Tag: Region Asias

The Department of Defense has sent over a criminal referral to the DOJ to trigger the probe, according to Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh. Meanwhile, an internal investigation has been launched to “review and assess the validity” of the documents, which “appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material.”  Photographs of scanned briefing slides were first posted on a messaging platform called Discord in January, but went unnoticed until last week. Since then, more documents have appeared on Twitter and Telegram as well, with the latest batch emerging on Friday.  According to Financial Times, their release has “sown chaos and paranoia among Washington’s national security apparatus ahead of a critical moment” in the Ukraine conflict, just as Kiev is about to launch a highly anticipated “counter-offensive.”

Germans appear to be particularly susceptible to what Bild described as Moscow’s “propaganda,” the newspaper said, adding that experts in the West are “alarmed” over this development. The tabloid then blamed this tendency on the “historically friendly relations” between the two nations, as well as the “legacy” of East Germany, which was once a part of the “socialist camp” and “a large number of Russian-speaking people” living in Germany nowadays. The paper then admitted that pro-Russian views have been spreading both among native Germans and the Russian-speaking part of the population.

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.

President Emmanuel Macron, following a trip to Beijing in which he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, said in a new interview Sunday he does not believe Europe should follow the “American rhythm” on Taiwan. “We don’t want to get into a bloc versus bloc logic,” Macron said in an interview for French business daily Les Echo,arguing that Europe “should not be caught up in a disordering of the world and crises that aren’t ours.” “The question asked of us Europeans is the following: is it in our interest for there to be acceleration on the topic of Taiwan? No. The worst thing we Europeans could do would be to be followers on this topic and to adapt to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction,” he said. “Why should we go at a rhythm chosen by someone else?”

The European Union’s top justice official said he hopes to discuss with Group of Seven partners plans to set up a special tribunal to prosecute Russia over the war in Ukraine.

“We’ll continue, maybe during the Japanese presidency (of the G7) to see whether it’s possible to have the same approach about a proposal,” European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said in a recent interview with Kyodo News and ahead of a G7 justice ministers’ meeting in July in Tokyo.

  MOSCOW (AP) — Jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been charged with espionage in Russia and has entered his official denial, Russian state news agency Tass reported Friday. Tass said a law enforcement source informed the news agency that Russia’s Federal Security Service officially charged the American journalist with espionage. Tass did not specify if the action…

In recent days, industrial action by refinery workers has intensified, leading to supply disruptions as members of French unions stopped refineries and depots from delivering fuel, the outlet said. According to the latest data compiled by the news outlet, the Val-de-Marne department in Ile-de-France is the worst affected with nearly half (49.4%) of its petrol stations facing partial or complete fuel supply disruption. The second-worst-affected area was the Paris region, where 38.8% of petrol stations were experiencing shortages of at least one type of fuel as of April 6. Drivers reported problems at 39.7% of pumps in Hauts-de-Seine, while 24.2% of pumps in Indre-et-Loire were also affected, reporting little or no supply.

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.

Excerpt: Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers on Sunday announced surprise cuts totaling 1.15 million barrels per day from May until the end of the year, a move that could raise prices worldwide.

Higher oil prices would help fill Russian President Vladimir Putin’s coffers as his country wages war on Ukraine and force Americans and others to pay even more at the pump amid inflation fueled in part by that conflict.

It was also likely to further strain ties with the United States, which has called on Saudi Arabia and other allies to increase production as it tries to bring prices down and squeeze Russia’s finances.

The Saudi Energy Ministry said its own reduction of 500,000 barrels per day would be made in coordination with some OPEC and non-OPEC members, without naming them. The cuts are in addition to a reduction announced last October that infuriated the Biden administration.

An estimated 60 tornadoes wreaked havoc across at least eight US states on Friday and over the weekend, destroying houses, felling trees, and flipping cars. Tennessee appeared to have been hit the hardest, with officials in McNairy County alone reporting nine deaths.  The local sheriff said that all the deceased were in the buildings destroyed by the disaster. In the same state, tornadoes killed one person in Tipton County, with 28 injured.  At least five people died in Arkansas, four in Illinois, and three in Indiana, according to officials. Authorities in Mississippi, Delaware, Ohio and Alabama reported one death per state. 

