Russia slowing down in Kharkiv area after lifting of arms restrictions, says Austin
Russia slowing down in Kharkiv area after lifting of arms restrictions, says Austin/node/2529976/world
Russia slowing down in Kharkiv area after lifting of arms restrictions, says Austin
Ukrainian service members of the 33rd Separate Mechanized Brigade teach brother-in-arms to fire a M2 Browning machine gun atop of a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle Oshkosh M-ATV during a military drill near a frontline in Donetsk on Jun. 12, 2024. (Reuters)
Russia slowing down in Kharkiv area after lifting of arms restrictions, says Austin
“What I see is a slowing of the Russians’ advance and a stabilizing of that particular piece of the front,” said Austin
Updated 13 June 2024
Reuters
BRUSSELS: Russia’s advance in the Kharkiv area is slowing and the frontline is stabilizing after some allies lifted restrictions on Kyiv’s use of donated weapons on Russian territory, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday.
“What I see is a slowing of the Russians’ advance and a stabilizing of that particular piece of the front. Now, I think we’ll see incremental gains — and we’ll see puts and takes — going forward,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
“But again, a couple of weeks ago, there was concern that we would see a significant breakthrough on the part of the Russians. I don’t think we’ll see that going forward.”
Biden says during press conference he’s going to ‘complete the job’ despite calls to bow out
Biden holds highly anticipated news conference to deliver forceful defense of foreign and domestic policies
Insists his support among the electorate was strong and he would stay in the race and would win
Updated 8 sec ago
AFP
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden used his highly anticipated news conference Thursday to deliver a forceful defense of his foreign and domestic policies, and batted away questions about his ability to serve another four years even as he flubbed a reference to Donald Trump in one of his first answers.
“I’m not in this for my legacy. I’m in this to complete the job I started,” Biden said as he insisted his support among the electorate was strong and he would stay in the race and would win.
Fumbles notwithstanding, the president pushed back at every suggestion that was slowing down or showing noticeable signs of decline, or that he was not in command of the job. But he was facing a growing chorus of calls from lawmakers, celebrities and other prominent Democrats to step aside from the 2024 race.
“My schedule has been full bore,” he declared. “So if I slow down and I cant get the job done, that’s a sign that I shouldn’t be doing it. But there’s no indication of that yet — none.”
Democrats are facing an intractable problem. Top donors, supporters and key lawmakers are doubtful of Biden’s abilities to carry on his reelection bid after his disastrous June 27 debate performance, but the hard-fighting 81-year-old president refuses to give up as he prepares to take on Trump in a rematch.
“I’m determined on running but I think it’s important that I allay fears — let them see me out there,” he said.
The first questioner of Biden’s press conference asked about him losing support among many of his fellow Democrats and unionists, and asked about Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden was at first defiant, saying the “UAW endorsed me, but go ahead,” meaning the United Auto Workers. But then he mixed up Harris and Trump, saying, “I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President if she wasn’t qualified.”
Trump weighed in live on Biden’s news conference with a post on his social media network of a video clip of the president saying “Vice President Trump.”
Trump added sarcastically, “Great job, Joe!”
Most of the hourlong press conference was vintage Biden: He gave long answers on foreign policy and told well-worn anecdotes. He used teleprompters for his opening remarks on NATO, which ran about eight minutes. Then the teleprompters lowered and he took a wide range of questions from 10 journalists about his mental acuity, foreign and domestic policy and — mostly — the future of his campaign.
“I believe I’m the best qualified to govern. I believe I’m the best qualitied to win,” Biden said, adding that he will stay in the race until his staff says, “There’s no way you can win.”
“No one’s saying that,” he said. “No poll says that.”
Earlier, Biden’s campaign laid out what it sees as its path to keeping the White House in a new memo, saying that winning the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan is the “clearest pathway” to victory. And it declared no other Democrat would do better against Trump.
“There is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump,” said the memo from campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez that was obtained by The Associated Press.
The memo sought to brush back “hypothetical polling of alternative nominees ” as unreliable and it said such surveys “do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter.”
Meanwhile, the campaign has been quietly surveying voters on Harris to determine how she’s viewed among the electorate, according to two people with knowledge of the campaign who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to talk about internal matters.
The people said the polling was not necessarily to show that she could be the nominee in Biden’s place, but rather to better understand how she’s viewed. The research came after Trump stepped up his attacks against Harris following the debate, according to another person familiar with the effort. The survey was first reported by The New York Times.
While Biden has expressed confidence in his chances, his campaign on Thursday acknowledged he is behind, and a growing number of the president’s aides in the White House and the campaign privately harbor doubts that he can turn things around.
