Russian lawmaker warns Moscow may change timing for use of nuclear weapons

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia could test a nuclear weapon, if necessary, though he saw no need to do so at the present time. (AFP)
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Updated 23 June 2024
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Russian lawmaker warns Moscow may change timing for use of nuclear weapons

  • Russia’s 2020 nuclear doctrine sets out when its president would consider using a nuclear weapon

Moscow may change the timing for use of its nuclear weapons if threats against Russia increase, the RIA state news agency cited Andrei Kartapolov, the head of the Russian lower house’s defense committee, as saying on Sunday.
The former general’s comments follow recent warnings by President Vladimir Putin that Moscow may change its nuclear doctrine, which lays out the conditions in which such weapons could be used.
“If we see that the challenges and threats increase, it means that we can correct something in (the doctrine) regarding the timing of the use of nuclear weapons and the decision to make this use,” the agency quoted Kartapolov as saying.
“But of course, it’s too early to talk about specifics now.”
Russia’s 2020 nuclear doctrine sets out when its president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly as a response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or conventional weapons “when the very existence of the state is put under threat.”
Putin has also said Russia could test a nuclear weapon, if necessary, though he saw no need to do so at the present time.
The heightened rhetoric on nuclear weapons comes as both Russian and US diplomats say that Russia’s war in Ukraine, launched against its smaller neighbor in 2022, is in the most dangerous phase yet.


Syria’s government and Kurds still at odds over merging forces after latest talks, US envoy says

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Syria’s government and Kurds still at odds over merging forces after latest talks, US envoy says

  • Tom Barrack met with Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, and interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa in the Syrian capital

DAMASCUS: A US envoy said on Wednesday that Syria’s central government and the Kurds remain at odds over plans on merging forces after the latest round of talks.
US Ambassador to Turkiye Tom Barrack, who is also a special envoy to Syria, told The Associated Press after meetings in Damascus that differences between the two sides remain. Barrack spoke after meeting with Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, and Syria’s interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa in the Syrian capital.
In early March, the new authorities in Damascus signed a landmark deal with the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Under that deal, the SDF forces would be merged with the new national army. The agreement, which is supposed to be implemented by the end of the year, would also bring all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, airports, and oil fields in the northeast under the central government’s control.
Detention centers housing thousands of suspected members of the Daesh group would also come under government control.
However, the agreement left the details vague, and progress on implementation has been slow. A major sticking point has been whether the SDF would remain as a cohesive unit in the new army — which the Kurds have pushed for — or whether it would be dissolved and its members absorbed into the new military as individuals.
Barrack said that question remains “a big issue” between the two sides.


French police raid far-right party HQ over campaign financing

Updated 09 July 2025
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French police raid far-right party HQ over campaign financing

  • The Paris prosecutor’s office said police had raided the National Rally’s offices as part of an investigation launched in July last year into alleged illegal campaign financing for the 2022 presidential and parliamentary elections
  • It is the latest legal trouble for the party of Marine Le Pen, the longtime standard bearer of the French far right

PARIS: The leader of France’s National Rally (RN) said police seized documents from the far-right party’s headquarters Wednesday, a raid prosecutors said was linked to a French probe into alleged illegal campaign financing.
It is the latest legal trouble for the party of Marine Le Pen, the longtime standard bearer of the French far right, which has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years.
The 56-year-old politician, who has three times run for president, suffered a stunning blow in March when a French court convicted her and other party officials over an EU parliament fake jobs scam.
The ruling, which Le Pen has appealed, banned her from standing for office for five years, effectively scuppering her ambition of running in France’s 2027 presidential elections.
Le Pen has asked her top lieutenant, 29-year-old party leader and European Parliament member Jordan Bardella, to prepare to campaign in her place.
“RN headquarters — including the offices of its leaders — are being searched by around 20 police officers from the financial brigade,” Bardella said on X on Wednesday morning.
Police accompanied by two investigating magistrates had seized “all emails, documents and accounting” records of the party, he added.
They included “all files related to the last regional, presidential, parliamentary and European (election) campaigns,” Bardella said, denouncing what he called “a new harassment operation.”
The Paris prosecutor’s office said police had raided the party’s offices as part of an investigation launched in July last year into alleged illegal campaign financing for the 2022 presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as the European Parliament elections last year.
The investigation seeks to “determine whether these campaigns were notably funded through illegal loans from individuals to the party or RN candidates,” the prosecutor’s office added.
It said it would also look into allegations the party had included inflated or fake invoices in its claims for the state to reimburse campaign expenses.
Police also searched the offices and homes of several company bosses on Wednesday as part of the investigation, which covers the period from January 2020 to July 2024, it said.
Under French law, a person can give a maximum of 7,500 euros ($8,800) per year to a political party.
Loans are allowed, but only within certain conditions and limits, according to a national commission in charge of scrutinizing campaign financing called the CNCCFP.
They should not be “a disguised donation,” for example.
By the end of 2023, the RN had racked up 20 million euros in loans from individuals, with the earliest dating back to 2007, the CNCCFP says.
In a separate case, the European Union’s prosecutor said Tuesday it has launched a formal investigation into a defunct far-right group, which included France’s RN, over the alleged misuse of European Parliament funds.
According to the reports by a consortium of European media, most of the allegedly misused funds benefited companies belonging to a former adviser to Le Pen and his wife.
Le Pen has challenged her May conviction at the Paris Appeals Court, which has said it will examine the case to allow a decision to be reached in the summer of 2026.
This means she could still stand in the 2027 elections — if the verdict is reversed or amended.
She also sought an urgent ruling from the European Court for Human Rights to lift her ban on standing for public office.
The court threw out the request on Wednesday, stating it saw no “imminent risk of irreparable harm to a right” protected by the European human rights convention.


