MINSK: Belarus has deployed additional air defense forces to its border with Ukraine to protect “critical infrastructure facilities” due to increased Ukrainian drone activity in the area, a Belarusian military commander said on Saturday.
Belarus, an ally of Russia in the war with Ukraine, said earlier this week it had shot down a quadcopter that had illegally crossed the border from Ukraine “to collect information about the Belarusian border infrastructure.”
The situation in the airspace over the border remains tense, Andrei Severinchik, commander of the Belarusian Air Defense Forces, said on Saturday.
“We are ready to decisively use all available forces and means to protect our territory and the population of the Republic of Belarus from possible provocations in the airspace,” he said in a statement published on the Defense Ministry’s Telegram channel.
The Defense Ministry said earlier on Saturday it had information showing Ukraine had been moving more troops, weapons and military equipment to the northern Zhytomyr region, which borders Belarus.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Belarus bolsters air defense forces along Ukrainian border
https://arab.news/y4dtg
Belarus bolsters air defense forces along Ukrainian border
- Belarus said earlier this week it had shot down a quadcopter that had illegally crossed the border
- The Defense Ministry said it had information showing Ukraine had been moving more troops
Mauritania’s Ghazouani wins re-election with 56.12 percent of vote
Ghazouani placed well ahead of his main rival, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, who won 22.10 percent and said Sunday he would not recognize the results of CENI.
German court convicts a prominent far-right politician for using a Nazi slogan
BERLIN: A high-profile politician in the far-right Alternative for Germany party has been convicted for the second time of knowingly using a Nazi slogan at a political event.
Björn Höcke, who plans to run for governor in the eastern state of Thuringia in a September election, was fined Monday for using the banned Nazi slogan “Everything for Germany.”
The Halle Regional Court sentenced the 52-year-old to a fine of 130 daily rates of 130 euros each.
He was already fined 13,000 euros ($13,900) in May for using symbols of an unconstitutional organization, a verdict that his lawyers are appealing.
‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Beryl hurtles toward Caribbean
- Beryl had weakened earlier on Monday to Category 3 and then picked up again to 4 on a five-point scale
Hurricane Beryl barreled across the Atlantic Ocean toward the Caribbean’s Windward Islands as an “extremely dangerous” storm on Monday, threatening to devastate communities with floods, storm surges and life-threatening high winds, officials said.
Locals boarded up shops, stocked up on food and filled their cars with petrol as the storm approached. The prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, said he was expecting a natural disaster that could continue for days.
It was an unusually fierce and early start to this year’s Atlantic hurricane season — the earliest Category 4 storm on record, according to National Hurricane Center data on Sunday.
Beryl had weakened earlier on Monday to Category 3 and then picked up again to 4 on a five-point scale, packing maximum sustained wind speeds exceeding 193 kph, with some higher gusts, about 180 km southeast of Barbados, the NHC said.
It would likely bring catastrophic winds and a storm surge early on Tuesday in the Windward islands, it said.
“Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as its core moves through the Windward Islands into the eastern Caribbean,” the NHC warned.
It advised people in the storm’s path to take heed of authorities’ advice on evacuations and preparedness.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Tobago. A tropical storm warning was issued for Martinique and Trinidad, with storm watches for parts of the Dominican Republic and parts of Haiti.
Tobago has opened shelters, closed schools for Monday, and canceled elective surgeries in the hospitals, authorities said.
The hurricane is expected to bring 8 to 15 cm of rain across Barbados and the Windward Islands throughout the day on Monday, which the NHC warned could cause flash flooding in vulnerable areas.
Large, dangerous swells are also expected to batter the southern coasts of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in May predicted above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic in 2024, amid near-record warm ocean temperatures.
Hurricane Dennis became a Category 4 on July 8, 2005, according to NHC data, making it the second earliest on record in the June-November season.