But they’re taking their cues from Biden, expressing that he is in 100 percent unless and until he isn’t, and there appears to be no organized internal effort to persuade the president to step aside. His allies were well aware heading into the week there would be more calls for him to step down, and they were prepared for it.
But in announcing a compact that would bring together NATO countries to support Ukraine, Biden referred to the nation’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” to audible gasps in the room. He quickly returned to the microphone: “President Putin — he’s going to beat President Putin ... President Zelensky,” Biden said.
Then he said, “I’m so focused on beating Putin,” in an effort to explain the gaffe.
“I’m better,” Zelensky replied. “You’re a hell of a lot better,” Biden said back.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited Biden’s team to meet with senators privately at the lunch hour to discuss concerns and the path forward, but some senators groused they would prefer to hear from the president himself. In the Senate, only Peter Welch of Vermont has so far called for Biden to step out of the race.
The 90-minute conversation with the president’s team, which one person said included no new data, polling or game plan on how Biden would beat Trump, did not appear to change senators’ minds. The person was granted anonymity to discuss the closed door session.
The meeting was frank, angry at times and also somewhat painful, since many in the room know and love Biden, said one senator who requested anonymity to discuss the private briefing. Senators confronted the advisers over Biden’s performance at the debate and the effect on Senate races this year
One Democrat, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, said afterward, “My belief is that the president can win, but he’s got to be able to go out and answer voters’ concerns. He’s got to be able to talk to voters directly over the next few day.”
At the same time, influential senators are standing strongly with Biden, leaving the party at an impasse.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, told the AP he thinks Biden “is going to win this election. I think he has a chance to win it big.”
Sanders said he has been publicly critical of the campaign, and said Biden needs to talk more about the future and his plans for the country. “As we come closer to Election Day, the choices are very clear,” he said.
Ambani, 67, chairman of Reliance Industries, has a fortune of more than $123 billion, and is the 11th wealthiest person in the world
His younger son Anant and fiancee Radhika Merchant, both 29, are set to marry in three-day Hindu ceremony in Mumbai starting Friday
Updated 43 min 1 sec ago
AFP
MUMBAI: Billionaire Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani celebrates the lavish finale of his son’s wedding this week, highlighting his staggering wealth, as well as India’s rapid economic growth and stark financial inequalities.
Ambani’s younger son Anant and fiancee Radhika Merchant, both 29, are set to marry in a three-day Hindu ceremony in India’s financial capital Mumbai starting Friday.
Asia’s richest man is no stranger to throwing a costly wedding.
He held the most expensive wedding in India to date for his daughter in 2018, which reportedly cost up to $100 million and saw US singer Beyonce perform.
This week’s opulent celebrations are set to raise the bar, with celebrities, politicians and business elite jetting into the monsoon-hit megacity of Mumbai.
Pre-wedding parties for his son included multi-day galas, a European cruise for 1,200 guests, a specially built Hindu temple and entertainment provided by pop stars ranging from Rihanna to Justin Bieber.
Ambani, 67, the chairman of Reliance Industries, has a fortune of more than $123 billion, and is the 11th wealthiest person in the world, according to the Forbes billionaires list.
He is a key ally of India’s right-wing Hindu nationalist leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ambani inherited a thriving industrial enterprise spanning oil, gas and petrochemicals.
Billionaire and Chairman of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani (R) with his wife Nita Ambani attends a mass wedding ceremony of underprivileged couples ahead of their son Anant Ambani’s wedding to Radhika Merchant, at Reliance Corporate Park in Navi Mumbai on July 2, 2024. (AFP)
He grew it into a commercial behemoth with lucrative interests in retail, telecommunications and an Indian Premier League cricket team.
Ambani’s family home Antilia is one of Mumbai’s most prominent landmarks. The 27-floor building reportedly cost more than $1 billion to erect and has a permanent staff of 600 servants.
Merchant is the daughter of pharmaceutical moguls.
Wedding celebrations began in March with a three-day gala for 1,500-plus guests in Gujarat state.
Rihanna performed her first concert since last year’s Super Bowl for wedding guests including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and ex-US president Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
David Blaine did magic tricks.
Festivities also involved a trip to the Ambani’s “animal rescue center” housing exotic animals, and a specially built Hindu temple complex.
A second leg in June was a four-day Mediterranean cruise with 1,200 guests, Merchant told Vogue.
Singer Katy Perry performed at a masquerade ball at a French chateau in Cannes, while the Backstreet Boys and US rapper Pitbull also provided entertainment.
DJ David Guetta played at a toga party at sea.
The cruise ended in Italy’s Portofino, where tenor Andrea Bocelli serenaded the party in the town square.
The wedding invitation was an intricate chest incorporating a mini silver temple.
