Category: Aerospace

Some of Turkey’s largest airport ground handler firms stopped providing services to western-made aircraft owned by Russian airlines earlier this month, multiple sources told Middle East Eye.  The sources, who are within the aviation industry and are familiar with the issue, said Havas, Turkey’s largest ground service provider, as well as Turkish Ground Services (TGS), stopped serving the US-made Boeing and European Airbus aircraft…

The US on Wednesday slapped sanctions on several entities based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates which it said had violated US export controls and helped Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. The firms were included in a new list of sanctions rolled out by the US Treasury Department against more than 120 targets across over 20 countries and jurisdictions….

Russian airline Aeroflot [Russian Airlines] has sent its aircraft to Iran for repairs for the first time in its history amid Western sanctions.

Source: Kremlin-aligned news outlet RBC, citing two sources close to the airline

“An Airbus A330-300 wide-body airliner with registration number RA-73700 flew to Tehran on 5 April, where the aircraft will be serviced by technicians from Mahan Air, i.e., Iran’s largest airline,” the statement said.

Russian tactical nuclear weapons will be deployed close to Belarus’ borders with NATO neighbors. Putin has said that construction of storage facilities for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus will be complete by July 1 and added that Russia has helped modernize Belarusian warplanes to make them capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The two neighbors have an agreement envisioning close economic, political and military ties. Russia used Belarusian territory as a staging ground for invading Ukraine and has maintained a contingent of troops and weapons there.

The Russian nuclear weapons will be “moved up close to the Western border of our union state” but did not give any precise location. “It will expand our defense capability, and it will be done regardless of all the noise in Europe and the United States,” he said in a reference to Western criticism of Putin’s decision. Belarus shares a 1,250-kilometer (778-mile) border with NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Tactical nuclear weapons are intended to destroy enemy troops and weapons on the battlefield and have a relatively short range — a much lower yield compared with nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles that are capable of obliterating whole cities. The deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus would put them closer to potential targets in Ukraine and NATO members in Eastern and Central Europe.

Ten Chinese aircraft crossed the Ten Chinese aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, normally an unofficial barrier between the two sides, Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Saturday, as Beijing continues its military activities near the island.

Nine Chinese fighter jets and one military drone crossed the median line in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. on Saturday, the ministry said in its daily report on Chinese military activities.

Taiwan sent aircraft to warn away the Chinese aircraft, while missile systems monitored them, the ministry said, using standard wording for its response.median line of the Taiwan Strait, normally an unofficial barrier between the two sides, Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Saturday, as Beijing continues its military activities near the island.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was “deeply concerned” about the development, adding that “in the strongest possible terms, we condemn the Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish journalists and civil society voices.” “We reiterate our strong warnings about the danger posed to US citizens inside the Russian Federation. US citizens residing or traveling in Russia should depart immediately,” the top diplomat said in a statement. A similar message was conveyed by the White House, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stating that the “targeting of American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable.”

“We also condemn the Russian government’s continued targeting and repression of journalists and freedom of the press,” she added, urging Americans to “heed the US government’s warning to not travel to Russia” or leave should they happen to already be in the country. The call was somewhat watered down by US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, who explained Washington was not actually calling upon all Americans to literally leave Russia and was not encouraging news outlets to withdraw their correspondents from the country. Gershkovich, a WSJ correspondent who covers news from Russia, Ukraine, and the former USSR, was detained in the city of Ekaterinburg on suspicion of espionage, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced earlier in the day. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the journalist was caught “red-handed” while trying to obtain Russian state secrets.

French President Emmanuel Macron sought to rally citizens around a plan to save water on Thursday and stressed that protests will not stop reforms, in a nod to both climate change and an unpopular pension bill.

The water-saving plan includes 50 measures, such as fixing leaking pipes, adapting the way farmers and the nuclear industry use water and making water more expensive for those who use it in excess of basic needs.

“In the face of change, there are necessarily constraints, we must explain them, share them and make each and every one aware of their responsibilities,” Macron said.

This was the president’s first major policy announcement and public outing after weeks focused on the pension bill, which has triggered fierce protests across the country. With the water plan, Macron and his government are looking to move to other topics.

“There are protests, but it does not mean everything must stop,” Macron said.

Retaliatory U.S. airstrikes in Syria targeting Iran-backed militants last week killed eight fighters, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The fighters were killed when two U.S. F-15E fighter jets struck facilities operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) near Deir ez-Zor province in the eastern part of the country, according to Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.

Though they were associated with the IRGC, the militants killed were not Iranian, Ryder told reporters.

The U.S. strikes were in retaliation for a drone attack last week at a Syria base that housed American personnel. One U.S. contractor was killed and another was injured along with five service members.

“Two weeks we fought with Facebook to restore the suspended page of RT Arabic, with 17 million subscribers,” Manna said on her Telegram channel. “We tried to get an explanation of what triggered the shutdown, because we never got any strikes or comments.” After several awkward non-explanations, Facebook’s customer service “simply wished us luck, closed our case, and turned over the URL to another user,” Manna wrote. “Internet democracy in all its glory!” Facebook blocked the page on March 15, without any explanation or advance warning. Attempts to access the page resulted in the message, “this content isn’t available right now.”

The Biden administration has sanctioned a Slovakian man who U.S. officials said attempted to facilitate an arms deal that would have given Russia access to weapons and munitions from North Korea in exchange for aircraft, food and other material.

The Treasury Department announced new sanctions targeting Ashot Mkrtychev, the man accused of trying to arrange the secret deal. Officials said the episode is the latest sign that Russia is searching for ways to replenish its military capabilities as it continues to suffer losses amid heavy fighting in Ukraine.

