraine has been short of troops, ammunition and air defenses in recent months as the Kremlin’s forces try to cripple the national power supply and punch through the front line in eastern parts of the country.
Ukraine will need to weather the Russian onslaught through the summer, military analysts say, and in the meantime train more soldiers, build fortifications and hope that the provision of Western military aid picks up speed so that in 2025 Kyiv may be able to mount its own offensive.
Several diplomatic events over the next few days are aimed at how to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion or how to bring about an end to the war.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden and the other Group of Seven leaders will gather in Italy for their annual summit to discuss ways to help Ukraine, including how to divert more frozen Russian assets to Kyiv’s defense.
Separately, the Biden administration on Wednesday said it had broadened sanctions against Russia by targeting companies that help Moscow’s war effort and raising the stakes for foreign financial institutions that work with sanctioned Russian entities.
The more than 300 new sanctions are largely aimed at deterring individuals and companies in countries such as China, the United Arab Emirates and Türkiye from helping Moscow circumvent Western blocks on obtaining key technology. They also threaten foreign financial institutions with sanctions if they do business with almost any sanctioned Russian entity, underscoring the US view that the Kremlin has pivoted the Russian economy on to a war footing.
Biden and Zelensky will also sign a bilateral security agreement between the US and Ukraine on Thursday, when they meet on the G7 summit’s sidelines, the White House said.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the agreement would not commit US troops directly to Ukraine’s defense, but that it would demonstrate the US supports the people of Ukraine and serve as a “bridge” to when Ukraine is invited to join the NATO alliance — a long-term priority of Zelensky’s that alliance members have said will first require an end to the war.
While the G7 meets in Italy, defense chiefs from the US, Europe and other nations will meet Thursday in Brussels for their monthly meeting on Ukraine’s security needs. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will host the event.
And this weekend, representatives of nearly 90 countries and organizations, half from Europe, are expected to attend a summit in Switzerland aimed at charting a path to peace between Russia and Ukraine, though Russia won’t be attending.
Both sides in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II have been reaching out to friendly nations to help keep their armed forces supplied. The war has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides, including more than 11,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.
While Ukraine has looked to Western countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin has turned to nations such as Iran and North Korea for help. Unconfirmed reports suggested Putin may soon make a third visit to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Moscow showed no signs of relenting in the war. The Kremlin said Wednesday that Putin met with Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, the chief of the military’s General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, and the commanders of Russia’s five military districts.
A readout of the Tuesday night meeting said the officials presented Putin with “plans to continue the hostilities.”
Fighting along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line has in recent months focused on the partly occupied Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces are trying to reach the key hilltop city of Chasiv Yar and other strategic hubs.
Last month, Russian forces also launched an offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, which borders Russia. Putin said he wanted to establish a buffer zone there to prevent Ukrainian cross-border attacks. The offensive drew some Ukrainian fighters away from Donetsk.
However, Russia’s gains have been incremental and costly.
In the Kharkiv region, Russian units have become bogged down in Vovchansk, Ukraine Commander in Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Wednesday on the Telegram messaging app.
9 killed in Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine ahead of G7 summit aimed at slowing Moscow’s offensive
https://arab.news/zef86
9 killed in Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine ahead of G7 summit aimed at slowing Moscow’s offensive
- Zelensky said the strike has again proven that “Ukraine, together with its partners, must strengthen its air defenses”
- “Modern air defense systems are capable of providing maximum protection of people, our cities, and our positions“
Takeaways from the Biden-Trump presidential debate
WASHINGTON: Democratic US President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump took the stage on Thursday night for a debate that offers voters a rare side-by-side look at the two oldest candidates ever to seek the US presidency.
Here are some of the major takeaways from the debate:
NO HANDSHAKE, HOARSE VOICE
The two men, who make no secret of their disdain for each other, did not shake hands as they walked to their podiums at the start of the debate. Biden frequently referred to Trump as “this guy” during his remarks.
Biden, noticeably hoarse, accused Trump of leaving him a “terrible” economy in response to the moderators’ first question about the rising prices paid by consumers.