Merchant’s multiple dresses have been as elaborate.
Radhika Merchant (R) and her fiancé Anant Ambani, son of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, pose for a picture during their sangeet ceremony in Mumbai on July 5, 2024. (AFP)
They have included custom designs from Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, and a vintage Yves Saint Laurent for Dior, she told Vogue.
Another was a sweeping chiffon dress printed with a love letter from her fiancee, the magazine reported.
“I want to be able to show it to my kids and grandkids, and say that ‘this is what our love was’,” Merchant said.
India is the fastest-growing major economy, and the world’s fifth largest.
But despite massive advances, the world’s most populous country has a jobs crisis to match.
National per capita income is just $1,174, according to government data.
Nita Ambani (L), wife of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani and chairperson of the Reliance Foundation, greets underprivileged couples during a mass wedding ceremony ahead of her son Anant Ambani’s wedding to Radhika Merchant, at Reliance Corporate Park in Navi Mumbai on July 2, 2024. (AFP)
India was ranked 111 of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index report last year, a peer-reviewed measure calculated by European aid agencies.
One percent of India’s 1.4 billion people earn more than a fifth of its wealth, according to the World Inequality Lab, an income share “among the very highest” in the world — greater than South Africa, Brazil or the United States.
Perhaps to preempt criticism, Ambani provided a feast for 50,000 people in his hometown of Jamnagar in Gujarat during the first round of parties.
Ambani also organized a mass wedding for 52 “underprivileged” couples near Mumbai, promising to support “hundreds more such weddings” across India.
63 missing after Nepal landslide sweeps two buses into river
Dozens of search and rescue personnel combing the site for survivors of the accident in the central district of Chitwan
Deadly crashes are common in the Himalayan republic because of poorly constructed roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving
Updated 51 min 10 sec ago
AFP
KATMANDU: At least 63 people were missing in Nepal on Friday after a landslide triggered by heavy monsoon rains swept two buses off a highway and into a river, authorities said.
Dozens of search and rescue personnel were combing the site for survivors of the accident in the central district of Chitwan, district official Khimananda Bhusal told AFP.
Bhusal said that the buses were carrying at least 66 people between them but three passengers had been able to escape before they crashed into the Trishuli river and were now being treated in hospital.
“We are not sure of the total number because the buses could have picked up others on the road,” he said.
“The river has swollen and no one else has been found yet.”
The accident took place along the Narayanghat-Mugling highway, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the capital Katmandu early Friday at 3:30 am local time (2145 GMT Thursday).
One bus was heading from the capital Katmandu to Gaur in Rautahat district in southern Nepal and the other was en route to Katmandu from southern Birgunj.
A driver was killed in a separate accident on the same road after a boulder hit his bus. He died as he was being treated at a hospital.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal expressed sadness over the accident in a post on social media platform X.
“I direct all agencies of the government, including the home administration, to search for and effectively rescue the passengers,” he said.
Deadly crashes are common in the Himalayan republic because of poorly constructed roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.
Nearly 2,400 people lost their lives on Nepal’s roads in the 12 months to April, according to government figures.
Twelve people were killed and 24 were injured in an accident in January when a bus heading to Katmandu from Nepalgunj fell into a river.
Road travel becomes deadlier during the annual monsoon season as rains trigger landslides and floods across the mountainous republic.
Monsoon rains across South Asia from June to September offer respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies, but also bring widespread death and destruction.
The rainfall is hard to forecast and varies considerably, but scientists say climate change is making the monsoon stronger and more erratic.
Floods, landslides and lightning strikes have killed 88 people across the country since the monsoon began in June, according to police figures.
In South Africa, Madiba shirts keep Mandela’s legacy alive
Sonwabile Ndamas proud that the Madiba shirts he designed for Nelson Mandela 30 years ago endure as a legacy of South Africa’s first democratically elected leader
Updated 12 July 2024
AFP
JOHANNESBURG: In his workshop stocked with piles of fabric and sewing machines, Sonwabile Ndamase is proud that the Madiba shirts he designed for Nelson Mandela 30 years ago endure as a legacy of South Africa’s first democratically elected leader.
Worn untucked and without a jacket, the loose Madiba shirts remain a favorite among South African politicians, making a statement 10 years after Mandela’s death.
Madiba is the clan name by which Mandela is known in South Africa.
Ndamase’s clients include South Africa’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as his predecessors, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. The country’s political and business elite — including ministers, government spokesmen and local politicians — regularly place orders.
Even former US president Bill Clinton and boxing great Mike Tyson have a Madiba shirt.
“Anybody who wants to live a Mandela legacy or who wants to live Mandela ethos in life, guess what they are doing? They will go and pick up Madiba shirts,” Ndamase told AFP.
