Putin visits Mariupol as part of surprise tour of occupied Ukraine

Putin visits Mariupol as part of surprise tour of occupied Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Chersonesos Taurica historical and archeological park on the 9th anniversary of the referendum on the state status of Crimea and Sevastopol. (AFP)
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Updated 20 March 2023

Putin visits Mariupol as part of surprise tour of occupied Ukraine

Putin visits Mariupol as part of surprise tour of occupied Ukraine
  • The visit came after Putin traveled to Crimea in an unannounced visit
  • Mariupol was Russia’s first major victory after it failed to seize Kyiv

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin made a surprise weekend visit to the war-ravaged port of Mariupol, state media reported, the Kremlin leader’s first trip to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine’s Donbas region since the conflict began.
The visit came after Putin traveled to Crimea on Saturday in an unannounced visit to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine, and just two days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader.
Putin is yet to comment publicly on the ICC warrant, but his trips into Ukrainian territory claimed by Russia was seen by some observers as an act of defiance.
Mariupol fell in May after one of the war’s longest and bloodiest battles, marking Russia’s first major victory after it failed to seize Kyiv and focused instead on southeastern Ukraine
The Organization for Security and Cooperation and Europe (OSCE) said Russia’s early bombing of a maternity hospital there was a war crime.
Putin flew by helicopter to Mariupol for “a working trip,” Russian news agencies reported citing the Kremlin. He traveled around several districts of the city, making stops and talking to residents.
It is the closest to the front lines Putin has been since the year-long war began.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant on Friday against Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, a highly symbolic move that isolates the Russian leader further.
While Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has made a number of trips to the battlefield to boost the morale of his troops and talk strategy, Putin has largely remained inside the Kremlin while running what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Kyiv and its allies say the invasion, now in its 13th month, is an imperialistic land grab that has killed thousands and displaced millions of people in Ukraine.
’BEAUTIFUL DOWNTOWN’
In the Nevsky district of Mariupol, Putin visited a family in their home, Russian media reported. The new residential neighborhood has been built by Russian military with first people moving in last September.
Residents have been “actively” returning, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who accompanied Putin, was cited as saying by Russian agencies.
Mariupol had a population of half a million people before the war and was home to the Azovstal steel plant, one of Europe’s largest.
“The downtown has been badly damaged,” Khusnullin said. “We want to finish (reconstruction) of the center by the end of the year, at least the facade part. The center is very beautiful.”
Russian media broadcast videos showing the Russian leader driving a car at night through a built-up area as well as walking into what media said was the philharmonic, restored in just three months.
There was also no immediate reaction to the visit from Kyiv.
Mariupol is in the Donetsk region, one of the four regions Putin moved in September to annex. Kyiv and its Western allies condemned the move as illegal. Donetsk, together with the Luhansk region, comprise most of the Donbas industrialized part of Ukraine that has seen the biggest battle in Europe for generations.
Russian media reported on Sunday that Putin also met with the top commander of his military operation in Ukraine, including Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov who is in charge of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.


Another powerful Pacific storm hits soggy, snowy California

Another powerful Pacific storm hits soggy, snowy California
Updated 29 March 2023

Another powerful Pacific storm hits soggy, snowy California

Another powerful Pacific storm hits soggy, snowy California
  • Damage since the onslaught began in late December includes buildings crushed by snow, flooding of communities and farm fields and homes threatened by landslides