Bob Vylan and Kneecap perform in London and Glasgow despite festivals axing them for criticizing Israeli actions in Gaza

Updated 09 July 2025
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Bob Vylan and Kneecap perform in London and Glasgow despite festivals axing them for criticizing Israeli actions in Gaza

  • Bob Vylan announced they will perform on Wednesday evening at the 100 Club in London
  • Irish rap group Kneecap sold out their show at the O2 in Glasgow in just 80 seconds

LONDON: The rap-punk duo Bob Vylan announced a last-minute gig in London on Wednesday, and the Irish rap group Kneecap sold out their show at the O2 in Glasgow in just 80 seconds, despite being axed by festivals after using performances to publicly criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Avon and Somerset Police are investigating Bob Vylan over their Glastonbury performance in June, when frontman Bobby Vylan, 34, led crowds in chants of “death, death to the IDF”, an acronym for Israel Defence Forces, during a livestreamed show.

The Metropolitan Police are also investigating the duo from Ipswich over alleged comments made during a concert in London in May, during which Vylan, reportedly, said: “Death to every single IDF soldier out there as an agent of terror for Israel. Death to the IDF.”

The duo announced to their followers on Instagram that they will be performing a gig on Wednesday evening at the 100 Club, a venue on Oxford Street in central London.

After their Glastonbury performance, the band had their US visas revoked and were removed from their headline slot at Radar festival in Manchester, as well as an upcoming German venue. Their agency, United Talent Agency, has reportedly dropped them as well.

Bob Vylan, formed in 2017, is known for addressing issues such as racism, masculinity, and class; they have said they are “targeted for speaking up.” They are scheduled to perform at the Boardmasters surfing and music festival in Newquay, Cornwall, in August.

‘They can’t stop us’

The Irish rap trio Kneecap responded to Scotland’s first minister during their Tuesday night performance at Glasgow’s O2 Academy, which reportedly sold out in 80 seconds. However, the TRNSMT festival in Glasgow canceled the trio’s performance this weekend after concerns were raised by the police.

John Swinney called for the TRNSMT festival to disinvite the band, describing their participation as “unacceptable” due to comments he deemed “beyond the pale”.

Mo Chara, a member of Kneecap, was charged with a terrorism-related offense in June but has been released on unconditional bail after footage showed him holding a Hezbollah flag.

Chara addressed Swinney’s comments during the gig at the O2 Academy on Tuesday, asking the crowd: “What’s your first minister’s name?” and adding: “They stopped us playing TRNSMT but they can’t stop us playing Glasgow.” The trio chanted against Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who had called for their removal from festivals in England.

Kneecap wrote later on social media: “Hats off to the dozens of Palestine activists who’ve been here all day. Buzzing to play one of our favourite cities for a show that sold out in seconds.”

The band said that their criticism target the Israeli government and that their actions, including displaying the Hezbollah flag during a performance, were taken out of context.

In April, they concluded a performance at Coachella’s California desert music festival by projecting three screens of pro-Palestinian messages.

The first text said: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” followed by: “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes,” while the final message said: “F*** Israel. Free Palestine.”

Since October 2023, Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, while more than 100,000 others have been injured. On Oct. 7, 2023, the Hamas group raided Israeli towns, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.


Greece to halt asylum hearings for migrants on boats from Africa

Updated 09 July 2025
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Greece to halt asylum hearings for migrants on boats from Africa

  • Move came after more than 2,000 migrants landed on Crete in recent days, sparking anger among local authorities and tourism operators
  • PM Mitsotakis said Greece’s navy and coast guard were willing to work with Libyan authorities to keep migrant boats from leaving the country’s territorial waters

ATHENS: Greece will suspend all asylum hearings for migrants arriving on boats from North Africa for three months, the prime minister said Wednesday following a rise in migrant arrivals from Libya.
The move came after more than 2,000 migrants landed on Crete in recent days, sparking anger among local authorities and tourism operators. Crete is one of Greece’s top travel destinations, and premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ home island.
Greece had hoped to stem the arrivals by reaching out to the authorities in Benghazi, eastern Libya, and the UN-recognized government in Tripoli — but that failed.
“The road to Greece is closing... any migrants entering illegally will be arrested and detained,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament.
The conservative leader said legislation would be put to a vote in the chamber on Thursday, and that Athens was keeping the EU informed on the issue.
The measure was a “necessary temporary reaction” and a message “to smugglers and their potential clients,” said Mitsotakis.
Greece took similar steps in 2020 during a migration surge at its land border with Turkiye, which Athens accused Ankara of facilitating.
Another group of some 520 people were rescued near Crete early Wednesday, and will be rerouted to the Athens port of Lavrio, the coast guard said.
“The flows are very high,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told Action 24 channel late Tuesday, adding that the wave was “growing and ongoing.”

