MOSCOW: A Russian court Thursday sentenced a student in the far eastern city of Birobidzhan 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) from Ukraine to five years in prison for passing troop locations to Kyiv.
The unnamed man collected information “using the Internet” on “Russian troops and locations of military units in the zone of the special military operation” in Ukraine in return for payment from Kyiv’s SBU security service, Russia’s FSB security service told the RIA Novosti news agency.
The court found the man guilty of treason but reduced his sentence to 5 years in a strict-regime penal colony plus one year of community sentence because he pleaded guilty and cooperated with the investigation, the FSB said.
Treason is punishable by up to life in prison.
Since the start of its military offensive in Ukraine in 2022, Russia has cracked down on all Kremlin critics and opponents of the military action.
It has also issued lengthy sentences on charges of collaboration or espionage for Kyiv.
Birobidzhan is the main city of Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region, which was created in the early Soviet era as a Jewish homeland but now has only a very small Jewish population.
Russia jails student for ‘passing troop locations to Kyiv’
https://arab.news/cvcec
Russia jails student for ‘passing troop locations to Kyiv’
- The unnamed man collected information “using the Internet” on “Russian troops and locations of military units
- The court found the man guilty of treason
Two migrants dead after rescue at sea: Italian coast guard
ROME: Italy’s coast guard said Sunday two migrants died after they were rescued along with more than 30 others in the Mediterranean off the eastern coast of Sicily.
The coast guard said it received a distress call late Saturday from a boat located about 17 miles southeast of Syracuse carrying Syrian, Egyptian and Bangladeshi migrants.
Search and rescue operations began after the coast guard dispatched a patrol boat and plane to the area, but “the occupants of the vessel ended up in the water as the patrol boat approached,” it said in a statement.
Although 34 people were recovered from the water, put onto the patrol boat and transferred to Syracuse’s port, one died upon arrival and another after reaching the hospital.
“The search at sea for a missing person who was on board the vessel, which later sank, is currently under way,” it said.
The coast guard said it was investigating how the migrants ended in the water as the boat approached.
At least 384 migrants died in the first quarter of this year crossing by sea via the central Mediterranean route toward Italy and Malta, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Nigeria’s president calls for end to protests against economic hardship
- Nigerians have been mobilizing online to organize protests against economic hardship and bad governance
ABUJA: Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu called on Sunday for a suspension of protests against a cost of living crisis, saying this would create an opportunity for dialogue, his first public comments since frustrated citizens took to the streets last week.
Amnesty International has said at least 13 people were killed in clashes with security forces on the first day of protests on Thursday. Police denied using excessive force and said seven people had died as of Saturday — four from an explosive device during a march in northeast Borno state, two who were hit by a car and another who was shot by a guard when protesters looted a shop.
In a televised broadcast, Tinubu called for an end to violence in several states since the protests started, saying he was always open for dialogue.
“My dear Nigerians, especially our youth, I have heard you loud and clear. I understand the pain and frustration that drive these protests, and I want to assure you that our government is committed to listening and addressing the concerns of our citizens,” he said.
Nigerians have been mobilizing online to organize protests against economic hardship and bad governance and have called for a cut in petrol prices and electricity tariffs, among several demands.
Tinubu, in office since May 2023, defended his economic reforms, which have included a partial end to petrol and electricity subsidies and devaluation of the naira, as necessary to reverse years of economic mismanagement.
He government revenues had more than doubled to 9.1 trillion naira ($5.65 billion) in the first half of this year while 68 percent of revenue now went to debt servicing, down from 97 percent before he took office in May last year.
The government was also ramping up spending on infrastructure projects, started a loan scheme for university students and was building thousands of housing units across Nigeria’s 36 states, the president said.
“But we must not let violence and destruction tear our nation apart,” said Tinubu.
8 killed in Bangladesh anti-government protests: police, doctors
- Some former military officers have since joined the student movement
- Army did not explicitly say whether the army backed the protests
DHAKA: Clashes between Bangladeshi protesters demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resign and pro-government supporters killed at least eight people on Sunday, including with knife cuts and bullet wounds, police and doctors said.
Three were killed in the northern district of Pabna, two in the northern district of Rangpur, two in the capital Dhaka's Munshiganj district and one in the western district of Magura, police officers and doctors at hospitals told AFP.
Asif Mahmud, one of the key protest leaders in a nationwide civil disobedience campaign, asked supporters to be ready to fight.
