BRUSSELS: EU countries on Wednesday agreed new sanctions on Belarus over the Ukraine war to align them more closely with measures targeting Russia, in a bid to curb evasion of the penalties, officials said.
“EU Ambassadors agreed in principle on a new package of sanctions targeting Belarus,” announced Belgium, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
“This package will strengthen our measures in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including combating circumvention of sanctions,” it said.
The European Union has gone after the government of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin’s closest ally, for allowing his country to be used as a staging post for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Bringing the sanctions on Belarus more into line with those on Moscow is seen as vital for stemming the flow to Russia of banned goods, such as microchips, that can be used on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Officials say Belarus has acted as a backdoor to get sanctioned products from the EU into Russia, as they could be officially exported to Belarus before heading on to its giant neighbor.
“Belarus must no longer serve as a route to circumvent our sanctions against Russia. With this package we increase the pressure on both countries and make our sanctions against Russia even more effective,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on X.
The push to strengthen the sanctions on Belarus, which is in a customs union with Russia, was stalled for over a year as efforts to relax restrictions on its lucrative fertilizer exports were blocked by Lithuania.
Some EU states argued that fertilizer exports should be allowed to help alleviate problems with food supplies in developing nations.
But the Baltic state argued that third countries had already moved to obtain supplies from elsewhere, and that removing restrictions on Belarus would see revenues worth billions of dollars flow to Belarusian authorities.
EU diplomats said no exemptions had been granted for fertilizer exports.
Before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the EU had already targeted Lukashenko’s government with repeated rounds of sanctions over its crackdown on protests.
The 27-nation bloc has hit Russia with an unprecedented 14 packages of sanctions over its war on Ukraine.
EU toughens Belarus sanctions to curb Russia evasion
https://arab.news/8pgg7
EU toughens Belarus sanctions to curb Russia evasion
- “EU Ambassadors agreed in principle on a new package of sanctions targeting Belarus,” announced Belgium
- “This package will strengthen our measures in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”
China coast guard says Philippine ships’ presence at Sabina Shoal violated China’s sovereignty
- China Coast Guard says it followed and monitored the Philippine supply mission to Sabina Shoal
In a statement on Tuesday, the China Coast Guard said it had followed and monitored the supply mission to Sabina Shoal, and that the vessels’ presence at the reef had “violated” China’s territory sovereignty and “undermined” peace and stability in the South China Sea.
Ukraine’s defense minister to hold talks with Austin, Pentagon says
- The US is the largest provider of military assistance to Ukraine in war against Russia
- President Joe Biden’s administration has provided Ukraine with more than $50 billion in military aid since 2022
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will hold talks with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Washington on Tuesday on firming up military cooperation between the two countries, the Pentagon said on Monday.
“Secretary Austin and Minister Umerov will discuss bilateral defense cooperation, regional security issues and ways to strengthen the defense partnership between the United States and Ukraine,” Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said at a press briefing, according to a transcript on the US Department of Defense website.
The talks come after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his plea to Kyiv’s allies over the weekend for more weapons after a Russian air strike in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region killed seven people.
The US is the largest provider of military assistance to Ukraine in the war that Russia launched against its smaller neighbor with a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
President Joe Biden’s administration has provided Ukraine with more than $50 billion in military aid since 2022.
Last week, the administration said it would provide Ukraine with $150 million worth of weapons and ammunition, including HAWK air defense interceptors and 155 mm artillery munitions
“The sooner the world helps us deal with the Russian combat aircraft launching these bombs, the sooner we can strike – justifiably strike – at Russian military infrastructure, military airfields, the closer we will be to peace,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address over the weekend.
But after two years of Kyiv’s asking allies for F-16 fighter jets to help it fight Russian forces, the planes are yet to arrive.
Singh declined to answer at the briefing when Ukraine would start receiving the jets, but said that the training of Ukrainian pilots on how to operate the planes is “ongoing.”
North Korea brags of new missile with ‘super-large warhead’
- Pyongyang’s claim quickly disputed by South Korean officials and experts
- Monday’s test involved the Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5 missile, which can carry a 4.5 tonne-class warhead
SEOUL: North Korea said Tuesday it had test-fired a new tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying “a super-large warhead,” a claim quickly disputed by South Korean officials and experts who speculate the North likely fabricated a successful test to conceal a botched launch.