The jovial 64-year-old designer recalls when he was contacted by Winnie Mandela soon after the apartheid government released her husband from prison in 1990.
Having spent 27 years in jail, the hero of the fight against white-minority rule and South Africa’s soon-to-be president needed new clothes.
Ndamase met Mandela in his home Johannesburg’s Soweto. “He started to tell me that he wanted something that could look conservative enough for him to go and address the captains of industry and... then also to address the masses without having to change,” he said.
Mandela wanted a style that would make him stand out among other statesmen and did not require a tie.
The self-taught designer came up with the loose-fitting, casual-but-smart silk shirts with bold patterns that are associated with Mandela even after his death in 2013 at the age of 95.
The shirts often feature oriental-style patterns. Some boast deep colors such as burgundy, dark grey and royal blue, with playful designs; others are of cooler, tan hues, depicting elements from nature like leaves or twigs.
All are recognizable as the signature Mandela look. It is a style that Ndamase, who suffered a mild stroke in March 2024, is passing on to a new generation of garment-makers.
The jocular designer — whose perfect impersonation of Mandela is a testament to their time spent together — is taking his know-how to New York in September when he will host a masterclass for young designers.
On the same trip, he will showcase his Vukani brand’s new collection at an event for celebrity and elite buyers that will pay tribute to the 30 years of democracy since South Africa’s first all-race election in 1994.
The collection takes on a more casual, loungewear aesthetic, a breakaway from his usual style, Ndamase said. The occasion will feature in a documentary by a US-based filmmaker about his career.
Sporting a grey goatee, Ndamase laughs off the many other designers who claim to have pioneered the Madiba shirt or sell versions resembling his own, which today cost around 1,800 rand ($90) apiece.
Once described by the late Winnie Mandela as “part of the furniture,” he says never wanted to use the Mandela name commercial purposes. “I dressed one generation to another,” he said. “The relationship I had was a family relationship.”
Born in the Mdantsane township on the southeastern coast, Ndamase still spends time behind the sewing machine in his Johannesburg workshop.
“It’s a dream come true,” he said, squinting at shirt he is working on. “It’s a legacy collection,” he said, pointing to a T-shirt from the new range that is emblazoned “BE THE LEGACY” and features a famous silhouette of Nelson and Winnie Mandela walking free in 1990.
South Korea to deploy ‘StarWars’ lasers against North’s drones
The new laser weapons are invisible and noise-free, require no additional ammunition
The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty
Updated 12 July 2024
AFP
SEOUL: South Korea will begin deploying drone-melting laser weapons designed to shoot down North Korean UAVs this year, the country’s arms procurement agency said Friday.
The new laser weapons — dubbed the “StarWars Project” by the South — are invisible and noise-free, require no additional ammunition, operate solely on electricity and cost only about 2,000 won ($1.45) per shot, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
The “Block-I” system, developed by Hanwha Aerospace, will be “put into operational deployment in the military this year,” Lee Sang-yoon, a DAPA official, said.
The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
In December 2022, Seoul said five North Korean drones crossed into the South, the first such incident in five years, prompting its military to fire warning shots and deploy fighter jets, but they failed to shoot any of them down.
The South’s “ability to respond to North Korea’s drone provocations will be significantly enhanced” by the laser weapons system, DAPA said in a statement Thursday.
It has successfully achieved a 100 percent shoot-down rate in previous tests, and with future improvements, it could become a “game-changing” weapons system capable of countering aircraft and ballistic missiles in the future, DAPA said.
The “StarWars” system — a “weapon of the future” according to official Lee — neutralizes targets by directly hitting them with laser light generated from optical fiber.
“When a laser weapon transfers heat to a drone, its surface melts. As the surface melts, the internal components catch fire, causing the drone to eventually fall,” Lee said.
“This laser weapon uses electricity, so simply increasing the output allows it to travel at the speed of light,” he said.
“Laser weapons can travel even further in space where there is no air,” which gives it a significant advantage over conventional weapons, he added.
But some analysts said it was too early to be sure about the weapon’s capabilities.
“Laser weapons have not yet been put to practical use worldwide, and further verification and more time are needed to determine whether they can be utilized as a practical weapon system,” Hong Sung-pyo, senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said.
“Laser weapons also have an operational range. While it may be possible to shoot down (North Korean) drones that come within this range, it is difficult to target those that are outside of it,” he added.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang ramping up weapons testing as it draws ever closer to Russia.
After Pyongyang sent multiple barrages of trash-carrying balloons across the border, Seoul last month fully suspended a tension-reducing military deal and resumed live-fire drills on border islands and by the demilitarised zone that divides the Korean peninsula.
