BUCHAREST: Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis plans to make an announcement Thursday about his bid to become NATO chief, after his rival candidate Mark Rutte of the Netherlands got backing from EU holdout Hungary.
Iohannis’s withdrawal would clear the way for the Dutch prime minister to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as head of the defense alliance later this year.
“About NATO, more tomorrow. I will present these issues first to the CSAT (Supreme Council of National Defense), then to the public,” Iohannis said at a news conference Wednesday alongside Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who was visiting Bucharest.
“Tomorrow afternoon you will be fully informed and we will move forward,” he said.
Iohannis, 65, has vowed to bring a “renewal of perspective” to the alliance as a member of its eastern flank.
“It is time” for Romania, which joined NATO in 2004, to “assume an even greater responsibility within the Euro-Atlantic leadership,” Iohannis said when announcing his bid in March.
Leading NATO powers spearheaded by the United States are pressing to get an agreement on a new head of the alliance before a summit meeting in Washington next month.
Romania, which borders Ukraine and the Black Sea, has gained increased strategic importance since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The country hosts more than 5,000 foreign troops, the largest contingent anywhere in NATO’s southeastern region.
The nomination of a new NATO secretary general requires consensus from all 32 alliance members, and most appear ready to back Rutte — though Hungary had remained opposed until this week.
On Tuesday, Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he was “ready to support” Rutte’s candidacy after securing a guarantee from the Dutch leader that Budapest would not have to contribute to any coordinated NATO arms deliveries for Ukraine.
Rutte currently serves in a caretaker capacity as prime minister and is set to leave his position in the coming weeks once a new Dutch government is installed.
Romania’s Iohannis to make NATO statement as Dutch PM seen taking over
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Romania’s Iohannis to make NATO statement as Dutch PM seen taking over
- Iohannis’s withdrawal would clear the way for the Dutch prime minister to succeed Jens Stoltenberg
- “About NATO, more tomorrow. I will present these issues first to the CSAT (Supreme Council of National Defense), then to the public,” Iohannis said
G7 finalize $50bn Ukraine loan backed by Russian assets profits
- G7: ‘The loan proceeds will be disbursed through multiple channels to support Ukraine’s budgetary, military and reconstruction assistance’
- G7 finance ministers called on Moscow to end its war and pay for damage caused to Ukraine
Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies said they “have reached a consensus on how to deliver” the loans of approximately $50 billion, with an aim to start disbursing funds by the end of this year.
“The loan proceeds will be disbursed through multiple channels to support Ukraine’s budgetary, military and reconstruction assistance,” G7 leaders added.
Their announcement came as world financial leaders gathered in Washington this week for meetings hosted by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Finance ministers have “agreed on a technical solution ensuring consistency, coordination, fair distribution of lending, and solidarity among all G7 partners,” the statement said.
“We will not tire in our resolve to give Ukraine the support it needs to prevail,” the leaders added.
They called on Moscow to end its war and pay for damage caused to Ukraine.
This week, US President Joe Biden said that as part of the G7 package, the United States would provide $20 billion in loans to Ukraine, to be paid back by the interest earned from immobilized Russian sovereign assets.
This is aimed at supporting Ukraine now, “without burdening taxpayers.”
“Our efforts make it clear: tyrants will be responsible for the damages they cause,” Biden said.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen signed a statement Wednesday with her Ukrainian counterpart Sergii Marchenko marking their intent to enter into the loan.
The move also committed that new United States or Ukrainian tax dollars would not be the source of repayment.
Economic concerns remain top-of-mind for US voters, with just over a week to go before the country’s presidential election on November 5.
Washington aims to provide at least $10 billion of the loans for economic support, with the other half expected to take the form of military aid.
But this will require additional authorization from Congress.
The remaining $30 billion in loans is set to come from a combination of G7 partners, including the European Union, United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, US officials said.
The EU, which has frozen roughly $235 billion of Russian central bank funds — the vast bulk of immobilized Russian assets worldwide — said it would contribute approximately EUR18 billion ($19.4 billion).
“Russia must end its illegal war of aggression and pay for the damage it has caused,” the 27-nation bloc’s chief, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a statement.
“We’re steadfast in our solidarity with Ukraine’s fight for freedom.”
Implementation of the G7 loan suffered from delays as the United States had sought guarantees from the EU that the Russian assets would remain frozen.
“We have once again made clear our unwavering commitment to stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes,” said the G7 statement on Friday.
“Time is not on President (Vladimir) Putin’s side.”
3 dead after light planes collided in Australia
SYDNEY: Three men died after two light planes collided midair and crashed into a forested area southwest of Sydney on Saturday.
Australian police, fire and ambulance crews reached the two wreckage sites, located in a semirural bushland area about 55 miles southwest of Sydney, on foot. One plane had burst into flames on impact.
New South Wales Police Acting Superintendent Timothy Calman confirmed that a Cessna 182 carrying two people collided with an ultralight aircraft from a nearby airfield carrying one.
Further details of the victims have not been disclosed.