Trump replied that Biden’s handling of COVID was a “disaster” and said inflation was “absolutely killing us.”
He blamed the pandemic for wrecking the economy and his shot at re-election. “Everything was rocking good,” he said.
Voters, right now, seem to be agreeing more with Trump than Biden, with polls showing they favor Trump’s handling of the economy. Biden’s challenge on Thursday was to make clear to viewers that his administration is the one that dug the country out of the pandemic-induced hole.
LOSING HIS TRAIN OF THOUGHT
Biden, 81, seemed to lose his train of thought while responding to a question about the national debt.
His voice trailing off several times, Biden first referred to “billionaires” as “trillionaires” before correcting himself. Then, while arguing that the wealthy should pay more tax, he seemed unable to complete his sentence, pausing for an extended awkward moment, before ending his thought in a way that sounded nonsensical. Tax reform would create money to help “strengthen our health care system, making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I was able to do with the, with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we had to do with,” Biden said before pausing.
“We finally beat Medicare,” Biden said, likely referring to COVID-19.
Trump, 78, pounced.
“He’s right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death.”
Republicans advance contempt charges against Biden’s ghostwriter for refusing to turn over records
WASHINGTON: House Republicans advanced a resolution Thursday that would hold President Joe Biden’s ghostwriter in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over records related to the special counsel investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to recommend contempt charges against Mark Zwonitzer, who worked with Biden on his two memoirs and through him was exposed to material that was deemed classified. The committee action paves the way for a possible floor vote by the House to refer Zwonitzer for criminal contempt.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, the chair of the Judiciary committee, issued a subpoena to Zwonitzer in March after he had refused to voluntarily turn over documents, including audio, video and transcripts of his interviews with Biden for the 2007 book “Promises to Keep” and 2017’s “Promise Me, Dad.”
“Zwonitzer continues to withhold all documents and materials in his possession that are responsive to the subpoena from the Committee,” the resolution states. “The materials requested from Zwonitzer are crucial for the Committee’s understanding of the manner and extent of President Biden’s mishandling and unlawful disclosure of classified materials, as well as Zwonitzer’s use, storage and deletion of classified materials on his computer.”
The contempt proceedings are the latest Republican legal salvo against Biden and his family. Earlier this month, Republicans voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for his refusal to turn over audio from the special counsel interview with Biden. The White House had blocked the release of the audio weeks earlier by invoking executive privilege. It said Republicans in Congress only wanted the recordings “to chop them up” and use them for political purposes.
In a letter to Jordan on Tuesday, White House counsel Ed Siskel accused Republicans of not engaging with officials to accommodate their request before targeting Zwonitzer publicly.
“The Committee’s actions are an obvious example of the very weaponization of government for political purposes that you claim to decry,” Siskel said in the letter obtained by The Associated Press. “Putting a private citizen in your political crosshairs and threatening him with criminal prosecution, simply because you refuse to engage with the Executive Branch, is out of bounds.”
Republicans opened their investigation into Biden after the February report by special counsel Robert Hur said that Biden was sloppy in his handling of classified material found at his home and former office. Hur said Biden shared classified information with Zwonitzer while the two were working on Biden’s second book.
Hur’s report concluded that no criminal charges were warranted against Biden. Prosecutors did consider charging Zwonitzer with obstruction of justice because the ghostwriter destroyed recordings of interviews he conducted with Biden while they worked on his second memoir together once he learned of the documents investigation.
But Hur said Zwonitzer offered “plausible, innocent reasons” for having erased the recordings and cooperated with investigators, meaning the evidence against him was likely “insufficient to obtain a conviction.” Investigators were also able to recover most of the deleted recordings from Zwonitzer’s laptop.
But Republicans maintain that further review of Zwonitzer’s access to classified materials is warranted to determine if legislative reforms need to be put in place for the storage, handling and disclosure of sensitive documents by members of the Executive Branch. Prolonging the investigation also keeps attention on parts of Hur’s report that were politically damaging to Biden as he seeks re-election against former President Donald Trump in November.