It’s the second time that South Korea has questioned North Korea’s claim on the development of new weapons in recent days, as the rivals are locked in heightened animosities over the North’s testing activities.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that Monday’s test involved the Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5 missile, which can carry a 4.5 tonne-class warhead. It said the test was meant to verify the weapon’s flight stability and hit accuracy at the maximum range of 500 kilometers and the minimum range of 90 kilometers.
The test apparently refers to the two ballistic missile launches that South Korea said North Korea performed Monday.
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said at a briefing later Tuesday that the second North Korean missile was found to have fallen on an uninhabited area near Pyongyang, the North’s capital. He said he could find few previous test-launches by North Korea that have aimed at ground target sites.
“Regarding the North Korean assessment, we’re weighing a possibility of deception,” Lee said.
The South Korean military has said the second North Korean missile possibly traveled abnormally during the initial stage of its flight. It said if the missile exploded, its debris would likely have scattered on the ground.
The KCNA dispatch didn’t say from where it launched the new missile and where it landed. Unlike previous weapons tests, North Korea also didn’t publicize any photos of Monday’s test. The fact that it tested both the missile’s maximum and minimum ranges suggested North Korea performed two launches.
KCNA, citing North Korea’s Missile Administration, reported that North Korea will test-fire the missile again later in July to verify the performances of its simulated warhead at the medium range of 250 kilometers.
Some experts say test-firing missiles at ground targets could be related to efforts to test how powerful warheads are to destroy underground bunkers and structures.
But Shin Jongwoo, a Seoul-based military expert, said the fact that North Korea hasn’t disclosed any photos on the launches means that it’s highly likely the North is trying to deceive the outsiders to cover up Monday’s failed launches. He said North Korea likely launched an existing missile on Monday, not the new missile at it claimed.
Yang Uk, an analyst at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said that Monday’s tests reflected North Korea’s push to acquire a variety of conventional weapons. But he also said if North Korea truly succeeded in hitting a ground target, it probably would have already published related images to brag about its achievements as it’s done in the past.
Since 2022, North Korea has sharply accelerated weapons testing activities to enlarge its arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons designed to strike key sites in the mainland United States, South Korea and Japan. The North Korea-claimed ranges of the newly tested missile imply it targets South Korea. Experts say North Korea would ultimately want to use an expanded nuclear arsenal to increase its leverage in future diplomacy with the US.
Monday’s missiles test came a day after North Korea vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new US military drill with South Korea and Japan. Five days before that test, on June 26, North Korea launched what it called a new multiwarhead missile in the first known test of a developmental weapon aimed at penetrating its rivals’ missile defenses. North Korea said the launch was successful, but South Korea dismissed the North’s claim as deception to cover up a failed launch.
Firefighters battle wildfires on 2 Greek islands as premier warns of a dangerous summer
- Greece saw 52 wildfires breaking out in the previous 24-hour period, 44 of which were tackled in the early stages
ATHENS: Firefighters battled wildfires that broke out on the eastern Aegean islands of Chios and Kos Monday and injured five people, as Greece’s prime minister warned of a dangerous summer ahead and said the public’s help was essential in limiting the impact of wildfires.
Emergency services issued evacuation orders for those in the Metohi area of western Chios on Monday morning, urging them to head to a nearby beach. By the evening, more than 140 firefighters, along with eight teams of firefighters specializing in wildfires, seven water-dropping planes and three helicopters were fighting the blaze.
Fire department spokesman Vasilis Vathrakoyiannis said two firefighters had been lightly injured, while dozens more firefighters were heading to the island by boat from the nearby island of Lesbos and from Athens. State-run ERT television later reported that another two firefighters and a volunteer had suffered non life-threatening burns.
“The situation remains difficult in Chios, and all Civil Protection forces will make great efforts to limit it,” Vathrakoyiannis said during an evening briefing.