“We know that between the end of 2022 and early 2023, that [Mkrtychev] worked with North Korean officials to attempt to obtain, as I said, over two dozen kinds of weapons and ammunitions for Russia” in exchange for aircraft, raw materials and commodities, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a call. He said any such arrangement would violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The Treasury Department said Mkrtychev “confirmed Russia’s readiness to receive military equipment from the DPRK with senior Russian officials,” using North Korea’s official diplomatic name. The department said Mkrtychev worked with a Russian official to locate commercial aircraft that could be delivered to North Korea. Thursday’s sanctions mean all of Mkrtychev’s property and interests in the U.S. or in the possession of U.S. persons are blocked.

Four bankers from a Russian bank’s Swiss branch have been found guilty by a Zurich court over vast sums going into the accounts of a close confidant of President Vladimir Putin.

The accounts in the Swiss arm of Gazprombank were held by Sergei Roldugin, the artistic director of the St. Petersburg Music House, who is often dubbed Putin’s cellist.

Roldugin has been a friend of Putin for more than four decades and is godfather to one of the Russian leader’s daughters.

The four men were found guilty of “lack of due diligence in financial transactions”, the Zurich District Court said in its verdict released to media on Thursday, over the millions of Swiss francs flowing through Roldugin’s account.

Under Swiss law, the bankers — two Russians, one Swiss and a Russian-born British national — cannot be identified.

The bank branch’s chief executive was fined 540,000 Swiss francs ($590,200).

Speaking to journalists via conference call, Peskov was asked to comment on the arrest of the American citizen and whether Russia will cooperate with US security services on the issue. The spokesperson stated that he was not aware of the details of the case and that the matter remains in the hands of the FSB.   However, Peskov claimed that as far as he was aware, Gershkovich had been caught in the act of trying to collect intelligence about a defense facility, in violation of Russian laws on state secrets, as announced by the FSB. The correspondent, who covers news from Russia, Ukraine, and the former USSR, could face between 10 and 20 years in prison if charged with espionage.  Although Gershkovich had obtained the necessary journalistic credentials from the Foreign Ministry to work in Russia, the FSB alleges that he “acted in the interest of the US government” when he was caught during “an attempt to receive” classified intelligence. 

Asked if the incident could provoke a response from US authorities regarding Russian journalists working in America, Peskov said that Moscow hopes no such retaliation will follow because “we are not talking about allegations here. He was caught in the act.”  The WSJ has reacted to the incident by stating that it is “deeply concerned for the safety of Mr Gershkovich.”  Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said that the issue of potentially exchanging the WSJ journalist in a swap deal has not been raised.   Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has claimed that whatever Gershkovich was doing when he was detained by the FSB, it had “nothing to do with journalism.” She argued that the status of correspondent had previously been used as cover by other Western nationals attempting to obtain classified Russian intelligence.

Billionaire businessman Elon Musk and a range of tech leaders called on Wednesday for a pause in the development of powerful artificial intelligence (AI) systems to allow time to make sure they are safe.

An open letter, signed by more than 1,000 people so far including Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, was in response to San Francisco startup OpenAI’s recent release of GPT-4, a more advanced successor to its widely-used AI chatbot ChatGPT that helped spark a race among tech giants Microsoft and Google to unveil similar applications.

The company says its latest model is much more powerful than the previous version, which was used to power ChatGPT, a bot capable of generating tracts of text from the briefest of prompts.

“AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity,” said the open letter titled “Pause Giant AI Experiments”.

Israel launch a new spy satellite on Wednesday, the first the country has sent to space in nearly three years as it seeks to enhance its defense capabilities and prepare for a possible escalation with Iran.

An Israeli Shavit rocket delivered the Ofek-13 satellite to space, blasting off from the Palmachim Airbase on the Mediterranean coast at 7:10 p.m. ET, according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The ministry confirmed that the satellite entered its designated orbit and began transmitting data after completing an initial series of inspections. Ofek-13 still has to undergo a few more inspections before beginning its full operations “in the near future,” the defense ministry wrote.

Israel’s Ofek-13 satellite is the latest to join a series of reconnaissance satellites, the first of which launched in 1988. Its latest predecessor was the Ofek-16, which launched in July 2020. Israel’s defense ministry is claiming that Ofek-13 has the most advanced capabilities of the entire series with “unique radar observation capabilities, and will enable intelligence collection in any weather and conditions of visibility thus enhancing strategic intelligence,” Boaz Levy, CEO of state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, said in the ministry statement.

In a series of tweets shared on Tuesday night, Netanyahu noted that he has known his US counterpart for “over 40 years” and commended Biden for his “longstanding commitment to Israel.” However, he urged Washington not to meddle in his country’s internal affairs, after Biden said he was “very concerned” about the upcoming legal changes.

“My administration is committed to strengthening democracy by restoring the proper balance between the three branches of government, which we are striving to achieve via a broad consensus,” Netanyahu said, adding “Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.”

Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.

China lambasted the latest steps taken by the UK and US to supply conventionally-armed but nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, in a diplomatic broadside circulated overnight among international atomic envoys.

Beijing’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Li Song, said the Aukus agreement will undercut global efforts to stop the spread of weapons-grade nuclear fuel and open new proliferation pathways for other countries. Iran and South Korea are among nations that have also explored obtaining nuclear-powered submarines, and Brazil has already committed to building a fleet.

“If the Aukus partners insist on taking their own course, it is inevitable that some other countries will follow suit, which may eventually lead to the collapse of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime,” China wrote in the statement circulated in Vienna late Tuesday.

China published its criticism during President Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to Moscow.