Russia says captured two more east Ukrainian villages
- Gains come after Russia claimed two other villages over the weekend
- Moscow has announced the capture of a fresh village in Ukraine’s east almost every week this summer
MOSCOW: Russia said Monday it had captured two more east Ukrainian villages, as Moscow’s forces have continued to put pressure on the struggling Ukrainian army in several directions for weeks.
The gains came after Russia claimed two other villages over the weekend.
Following the weekend’s advances, Russia’s defense ministry said it took the village of Novopokrovske in the eastern Donetsk region and the village of Stepova Novoselivka in the north-east Kharkiv region.
Novopokrovske lies north of a village that Moscow took on Sunday, in an area of the front where Moscow has been steadily pushing westwards since it took the industrial hub of Avdiivka in February.
Moscow has announced the capture of a fresh village in Ukraine’s east almost every week this summer.
Stepova Novoselivka lies south-east of the city of Kupyansk, where Russia has also been on the advance for months.
Russian forces took Kupyansk at the start of their 2022 offensive but Ukrainian forces retook the city several months later.
In May, Russia launched a renewed local offensive in the Kharkiv region.
France detains two filmmakers over sexual abuse allegations
- Renewed #MeToo reckoning rocks France’s film industry
- Directors interrogated over alleged sexual abuse, some dating back to the 1980s
PARIS: French authorities Monday detained leading arthouse film directors Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon for questioning over accusations of sexual abuse, as a renewed #MeToo reckoning rocks France’s film industry.
Their interrogation over the alleged abuse, some dating back to the 1980s and all of which they deny, comes as activists say cinema has too long provided cover for abuse.
An AFP journalist saw Jacquot, 77, and Doillon, 80, arrive at a Paris police station on Monday morning accompanied by their lawyers.
Judith Godreche, a 52-year-old actor and director, earlier this year formally accused Jacquot of rape and Doillon of sexual assault when she was a minor, accusations both men deny.
She has described Jacquot as having had an unhealthy “hold” over her during a relationship with him that started when she was 14, from 1986 to 1992.
And she has accused Doillon of groping her during an unplanned sex scene in one of his films when she was 15.
Several other actors have also filed complaints against both men.
Isild Le Besco, 41, has accused Jacquot of raping her between 1998 and 2007 during a toxic relationship that started when she was 16 and he was 52.
Julia Roy, a 34-year-old actor who has appeared in several of his films, has accused him of sexual assault in “a context of violence and moral constraint which lasted several years,” a source close to the case said.
Le Besco has also charged Doillon made advances during work sessions, while actor Anna Mouglalis alleged the filmmaker forcefully kissed her in 2011.
The directors’ lawyers said there had been no need to detain them in order to question them, and stressed they should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Jacquot’s lawyer, Julia Minkowski, said her client would “finally be able to express himself before the law,” slamming what she called the “unacceptable excesses” of media coverage on the issue.
Doillon’s attorney, Marie Dose, said no legal criteria could justify his being detained for questioning “36 years” after the incident alleged by Godreche, adding he could have answered queries without being held in custody.
Sources close to the case said their interrogation could include a confrontation with those accusing them.
Godreche on Instagram said she was deeply moved.
“I’m crying,” she wrote.
“I don’t know if I have the strength, but I will have it. I will have it... For her,” she wrote, posting a picture of her teenage self next to Jacquot, 25 years her senior.
Her lawyer, Laure Heinich, did not wish to comment.
Since breaking her silence, Godreche has become a leading voice in France’s #MeToo movement.
After she appealed for a cinema oversight body, parliament in May voted to create a commission to investigate sexual and gender-based violence in the film industry and other cultural sectors.
The head of France’s top cinema institution, Dominique Boutonnat, stepped down on Friday after he was convicted of sexually assaulting his godson in 2020.
And cinema legend Gerard Depardieu, 75, is to stand trial in October for sexually assaulting two women.
He also risks a second trial after he was charged in 2020 with rape after actor Charlotte Arnould alleged he raped her in 2018 when she was 22 and anorexic.
He denies all claims.