Another fire broke out further to the south in the Aegean, on the resort island of Kos, and by late Monday had forced the evacuation of several people, including tourists from hotels, as a precaution. That blaze was being tackled by more than 100 firefighters, including reinforcements sent from Athens, as well as six water-dropping planes and two helicopters, Vathrakoyiannis added.
In total, Greece saw 52 wildfires breaking out in the previous 24-hour period, 44 of which were tackled in the early stages, Vathrakoyiannis said. Authorities were still battling a total of eight fires by Monday evening.
The blazes come a day after the fire department managed to tame two large forest fires near Athens that had been fanned by strong winds.
“We have had an exceptionally difficult June regarding weather conditions, with high levels of drought and unusually strong winds for this season,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Monday during a Cabinet meeting. This year’s summer, he said, “is predicted to be particularly dangerous” for wildfires.
Mitsotakis said the use of drones as part of an early warning system for wildfires had been particularly useful this year and credited better coordination between authorities and volunteer firefighters for limiting the extent of fire damage so far.
“We are entering the tough core of the anti-fire period, and this will certainly not be won without the help of the public as well, particularly in the field of prevention,” Mitsotakis said.
Hot, dry weather combined with strong winds helped fan fires in both Greece and Turkiye last month. This year’s summer is expected to be particularly prone to blazes following a particularly mild, dry winter. Last year, extensive wildfires in Greece killed more than 20 people.
Hurricane Beryl pummels Caribbean, strengthens to Category 5
- Beryl is now the earliest category 5 storm in the Atlantic on record, and has developed into a “potentially catastrophic” hurricane
Bridgetown/St. George’s: Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a top-level category 5 storm late Monday after it swept across several islands in the southeastern Caribbean, dumping heavy rain and unleashing devastating winds.
Beryl is now the earliest category 5 storm in the Atlantic on record, and has developed into a “potentially catastrophic” hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 miles (260 kilometers) per hour, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Early in the day, Grenada’s Carriacou Island took a direct hit from the storm’s “extremely dangerous eyewall,” with sustained winds at upwards of 150 miles, the NHC said.
Nearby islands, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines, also experienced “catastrophic winds and life-threatening storm surge,” according to the NHC.
“In half an hour, Carriacou was flattened,” Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a press conference.
“We are not yet out of the woods,” Mitchell added, noting that while no deaths had been reported so far, he could not say for sure that none had occurred.
Video obtained by AFP from St. George’s in Grenada showed heavy downpours with trees buffeted by gusts.
Later on social media, Mitchell said the government was working to get relief supplies to both Carriacou and the island of Petite Martinique on Tuesday.
“The state of emergency is still in effect. Remain indoors,” he wrote on Facebook.
Beryl became the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season on Saturday and quickly gathered strength.
Experts say that such a powerful storm forming this early in the Atlantic hurricane season — which runs from early June to late November — is extremely rare.
It is the first hurricane since NHC records began to reach the Category 4 level in June, and the earliest to reach Category 5 in July.
“Only five major (Category 3+) hurricanes have been recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July,” hurricane expert Michael Lowry posted on social media platform X.
Barbados appeared to be spared from the worst of the storm but was still hit with high winds and pelting rain, though officials reported no injuries so far.
Barbados seems to have “dodged a bullet,” Minister of Home Affairs and Information Wilfred Abrahams said in an online video, but nonetheless “gusts are still coming, the storm-force winds are still coming,” he said.
Homes and businesses were flooded in some areas, and fishing boats were damaged in Bridgetown.
The storm prompted the cancelation of classes on Monday in several of the islands, while a meeting this week in Grenada of the Caribbean regional bloc CARICOM was postponed.
Jamaica has issued a hurricane warning, ahead of the storm’s expected arrival on Wednesday. The NHC also warned the Cayman Islands and areas on the Yucatan Peninsula to monitor the storm’s progress.
A Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale is considered a major hurricane.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in late May that it expects this year to be an “extraordinary” hurricane season, with up to seven storms of Category 3 or higher.
The agency cited warm Atlantic Ocean temperatures and conditions related to the weather phenomenon La Nina in the Pacific for the expected increase in storms.
Extreme weather events including hurricanes have become more frequent and more devastating in recent years as a result of climate change.