“Prepare bamboo sticks and liberate Bangladesh,” he wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
While the army stepped in to help restore order in the wake of earlier protests, some former military officers have since joined the student movement, and ex-army chief General Ikbal Karim Bhuiyan turned his Facebook profile picture red in a show of support.
Current army chief Waker-uz-Zaman spoke to officers at military headquarters in Dhaka on Saturday, telling them the “Bangladesh Army is the symbol of trust of the people.”
“It always stood by the people and will do so for the sake of people and in any need of the state,” he said, according to an army statement issued late Saturday.
The statement did not give further details, and did not explicitly say whether the army backed the protests.
Rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem in July that killed more than 200 people in some of the worst unrest of Hasina’s 15-year tenure.
Troops briefly restored order but crowds returned to the streets in huge numbers this week in an all-out non-cooperation movement aimed at paralysing the government.
On Saturday, when hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in Dhaka, the police were largely bystanders watching the rallies.
Growing movement
The protests have grown into a wider anti-government movement across the South Asian nation of some 170 million people.
The mass movement includes people from all strata of Bangladesh society, including film stars, musicians and singers, and rap songs calling for people’s support have spread widely on social media.
“It is no longer about job quotas,” said Sakhawat, a young female protester who gave only one name, as she scrawled graffiti on a wall at a protest site in Dhaka calling Hasina a “killer.”
“What we want is that our next generation can live freely in the country.”
Counter-protests supporting the government are also expected.
Obaidul Quader, general secretary of Hasina’s ruling Awami League, has called on party activists to gather in “all wards in Dhaka city” and “in every district” nationwide to show their support for the government.
“We don’t want to engage in any kind of confrontation,” Quader said.
The capital Dhaka was tense on Sunday, with fewer cars and buses on the normally congested streets of the megacity of 20 million people.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are expected to rally in Dhaka and nationwide.
Student Protest
Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing the initial protests, called for rallies across the country.
Protests will be held at entry points to Dhaka, with the main rallies held in Dhaka’s central Shahbagh Square, where crowds gathered on Sunday morning.
“We will hold our protests and rallies peacefully,” the group said in a statement late Saturday. “But if anyone attacks us, we urge (all) to take all preparations.”
Students Against Discrimination have asked their compatriots to stop paying taxes and utility bills from Sunday to pile pressure on the government.
They have also asked government workers and laborers in the country’s economically vital garment factories to strike.
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Demonstrations began in early July over the reintroduction of the quota scheme, which reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups. It has since been scaled back by Bangladesh’s top court.
Protests, violence break out again in Bangladesh amid calls for government’s resignation
- Students protest against quota system for government jobs claimed at least 200 lives last month
- Internet services have been restored and banks reopen in parts of country but tensions remain high
DHAKA, Bangladesh: Thousands of people protested peacefully in Bangladesh’s capital Saturday to demand justice for more than 200 students and others killed during protests last month, but violence was reported at similar events elsewhere in the country.
The protesters chanted anti-government slogans and demanded the resignation of the prime minister as the wave of protest widened beyond students to include people from many walks of life. Some pro-government groups also rallied in the city.
The country’s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo newspaper reported that at least seven protesters were hit by bullets after pro-ruling party groups allegedly opened fire on them as they blocked a road in Cumilla, in the east of Bangladesh. The daily said at least 30 protesters were injured during the violence, but a local leader of the ruling party denied allegations that their supporters attacked the protesters.
Scores of people were injured in other parts of the country, TV stations reported.
The students’ protests last month began with the demand for an end to a quota system for government jobs that they said was discriminatory. Under it, 30 percent of such jobs were reserved for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.
The protests began peacefully, but turned violent as students at Dhaka University clashed with police and the activists of a student wing of the ruling Awami League party on July 15. Since then, more than 200 people have died and thousands of others have been injured.
The Supreme Court cut the veterans’ quota to 5 percent on July 21, but protests have continued to spread amid outrage over the violence. Authorities closed schools and universities across the country, blocked Internet access and imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew. At least, 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.
Internet service has been restored and banks and offices have reopened, but tensions remain high.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday offered to talk with student leaders, but a coordinator refused in a Facebook post.
Nahid Islam, a leading protest coordinator, wrote: “One cannot ask a killer government for justice or sit for talks with them. The time to ask forgiveness has passed. When there was still time, the government conducted block raids to arrest and torture students.”
Hasina reiterated her pledges to thoroughly investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. She said that her doors were open for the talks and she was ready to sit down whenever the protesters want.