Beyond the bitingly critical assessment of Biden’s handling of sensitive government records, Hur offered unflattering characterizations of the president’s memory in his report, sparking fresh questions about his competency and age that cut at voters’ most deep-seated concerns about Biden seeking a second term.
“We need the audio recordings and the transcripts,” Jordan said during the hearing Thursday. “Put simply, they are the best evidence of the president’s mental state.”
Democrats on the Judiciary committee called the contempt proceeding “an abuse of the committee’s oversight authority,” and the latest ploy by Republicans to defend Trump as he faces his own federal investigation for retaining classified documents at his Florida club after he left the White House.
“We’re here today because there’s a presidential debate tonight and MAGA Republicans have decided the best way they can help President Trump is by bullying and intimidating a private citizen to obtain information about his highly sensitive and deeply personal conversations with President Biden,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the committee, said in his opening statement.
He added, “We’re here today because Republicans are, in a word, desperate.”
While both Biden and Trump have been investigated for their handling of classified materials, there are major differences.
Biden’s team returned the documents after they were discovered, and the president cooperated with the investigation by voluntarily sitting for an interview and consenting to searches of his homes.
Trump, by contrast, is facing criminal charges related to classified materials. He is accused of enlisting the help of aides and lawyers to conceal the documents from the government and of seeking to have potentially incriminating evidence destroyed.
Despite broad backing by EU leaders for Von der Leyen’s nomination, getting European Parliament’s nod is trickier
- Portuguese ex-PM and Estonian leader also tapped for top posts
- EU also signs security pact with Ukraine at summit
BRUSSELS: European Union leaders agreed to nominate Ursula von der Leyen of Germany for a second five-year term as president of the European Commission, the EU’s powerful executive body.
At a summit in Brussels, the bloc’s 27 national leaders also picked former Portuguese premier Antonio Costa as the future chair of their European Council meetings and selected Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the next EU foreign policy chief.
“Mission accomplished! The European Council has delivered,” the body’s current chair, Charles Michel, told reporters early on Friday morning.
The leadership package represents continuity at the top of the bloc of some 450 million people, with centrist pro-EU factions keeping hold of top posts despite a far-right surge in elections to the European Parliament earlier this month.
The trio won broad backing but right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni abstained from the vote on von der Leyen and voted against Costa and Kallas, according to diplomats.
Meloni said on X that she decided not to support the leadership slate “out of respect for the citizens and the indications that came from those citizens during the elections.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, another right-winger, voted against von der Leyen and did not vote for Kallas, diplomats said.
Von der Leyen’s nomination still needs approval from the European Parliament in a secret ballot — widely seen as a trickier proposition than her endorsement by EU leaders.
“It is a matter of convincing — if possible — a broad majority for a strong Europe,” von der Leyen said. “This is what I’m going to be working for.”
The leadership package is balanced politically as well as geographically. Von der Leyen hails from the center-right, Costa from the center-left and Kallas from Europe’s liberal group.
“This is an enormous responsibility in this time of geopolitical tensions. There’s war in Europe, but there’s also growing instability globally,” Kallas told reporters.
Costa said he would be “fully committed to promoting unity among the 27 member states” in his new role.
Defense debate
At the summit, the EU also signed a security agreement with Ukraine, debated how to bolster EU defenses against Russia and agreed bloc’s strategic priorities for the next five years.
The security deal underlines EU support for Kyiv fighting off Moscow’s invasion for a third year, despite gains by the far-right in European elections, uncertainty created by French snap elections and the US presidential vote in November.
The agreement lays out the EU’s commitments to help Ukraine in nine areas of security policy — including arms deliveries, military training, defense industry cooperation and demining.
“These commitments will help Ukraine defend itself, resist destabilization, and deter future acts of aggression — more concrete proof of the EU’s unshakeable resolve to support Ukraine for the long haul,” Michel said.
The leaders reiterated their pledge to support Ukraine as long as it takes, stressing that “Russia must not prevail” and that Ukraine must get back the land annexed by Moscow.
