Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday he had issued orders to increase funding for equipping the country’s brigades with new drones.
Zelensky, speaking in his nightly video address, said he had received a report from Pavlo Palisa, a former military commander and the president’s newly-appointed deputy chief of staff, to provide additional funding for drones.
“We recently approved a decision about the amount of such direct funds. But now I see that the amount is insufficient,” Zelensky said.
“I instructed the prime minister to increase financing for brigades in the coming days, to increase several times over.”
Zelensky has increasingly focused on the deployment of drones in the war, which has extended over 33 months since Russia invaded in February 2022.
In October, the president said Ukraine had already contracted to produce 1.5 million drones this year and was capable of ramping up production to four million annually.
Drone production was virtually non-existent in Ukraine before Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine’s Zelensky boosts funding for drone deployment
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Ukraine’s Zelensky boosts funding for drone deployment
- Zelensky has increasingly focused on the deployment of drones in the war, which has extended over 33 months since Russia invaded in February 2022
Germany’s Scholz requests confidence vote on path to election
Scholz has agreed with the opposition to hold the election on Feb. 23
BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sent a request to parliament on Wednesday to hold a vote of confidence on Dec. 16, setting a path to an early federal election next year after the collapse of his coalition last month.
Policymaking in Europe’s biggest economy has largely ground to a halt since Scholz’s fractious coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) imploded, leaving him heading a minority government.
If, as expected, Scholz loses the confidence vote, he must then ask the president to dissolve parliament, triggering fresh elections. Scholz has agreed with the opposition to hold the election on Feb. 23.
Last week, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier lost a no-confidence vote, underscoring the unusual degree of political instability plaguing both of Europe’s top powers.
Polls suggest the opposition conservatives are on track to win the federal election, with a survey on Monday putting them on 31 percent, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany on 18 percent, Scholz’s SPD on 17 percent and the Greens on 13 percent.
The FDP and the newly-created Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance are both polling just under the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament but analysts say voters can shift quickly as they are less loyal than they once were.
An explosion in the Afghan capital kills the Taliban refugee minister
- The explosion struck inside the ministry, killing Khalil Haqqani, officials said
- His last official photo showed him at a meeting chaired by the deputy prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, earlier Wednesday
ISLAMABAD: A suicide bombing in the Afghan capital on Wednesday killed the Taliban refugee minister and two others, officials said, in the most brazen attack on a member of the Taliban inner circle since they returned to power three years ago.
The explosion struck inside the ministry, killing Khalil Haqqani, officials said. His last official photo showed him at a meeting chaired by the deputy prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, earlier Wednesday.
Khalil Haqqani is the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister who leads a powerful network within the Taliban.
Haqqani was the most high-profile casualty of a bombing in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power and the first Cabinet member to be killed since the takeover. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
The government’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a post on X that Haqqani’s death was a great loss and described him as a tireless holy warrior who spent his life defending Islam.
Haqqani’s killing may be the biggest blow to the Taliban since their return to power given his stature and influence, according to Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute. It also comes at a time when the Taliban have staked their legitimacy on restoring peace after decades of war, he added.
“The killing of a top Haqqani leader inside one of its own ministries undercuts that core narrative,” he said.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar condemned the killing as a “terrorist attack.”
“Pakistan unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” Dar said, adding his government was in touch with Kabul to get further details.
The Daesh group’s affiliate, a major rival of the ruling Taliban, has carried out previous attacks across Afghanistan.
In early September, one of its suicide bombers in a southwestern Kabul neighborhood killed at least six people, wounding 13 others.
But suicide attacks have become increasingly rare since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 and US and NATO forces withdrew. Such attacks have mostly targeted minority Shiite Muslims, especially in the capital.
Ukraine loses ground near Pokrovsk, Russian force within 3 km of strategic hub
- “As a result of prolonged clashes, two of our positions were destroyed, one was lost,” Nazar Voloshyn, Ukraine’s military spokesman, said
- Kyiv has urged its allies to get it into the strongest possible position on the battlefield before any talks do happen
KYIV: Russian troops destroyed or captured several Ukrainian positions near the eastern city of Pokrovsk, Kyiv’s military said on Wednesday, as Moscow bears down on the strategic logistics hub that is home to a unique Ukrainian coking mine.
After months of accelerating advances toward Pokrovsk, Moscow’s forces are now as close as 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from the southern outskirts of the city, according to Ukraine’s DeepState, which maps the front lines using open sources.
“As a result of prolonged clashes, two of our positions were destroyed, one was lost. Currently, measures are being taken to restore positions,” Nazar Voloshyn, Ukraine’s military spokesman for the eastern front, said in televised comments.
Pokrovsk, situated about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the boundary of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, has for months been the area of the fiercest battles in Russia’s 33-month-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In October and November, the Russian military advanced toward the city at its fastest rate since the early months of the war, analysts said. Ukraine, which has been on the back foot since its failed 2023 counteroffensive, says Russia has been sustaining some of its heaviest losses of the war to date.
Both Ukraine and Russia have their eye on the growing prospect of a push for peace talks, with US President-elect Donald Trump preparing to enter office on Jan. 20, having called for an immediate ceasefire and a swift end to the war.