SACRAMENTO, California: A powerful weather system from the Gulf of Alaska pushed into Northern California on Tuesday, bringing more wind, rain and snow to a state battered by months of storms.
Forecasters warned of heavy snow in coastal mountains and the Sierra Nevada, where accumulations up to 4 feet (1.2 meters) were possible, highway chain requirements took effect and a backcountry avalanche warning was issued for the greater Lake Tahoe area.
The National Weather Service said the storm was expected to pull a plume of Pacific moisture into California as it tracked south, but the rainfall was not expected to be as intense as the atmospheric rivers that impacted the state in recent weeks.
After a dozen previous atmospheric rivers and blizzards fueled by arctic air, the water content of California’s Sierra Nevada snowpack is more than double normal overall, and nearly triple in the southern Sierra.
Damage since the onslaught began in late December includes buildings crushed by snow, flooding of communities and farm fields and homes threatened by landslides.
Crews on Monday tore down a historic pier in Santa Cruz County that was in danger of collapse. The 500-foot-long (152-meter) wooden pier at Seacliff State Beach was severely damaged by big surf in January. Built in 1930, the pier connected the beach to SS Palo Alto, a grounded Word War I-era steamship known as the “cement ship.”
On the positive side, the storms have brought much-needed water. The state’s two largest reservoirs, Shasta and Oroville, have risen above their historical averages to date after being significantly depleted.
Cities and farmers that rely on the Central Valley Project, the federally managed water system, got a big boost in their allocations Tuesday.
More than 250 agencies — mostly irrigation districts — contract with the federal government for certain amounts of water each year, and the US Bureau of Reclamation announces each February how much of those contracts can be filled, updating as conditions change.
The storm boost in supply means that many providers of irrigation water supplied by the CVP will see the amount they can draw jump from as little as 35 percent of their contracted total to 80 percent. Providers for city and industrial uses will be allowed 100 percent of their historic use instead of just 75 percent, the bureau said.
In Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District is bringing water from the north to fill its massive Diamond Valley Lake, a reservoir that had diminished to 60 percent of capacity after three years of drought. It’s expected to be full again by year’s end.
“Nature gave us a lifeline,” MWD General Manager Adel Hagekhalil said Monday as officials watched water pour into the reservoir.

 


Russian embassy says US wants to play down involvement in Nord Stream blasts

Russian embassy says US wants to play down involvement in Nord Stream blasts
Updated 29 March 2023

Russian embassy says US wants to play down involvement in Nord Stream blasts

Russian embassy says US wants to play down involvement in Nord Stream blasts
  • The Russian embassy in the US said in a statement posted on its Telegram messaging platform that Washington is doing “everything possible” to prevent “impartial efforts” establish circumstances around the explosions

WASHINGTON: The Russian embassy in the US said on Wednesday Washington is seeking to play down damaging information about the alleged involvement of its intelligence services in last year’s blasts that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
Moscow failed on Monday to get the UN Security Council to ask for an independent inquiry into explosions in September that ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia and Germany and spewed gas into the Baltic Sea.
Russian officials reacted angrily and the Kremlin said on Tuesday it would keep demanding an international investigation.
The Russian embassy in the US said in a statement posted on its Telegram messaging platform that Washington is doing “everything possible” to prevent “impartial efforts” establish circumstances around the explosions.
“We see this as an obvious attempt ... to play down information from reputable journalists that is damaging for the United States about the likely direct involvement of American intelligence services,” the embassy said in the statement posted in Russian.
In a February blog post, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh cited an unidentified source as saying that US navy divers had destroyed the pipelines with explosives on the orders of President Joe Biden.
The White House dismissed Hersh’s report as “utterly false and complete fiction.” Norway said the allegations were “nonsense.”

 

 


Woman born in Syria makes history as first hijab-wearing Superior Court judge in the US

Nadia Kahf joins other community religious and political leaders at a news conference in Jersey City, New Jersey. (AFP)
Nadia Kahf joins other community religious and political leaders at a news conference in Jersey City, New Jersey. (AFP)
Updated 29 March 2023

Woman born in Syria makes history as first hijab-wearing Superior Court judge in the US

Nadia Kahf joins other community religious and political leaders at a news conference in Jersey City, New Jersey. (AFP)
  • Nadia Kahf took her oath with her hand on a copy of the Qur’an inherited from her grandmother when she was sworn in at the Passaic County Courthouse in New Jersey
  • A day later, another woman who wears the Islamic headscarf, family law attorney Dalya Youssef, was also sworn in as a Superior Court judge in Somerset County, also New Jersey

LONDON: Nadia Kahf, an attorney who was born in Syria, made history when she became the first Superior Court judge in the US who wears a hijab.