The war in Ukraine laid bare the EU’s lack of preparedness for a conflict as the bloc struggles to supply Kyiv with enough weapons against Russia, prompting calls for more EU coordination of defense systems and investment in defense industries.
Diplomats said von der Leyen told the summit that between 1999 and 2021, the EU increased defense spending by 20 percent, China by 600 percent and Russia by 300 percent, even before Moscow’s massive rise in military spending after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
According to diplomats, von der Leyen told leaders the EU needed to invest 500 billion euros ($535.30 billion) in defense over the next 10 years. Financing options ranged from national contributions, dedicated revenue streams — called the EU’s own resources — and joint borrowing, von der Leyen said.
Investment in defense is part of the EU’s “strategic agenda” that the leaders aim to agree before dinner on Thursday — a document that tells EU institutions what European governments want them to focus on during their 2024-2029 term.
Apart from defense, the agenda calls for a more competitive EU to withstand economic pressure from China and the United States and for preparing the bloc for enlargement that would include Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans.
US tells China that Philippines support ‘ironclad’
- US official “raised serious concerns” about Chinese actions against the Philippines in a call with a top Beijing diplomat
- Chinese coast guard boarded three Filipino navy boats last week, in the most serious of a number of escalating confrontation
WASHINGTON: A top US official on Thursday told a Chinese counterpart that Washington’s defense commitments to the Philippines were “ironclad” after a violent clash in the South China Sea.
Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell “raised serious concerns” about Chinese actions in a call with Executive Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, the State Department said.
Campbell “reiterated that US commitments to the Philippines under the Mutual Defense Treaty remain ironclad,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Campbell also called for “peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait, in the wake of China’s military drills around the self-governing democracy following the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te, and renewed US concerns about Chinese exports that support Russia’s defense industry.
Chinese coast guard personnel wielding knives, sticks and an ax surrounded and boarded three Filipino navy boats last week, in the most serious of a number of escalating confrontations.
China has been asserting claims in the strategic South China Sea and separately has put pressure on Taiwan, which it considers part of its territory awaiting reunification.
The United States provides weapons to Taiwan but has been deliberately ambiguous on whether it would come to its defense in a Chinese invasion.
By contrast, the United States has a defense treaty with the Philippines that dates to 1951 that says Washington will come to its former colony’s aid in case of an “armed attack.”
The United States has repeatedly stressed its commitments to the treaty without spelling out publicly at which point China has crossed a line.
Despite multiple areas of tensions, President Joe Biden’s administration has worked to expand communication with China to reduce the chance of greater conflict.
Campbell’s call was “part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication” between the two powers and “responsibly manage competition in the relationship,” Miller said.
How the Biden-Trump debate could change the trajectory of the 2024 campaign
ATLANTA: President Joe Biden and his Republican rival, Donald Trump, will meet for a debate on Thursday that offers an unparalleled opportunity for both candidates to try to reshape the political narrative.
Biden, the Democratic incumbent, gets the chance to reassure voters that, at 81, he’s capable of guiding the US through a range of challenges. The 78-year-old Trump, meanwhile, could use the moment to try to move past his felony conviction in New York and convince an audience of tens of millions that he’s temperamentally suited to return to the Oval Office.
Biden and Trump enter the night facing fierce headwinds, including a public weary of the tumult of partisan politics. Both candidates are disliked by majorities of Americans, according to polling, and offer sharply different visions on virtually every core issue. Trump has promised sweeping plans to remake the US government if he returns to the White House and Biden argues that his opponent would pose an existential threat to the nation’s democracy.
With just over four months until Election Day, their performances have the rare potential to alter the trajectory of the race. Every word and gesture will be parsed not just for what both men say but how they interact with each other and how they hold up under pressure.
“Debates tend not to change voters’ perception in ways that change their vote: They ordinarily reinforce, not persuade,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on presidential communications. “What makes this debate different is that you have in essence two incumbents about whom voters have very well-formed views. But that doesn’t mean that those perceptions are right or match what voters will see on stage.”