Witnesses saw “debris coming from the sky” and tried to help, but “there was probably not much that could’ve been done,” Calman said to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation . He noted both crashes, about one kilometer apart, were “not survivable.”
NSW Ambulance Inspector Joseph Ibrahim, part of the emergency response team, said to the ABC, “unfortunately, there was nothing they could’ve done.”
The cause of the crash will be investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Russian attacks on central Ukraine, Kyiv kill 5
KYIV: Russian missile strikes killed three people including a child in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro while a teenager and another person died in attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region, officials said Saturday.
Overnight strikes on Dnipro wounded 19 others and damaged multiple buildings, said Sergiy Lysak, the governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
A two-story residential building was destroyed, he said.
Images shared by Lysak showed rescuers working in a pile of rubble, while another showed what appeared to be a hospital room with its windows blown out.
“Three people were killed in Dnipro, including a child. Nineteen were injured, four of them children. Eight are hospitalized,” Lysak said.
Separate night attacks on the capital Kyiv and surrounding region left two people dead, including a teenage girl who was killed in a drone strike, according to regional authorities.
Ukrainian cities including Kyiv have been subjected to deadly drone and missile attacks throughout Russia’s invasion.
Kyiv has been asking for more air defenses from its allies ahead of what is likely to be its toughest winter yet, as Moscow ramps up strikes on energy infrastructure.
US, UK urge Iran not to respond to latest Israel attack
- UK leader: ‘I’m equally clear that we need to avoid further regional escalation and urge all sides to show restraint’
- The Israeli military conducted air strikes against Iran on Saturday, hitting military bases and missile sites
WASHINGTON/LONDON: The United States and UK urged Iran on Saturday to stop attacking Israel to break the cycle of violence after Israel launched strikes against the Islamic republic in retaliation for a missile barrage.
“We urge Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation,” US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett told reporters.
“I am clear that Israel has the right to defend itself against Iranian aggression. I’m equally clear that we need to avoid further regional escalation and urge all sides to show restraint. Iran should not respond,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, speaking at a press conference in Samoa, where he has been attending a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
The Israeli military conducted air strikes against Iran on Saturday, hitting military bases and missile sites, and other systems in several regions.
“Their response was an exercise in self-defense and specifically avoided populated areas and focused solely on military targets, contrary to Iran’s attack against Israel that targeted Israel’s most populous city,” he added.
Stressing that the United States did not participate in the operation, he said “it is our aim to accelerate diplomacy and de-escalate tensions in the Middle East region.”
A senior administration official said President Joe Biden and his national security team have worked with the “Israelis over recent weeks to encourage Israel to conduct a response that was targeted and proportional with low risk of civilian harm.”
“And that appears to have been precisely what transpired this evening,” the official told reporters.
President Biden had encouraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to design a response that served to deter further attacks against Israel while reducing risks of further escalation, and that is our objective.”
Russians behind fake video of ballots being destroyed, US officials say
- Video connected to a Kremlin-aligned disinformation network known as Storm-1516, according to researchers
- Account on X that distributed the video has regularly amplified other narratives from this network
WASHNGTON: Russian actors were behind a viral video falsely showing mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in the swing state of Pennsylvania, US officials said Friday, amid heightened alert over foreign influence operations targeting the upcoming election.
The video, which garnered millions of views on platforms such as the Elon Musk-owned X, purports to show a man sorting through mail-in ballots from the state’s Bucks County and ripping up those cast for Trump.
On Thursday, the Bucks County Board of Elections declared the video as “fake,” saying that the envelope and other materials depicted in the footage are “clearly not authentic materials” belonging to or distributed by them.
In a joint statement on Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the video was part of a Russian disinformation operation.
“Russian actors manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania,” the statement said.
“This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans,” it added.
The statement said Russia was expected to create and release more such content in an attempt to “undermine trust” in the integrity of the November 5 elections.
The video surfaced as American authorities brace for a surge in disinformation in the final days of a nail-biting election between Republican nominee Trump and the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
The video, also debunked by AFP’s fact-checkers, was connected to a Kremlin-aligned disinformation network known as Storm-1516, according to researchers including Darren Linvill, co-director of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub.
Linvill, who has closely studied the network, said the account on X — previously called Twitter — that distributed the video has regularly amplified other narratives from this network.
Storm-1516 has previously produced fake videos to discredit the campaign of Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, according to disinformation researchers.
Last month, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center said Russian operatives are ramping up disinformation operations to malign Harris’s campaign by disseminating conspiracy-laden videos.
Aside from Russia, Iran and China are also fanning “divisive narratives to divide Americans and undermine Americans’ confidence in the US democratic system,” the ODNI warned in a memo earlier this week.
“Foreign influence efforts will intensify in the lead-up to Election Day, especially through social media posts — some of which are likely to be AI generated or enhanced,” the report said.
“These actors probably perceive that undermining confidence in the elections weakens the legitimacy of our democracy and consequently makes the United States less capable of effectively pursuing policies that are counter to their interests,” it added.