Kahf was nominated by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy last year, local media reported. Community leaders, including mayors, council members, school board members and leaders of the New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association, signed a letter in May calling on Senator Kristin Corrado to advance the nomination. More than 700 people also signed an online petition in support of her nomination.

Kahf, the third Muslim woman to serve as US Superior Court judge, took the oath during her swearing-in ceremony last week with her hand on a copy of the Qur’an she inherited from her grandmother.

“I am proud to represent the Muslim and Arab communities in New Jersey in the US,” she said during the ceremony. “I want the younger generation to see that they can practice their religion without fear that they can be who they are. Diversity is our strength, it is not our weakness”

As a lawyer, Kahf specialized in family law and also handled immigration cases. Since 2003, she has been on the board of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization.

The day after Kahf’s swearing-in ceremony another woman who wears the Islamic headscarf, family law attorney Dalya Youssef, was also sworn in as a Superior Court judge, this time in Somerset County, also New Jersey.

 

 


Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source

Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source
Updated 29 March 2023

Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source

Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source
  • In February, a source told Reuters Pence was preparing to resist a grand jury subpoena to secure his testimony

WASHINGTON: A federal judge has ruled that former US Vice President Mike Pence must testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with former President Donald Trump leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, a source familiar with the ruling said on Tuesday.
In a ruling that remains under seal, the judge also said that Pence can still decline to answer questions related to Jan. 6, the source said, adding that Pence can still appeal the ruling. The appeal option is being evaluated, the source said.
The source, confirming reports by CNN and NBC, said the judge’s decision compels Trump’s former vice president, and potential challenger for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, to appear before the federal grand jury but shields him from testifying about Jan. 6, 2021, itself.
Asked during an interview on Newsmax on Tuesday as to whether he would appeal the order, Pence said there was a limited amount he could say on the proceedings.
“I’m pleased that the court accepted our argument and recognized that the Constitution’s provision about speech and debate does apply to the vice president,” he said.
“But the way they sorted that out and the requirements of my testimony going forward are a subject of our review right now and I’ll have more to say about that in the days ahead.”
In February, a source told Reuters Pence was preparing to resist a grand jury subpoena to secure his testimony.
Ahead of the Jan. 6 events, Trump had repeatedly lambasted Pence, publicly and privately, for refusing to try to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s win in the 2020 election, sources told Reuters at the time.
Representatives for Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who is leading the US Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump and his allies’ alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, could not be immediately reached for comment.

 


Reports that billionaire British Muslim brothers plan $9.8bn takeover of Subway

Billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway
Billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway
Updated 28 March 2023

Reports that billionaire British Muslim brothers plan $9.8bn takeover of Subway

Billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway
  • Mohsin and Zuber Issa, who started their business empire with one petrol station in the Greater Manchester area in 2001, are said to be set to buy the chain

LONDON: The billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway, according to media reports.

Mohsin and Zuber, who started their business empire with one petrol station in the Greater Manchester area in 2001, are said to be set to buy the chain, which had more than 37,000 outlets in over 100 countries in 2021.

The brothers co-own the Euro Garages firm, along with TDR Capital, which operates more than 6,600 petrol stations globally, and already has Subway outlets at 340 of its locations.

“EG Group have felt for a while that Subway treated them the same way as other franchise partners and their massive growth hadn’t been appreciated, so what better way to show who’s boss than owning them?” a source told British newspaper The Sun.

Another source told the newspaper it would “make good sense” for the brothers to complete the purchase.

The EG Group completed a £6.8 billion takeover of supermarket chain Asda in 2021 and is also KFC’s largest franchise owner in Europe.

It also owns the restaurant chain Leon and helped to launch the UK’s first drive-thru Indian street food outlet in the British town of Bolton.