The debate marks a series of firsts
Trump and Biden haven’t been on the same stage or even spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful effort to overturn his loss to Biden that culminated in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection by his supporters.
Thursday’s broadcast on CNN will be the earliest general election debate in history. It’s the first-ever televised general election presidential debate hosted by a single news outlet after both campaigns ditched the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which had organized every matchup since 1988.
Under the network’s rules, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not qualify.
Aiming to avoid a repeat of their chaotic 2020 matchups, Biden insisted — and Trump agreed — to hold the debate without an audience and to allow the network to mute the candidates’ microphones when it is not their turn to speak. There will be two commercial breaks, another departure from modern practice. The candidates have agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras are off.
The timing follows moves by both candidates to respond to nationwide trends toward early voting by shifting forward the political calendar. It remains to be seen whether the advanced schedule will dampen the effects of any missteps or crystallize them in the public’s mind.
“You have two men that have not debated in four years,” said Phillippe Reines, a Democratic political consultant who helped former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepare for debates with Trump in 2016.
Biden and Trump, he said, “don’t like each other, haven’t seen each other, (are) pretty rusty heading into the biggest night of their lives. That about sums up what’s at stake on Thursday.”
Both sides recognize the stakes
The debate falls days after the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, ending a federally guaranteed right to abortion and pushing reproductive rights into the center of politics ever since.
The faceoff also occurs just after the Biden White House took executive action to restrict asylum claims at the US-Mexico border in an effort to lower the number of migrants entering the country. Trump has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign.
The wars in Ukraine and Gaza loom over the race, as do the candidates’ sharply differing views about America’s role in the world and its alliances. Differences on inflation, tax policy and government investment to build infrastructure and fight climate change will provide further contrasts.
Also in the political background: The Supreme Court is on the brink of announcing its decision on whether Trump is legally immune for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. That’s weeks after Trump was convicted in New York of taking part in a hush money scheme that prosecutors alleged was intended to unlawfully influence the 2016 election.
Biden spent the week leading up to the debate secluded at Camp David with senior White House and campaign aides as well as a coterie of longtime advisers and allies. A mock stage was built at the compound to simulate the studio where the debate will be held, and Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, was reprising his role as Trump in practice sessions.
Aides say the work reflects Biden’s understanding that he can’t afford a flat showing. They insist the sometimes stodgy orator would rise to the occasion.
“You know this president,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Thursday. “He likes to fight.”
Trump, meanwhile, has continued his more unstructured debate prep with two days of meetings at his Florida estate, phoning allies and supporters, and road-testing attacks in social media postings and in interviews with conservative-leaning outlets. The unorganized style that is a hallmark of the former president’s often-rambling rally speeches could present a challenge in the regimented, tightly timed debate format.
Trump and his aides have spent months chronicling what they argue are signs of Biden’s diminished stamina. In recent days, they’ve started to predict Biden will be stronger on Thursday, aiming to raise expectations for the incumbent.
The candidates have Georgia on their mind
Atlanta, the debate’s host city, offers symbolic and practical meaning for the campaign, but each side believes that what happens there will resonate far and wide.
In 2020, Biden secured Georgia’s 16 electoral votes with a margin of less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. Trump pushed the state’s Republican leadership to overturn his victory based on false theories of voter fraud, memorably being caught on tape saying he wanted to “find 11,780 votes.” He now faces state racketeering charges.
Both campaigns held a flurry of events in Atlanta leading into the debate, including competing events at Black-owned local businesses. Trump called in Friday to a gathering at Rocky’s Barbershop in the Buckhead community to talk about his matchup with Biden and question whether CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash would treat him fairly.
Heading out of the debate, both Biden and Trump will travel to states they hope to swing their way this fall. Trump is heading to Virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward Democrats in recent years.
Biden is set to jet off to North Carolina, where he is expected to hold the largest-yet rally of his campaign in a state Trump narrowly carried in 2020.