In Arkansas, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency while activating the National Guard to help with tornado response and asking for federal assistance.  In Belvidere, northern Illinois, a tornado led to the collapse of a roof at the Apollo Theatre, where spectators had gathered to listen to the metal band Morbid Angel, killing one and injuring 40 others.  The disaster also caused severe power outages, which on Saturday amounted to over one million customers, according to poweroutage.us. The bad weather also spilled over to other states, leaving more than 100,000 customers in Pennsylvania and tens of thousands in Ohio and West Virginia without electricity.

The below is attributable to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel:

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist. The Secretary called for his immediate release. Secretary Blinken further urged the Kremlin to immediately release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan. The Secretary and Foreign Minister Lavrov also discussed the importance of creating an environment that permits diplomatic missions to carry out their work.

Lawyers for a wealthy self-exiled Chinese businessman who developed ties to Trump administration figures including Steve Bannon are seeking bail for him two weeks after his arrest, saying other defendants accused of massive frauds like Bernard Madoff and Sam Bankman-Fried were freed on bail.

The lawyers submitted papers in Manhattan federal court, saying Guo Wengui is entitled to bail just as other wealthy defendants have been given the chance to post bail in the past. They also challenged claims by prosecutors that he is a risk to flee, saying he would not leave his wife of 38 years and his daughter as all three seek asylum.

Madoff was free for several months in late 2008 and early 2009 before he was jailed after he pleaded guilty in a multibillion-dollar fraud. He was later sentenced to 150 years in prison and died behind bars.

Bankman-Fried, 31, was arrested in the Bahamas in December in what a prosecutor called one of biggest frauds in American history. He agreed to return to the United States, where he was freed with GPS monitoring on a $250 million personal recognizance bond after pleading not guilty to charges that he oversaw a massive cryptocurrency fraud.

The United Arab Emirates’ central bank on Friday said it will cancel the licence it granted last year to Russia’s MTS bank, which was placed under British and US sanctions in February.

Operations at the bank’s UAE branch, which is licensed in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, will be wound down within six months under UAE central bank supervision.

A statement from MTS Bank said it will fulfil all settlement obligations to existing customers and guarantee the safety of their funds for six months.

“This decision comes after considering the available options regarding the new status of the MTS Bank and taking into account the sanctions risks associated with the bank,” the UAE central bank’s statement said.

The International Monetary Fund said on Friday its executive board approved a four-year $15.6 billion loan program for Ukraine, part of a global $115 billion package to support the country’s economy as it battles Russia’s 13-month-old invasion.

The decision clears the way for an immediate disbursement of about $2.7 billion to Kyiv, and requires Ukraine to carry out ambitious reforms, especially in the energy sector, the Fund said in a statement.

The Extended Fund Facility (EFF) loan is the first major conventional financing program approved by the IMF for a country involved in a large-scale war.

Russia has opened a criminal case against Pussy Riot founding member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova for allegedly “insulting religious sensibilities,” human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday.

The Investigative Committee opened the case due to various of Tolokonnikova’s posts on social media, Chikov said, adding that a series of police searches had been carried out as part of the investigation, though he gave no further details.

Which of Tolokonnikova’s social media posts prompted the charges is also yet to be established.

“Dear Investigative Committee of Russia. Stop f***ing around threatening political activists with more criminal cases. Go after actual criminals, such as the war criminal Vladimir Putin. Best of luck,” Tolokonnikova said in a statement on Pussy Riot’s Instagram.

A potential Russian “petition” on a preventive nuclear strike could come in response to any initiative to transfer US nuclear weapons to Ukraine, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on his Telegram channel.

A petition calling for the deployment of US nuclear weapons on Ukrainian soil was posted on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s website on Thursday.

Medvedev blogged that the response could, in all probability, take the form of “a Russian petition in favor of the immediate pre-emptive use of Russian nuclear weapons.”