On Sunday, the Greek coast guard rescued more than 600 asylum seekers in various operations in the area.
AFP pictures showed some of them landing near Agia Galini beach on the south of Crete, where many tourists were bathing.
Migration Minister Thanos Plevris — a former member of Greek far-right party Laos — posted on X that the country was taking “immediate actions to counter the invasion from North Africa.”
“Clear message: Stay where you are, we do not accept you,” he wrote.
According to the coast guard, 7,300 asylum seekers have reached Crete and the nearby island of Gavdos this year, up from fewer than 5,000 last year.
More than 2,500 arrivals have been recorded since June alone.
To manage the influx, the government could reopen camps built in the mainland after the 2015 migration crisis, Marinakis said.
Mitsotakis told parliament that a camp would also be built on Crete, with a second one also possible.

Greece had hoped arrivals could be reduced with the help of the authorities in eastern Libya in Benghazi, and the UN-recognized government in Tripoli.
But a visit Tuesday by the EU’s migration commissioner and the migration ministers of Greece, Italy and Malta was unsuccessful.
Accusing the bloc’s delegation of a “flagrant breach of diplomatic norms,” the authorities who hold sway over eastern Libya said they had canceled the visit and told the EU officials to “leave Libyan territory immediately.”
The diplomatic breakdown has sparked concern in Greece of thousands of additional migrant arrivals from Libya.
“The other side is not cooperating,” Marinakis said, referring to the authorities in Benghazi.
Mitsotakis on Wednesday said Greece’s navy and coast guard were willing to work with Libyan authorities to keep migrant boats from leaving the country’s territorial waters, or to turn them back before entering Greek waters.
Libya has been gripped by conflict since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising.
Greece had reached out to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar before the botched EU visit, sending Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis on Sunday.
Gerapetritis is also scheduled to hold talks with the UN-recognized government in Tripoli on July 15.


How a Muslim woman from Sulu made history as a Philippine Air Force pilot

Updated 09 July 2025
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How a Muslim woman from Sulu made history as a Philippine Air Force pilot

  • Rosemawattee Remo has flown more than 2,000 hours on critical missions
  • She currently serves as deputy wing commander in 410th Maintenance Wing

CLARK AIR BASE, PAMPANGA: In 1998, when she sat in the cockpit for the first time, Rosemawattee Remo was not just fulfilling her dream — she was also making history by becoming the first female Muslim pilot in the Philippine Air Force.

Born and raised in Sulu, in the predominantly Muslim southern Philippines, Remo grew up in a traditional household where male and female roles were clearly defined.

Her decision to join the military, travel some 1,000 km away from home and fly aircraft was not initially welcomed.

“My father was a (school) principal then and he wanted me to follow in his footsteps,” she told Arab News.

“The day before my departure to Manila, I told him that I had a scheduled flight and he told me: ‘You’re way ahead of your brothers ... we’re still alive and you’re already making decisions on your own.’”

But she did not feel discouraged: “Those words keep ringing in my ears every time I’m at my lowest,” she said. “(They remind me) that I can’t give up.”

Holding the rank of colonel and currently serving as deputy wing commander of the PAF’s 410th Maintenance Wing, Remo started her military career in 1992 with the Women’s Auxiliary Corps under the Armed Forces. A year later, she enrolled in the Officer Candidate School.

Her graduation in 1994 coincided with the implementation of a landmark law that for the first time allowed women to hold combat and leadership roles in the army, navy, air force and police — positions previously exclusively for men.

“We were nearing our graduation. We were told to draw lots and, fortunately, I took the Philippine Air Force,” Remo said.

Four years later, she started her training as a pilot and soon specialized in helicopter rescue missions. Assigned to the PAF 505th Search and Rescue Group, she flew Bell 205 and Huey helicopters for disaster response and served as a co-pilot aboard a larger Sikorsky or Black Hawk for military transport and relief missions.

Married to a fellow PAF pilot, she has three children and has always found ways to balance her military service with motherhood — and even make them complement each other.

In the aftermath of deadly Typhoon Frank in 2008, when she flew relief operations in Central Mindanao in conditions suitable for flight, she had two major motivations that kept her going: the distressed people on the ground suddenly filling with hope as they heard the chugging sound of helicopter blades, and her own kids waiting for her at home.

“I always brought them along with me in the deployment area, so every time I got out of the aircraft I saw my kids waiting for me,” she said. “I needed to go back home right after the mission ... I had to do everything to survive.”

Col. Remo has flown more than 2,000 hours on critical missions — search and rescue, relief, rehabilitation. She also took part in skydiving exhibitions between 1999 and 2014.

The first Filipino Muslim woman in such a role, she tries not to see her achievements as anything extraordinary.

“I always keep my feet grounded,” she said. “If you have a dream, then you have to persevere and find ways to attain (it).”