Kyiv has urged its allies to get it into the strongest possible position on the battlefield before any talks do happen.
Russia, which Ukraine says has over 70,000 troops on the Pokrovsk front, has rapidly advanced toward Shevchenko, a village to Pokrovsk’s south, in recent weeks.
Its forces are currently trying to gain a foothold in the village and sending in reconnaissance and sabotage groups, Voloshyn said. Ukraine is holding them back for now, he added.
The fall of Pokrovsk, an important logistics center for the Ukrainian military in the east, would amount to the biggest military setback for Kyiv in months.
The city also hosts Ukraine’s only domestic coking coal supplier for its once-giant steel industry.
The mine, which was still operating as of Dec. 6, lies 10 km (6.2 miles) west of Pokrovsk, the far side from where Russian troops have been advancing.
Father and stepmother convicted of Sara Sharif’s brutal murder after UK trial
- The jury convicted Urfan Sharif and Batool of Sara’s murder
- Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, was found not guilty of murder but guilty of causing or allowing Sara’s death
LONDON: The father and stepmother of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in her home in Britain, were on Wednesday convicted of her murder after a trial which heard harrowing details of her treatment before her killing.
Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London, after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence.”
The family fled to Pakistan immediately after Sara Sharif was killed, before they were arrested in September 2023 at London’s Gatwick airport after flying from Dubai.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors at the start of the trial that Sara had suffered a litany of injuries, including burns, broken bones and bite marks.
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 43, and his wife Beinash Batool, 30, stood trial at London’s Old Bailey court charged with her murder, which they denied.
The jury convicted Urfan Sharif and Batool of Sara’s murder. Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, was found not guilty of murder but guilty of causing or allowing Sara’s death.
Sharif and Batool will be sentenced on Dec. 17.
Emlyn Jones told jurors at the start of the trial that Urfan Sharif had called police and said: “It wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”
Sharif gave evidence and initially denied responsibility for Sara’s death. He accepted slapping Sara to discipline her, but denied beating her in a regular or sustained way.
But Urfan Sharif, under questioning from Batool’s lawyer Caroline Carberry, later said he took “full responsibility” for his daughter’s death.
Lawyers for Batool, who did not give evidence, said Urfan Sharif was violent and controlling and that she was scared of him.
India’s Rajasthan state explores strategic cooperation with Saudi Arabia in mining, food security
- Kingdom keen on attracting Rajasthani talent in technology, health care, engineering
- Saudi Arabia sent the largest delegation to Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit
JAIPUR: The Indian state of Rajasthan is preparing for new collaborations with Saudi Arabia, its industry and commerce minister said, following meetings with the Kingdom’s delegation to the region’s first international investment summit in Jaipur.
India’s largest state by area hosted the first Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit this week to draw foreign cooperation, as it seeks to double its gross domestic product to $350 billion in the next five years.
Representatives from over 20 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, UK, Australia, Japan and Russia were present during the three-day event that concluded on Wednesday.
The Saudi Ministry of Investment, which set up an Invest Saudi pavilion at the forum, brought 16 delegates for prospective cooperation talks with Indian businesses.
“It was the biggest delegation. I must thank the Saudi Arabian government for this initiative,” Rajasthan Industry Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore told Arab News after a meeting with Saudi delegates on Tuesday evening.
“I see the partnership between the two nations growing stronger. As it is very strong politically, I think even in terms of business, we can move much closer ... We had a wonderful interaction. They have already begun to show their interest in mining.”
Rajasthan, with its expansive desert landscapes hosting numerous photovoltaic plants, leads India in solar energy production. The state is also the top producer of marble, home to the country’s largest lead mines, and holds rich deposits of copper and rare-earth elements.
“It’s one of the best places to invest in India ... there are multiple sectors that Saudi companies could be interested in,” Rathore said.
“We have a lot of land, we have a lot of sun, and we have multiple sectors, including minerals, mining, renewable energy, petrochemical, logistics, infrastructure, education, agro-based products — innumerable (sectors).”
Cooperation in the hospitality industry was also on the table. Rajasthan has nine sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list, including Jaipur city, six forts built between the 5th and 18th centuries, and Keoladeo National Park, which hosts thousands of native, resident and migratory birds.
“We have discussed if multiple hotels can be set up because tourism is quite big,” Rathore said. “We also discussed the possibility of a Saudi company investing in a luxury train.”
Abdullah Al-Arfaj, director of international relations for South and West Asia at the Saudi Ministry of Investment, told Arab News after talks with the industry minister that discussions “centered around key areas such as agriculture, food security, mining, health care, education, and human resources.”
Cooperation in agriculture would focus on innovative practices and establishing reliable supply chains, while in mining it would “develop Rajasthan’s mineral wealth, utilizing Saudi expertise in mining and resource management,” he said, adding that the Kingdom was also keen on attracting top talent from Rajasthan to the sectors of technology, health care and engineering.
“These collaborative areas align with our shared priorities and present significant opportunities for long-term economic and social impact,” Al-Arfaj said.
“We explored opportunities to leverage Rajasthan’s strengths in these sectors while aligning with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals to promote economic diversification and sustainable development.”