Also on Saturday, Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, the country’s military chief, directed army officers to safeguard public safety and secure key state installations under all circumstances, the army’s public relations office said in a statement.
The army chief also discussed the current security situation in the country with the officers, it said.
The protests have become a major challenge for Hasina, who returned to power for a fourth consecutive term in January in an election boycotted by her main opponents.
The students had earlier made a nine-point demand, including a public apology from Hasina and release of all the students arrested and jailed. On Saturday, however, they announced they had a single demand — the resignation of Hasina and her administration. They also called for a “non-cooperation” movement from Sunday and urged people not to pay taxes or utility bills and to keep factories and offices closed.
The general secretary of Hasina’s ruling party said Saturday that it was calling on its supporters to demonstrate across the country on Sunday.
Hasina and other Cabinet ministers had earlier blamed the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and now-banned right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student wing for intruding into the student protests and committing violence. Both the parties have denied the allegations.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary-general of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said Saturday that they would continue to support the protesters in their movement.
Warren Buffett surprises by slashing Berkshire Hathaway’s longtime Apple stake in second quarter
- He has trimmed the Apple stake over the past year and has recently also sold off some of his stock in Bank of America and Chinese EV maker BYD while doing very little buyin
OMAHA, Nebraska: Billionaire Warren Buffett slashed Berkshire Hathaway’s massive Apple stake in a move that could prove unsettling for the broader stock market — both because the investor is so revered and because there had been little positive financial news lately.
Just two years ago Buffett called the stock one of the four giants of his conglomerate’s business alongside Berkshire insurance, utility and BNSF railroad businesses that it owns outright. That gave investors the impression that Buffett might hold onto Apple indefinitely as he has with the Coca-Cola and American Express shares he bought decades ago.
However, he has trimmed the Apple stake over the past year and has recently also sold off some of his stock in Bank of America and Chinese EV maker BYD while doing very little buying.
As a result, Buffett is now sitting on nearly $277 billion in cash, up from what was already a record $189 billion just three months earlier.
“This could could alarm the markets especially given the news from last week” with weak tech earnings, a disappointing jobs report and uncertainty about the future of interest rates, Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said.
Buffett has consistently lavished praise on Apple CEO Tim Cook, who attended Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha in May, and talked about the way consumers are feverishly devoted to their iPhones and don’t like to switch. He did trim more than 10 percent of Berkshire’s Apple stake in the first three months of this year when he sold off more than 116 million shares, but the sale disclosed Saturday was a much bigger move.
Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives said in a research note that he thinks “Buffett is a core believer in Apple and we do not view this as a smoke signal for bad news ahead.” Apple remains the largest investment in Berkshire’s portfolio by far — more than double its Bank of America stake.
Ives said he thinks the recent tech sell-off is only a temporary distraction from the industry’s long-term boom.
Berkshire didn’t give an exact count of its Apple shares in Saturday’s report, but it estimated the investment was worth $84.2 billion at the end of the second quarter even though shares soared over the summer as high as $237.23. At the end of the first quarter, Berkshire’s Apple stake was worth $135.4 billion.
Shanahan estimates that Berkshire still holds about 400 million Apple shares.
Still, while CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said she looks at the Apple sale more as responsible portfolio management because the tech giant had become such a large portion of Berkshire’s holdings, it does look like Buffett may be preparing for a downturn.
“This is a company girding itself for a weaker economic climate,” Seifert said.
Berkshire reported a small drop in its bottom-line earnings because of a drop in the paper value of its investments. The company said it earned $30.348 billion, or $21,122 per Class A share, during the second quarter. That’s down from $35.912 billion, or $24,775 per A share, a year ago.
Buffett has long cautioned investors that it’s better to look at Berkshire’s operating earnings when judging its performance because those figures exclude investment gains and losses which can vary widely from quarter to quarter.
By that measure, Berkshire’s operating earnings grew more than 15 percent to $11.598 billion, or $8,072.16 per Class A share, from $10.043 billion, or $6,928.40 per Class A share, a year ago. Geico led the improvement of Berkshire’s businesses while many of its other companies that are more sensitive to the economy reported lackluster results.
The results easily topped the $6,530.25 earnings per share that four analysts surveyed by FactSet Research predicted.
Berkshire owns an assortment of insurance businesses along with BNSF railroad, several major utilities and a varied collection of retail and manufacturing businesses, including brands like Dairy Queen and See’s Candy.
