Russia’s Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets

Russia’s Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets
Russian President Vladimir Putin prefaced his nuclear warning with a specific reference to an idea of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine. (AFP)
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Updated 29 February 2024
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Russia’s Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets

Russia’s Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets
  • War in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin told Western countries on Thursday they risked provoking a nuclear war if they sent troops to fight in Ukraine, warning that Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West.
The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin has previously spoken of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, but his nuclear warning on Thursday was one of his most explicit.
Addressing lawmakers and other members of the country’s elite, Putin, 71, repeated his accusation that the West was bent on weakening Russia, and he suggested Western leaders did not understand how dangerous their meddling could be in what he cast as Russia’s own internal affairs.
He prefaced his nuclear warning with a specific reference to an idea, floated by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine — a suggestion that was quickly rejected by the United States, Germany, Britain and others.
“(Western nations) must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?!” said Putin.
Speaking ahead of a March 15-17 presidential election when he is certain to be re-elected for another six-year term, he lauded what he said was Russia’s vastly modernized nuclear arsenal, the largest in the world.
“Strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness,” he said, noting that new-generation hypersonic nuclear weapons he first spoke about in 2018 had either been deployed or were at a stage where development and testing were being completed.
Visibly angry, Putin suggested Western politicians recall the fate of those like Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler and France’s Napoleon Bonaparte who had unsuccessfully invaded Russia in the past.
“But now the consequences will be far more tragic,” said Putin. “They think it (war) is a cartoon,” he said, accusing Western politicians of forgetting what real war meant because they had not faced the same security challenges as Russians had in the last three decades.
MORE TROOPS FOR WESTERN BORDER
Russian forces now have the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine and are advancing in several places, Putin said. Russia must also boost the troops it has deployed along its western borders with the European Union after Finland and Sweden decided to join the NATO military alliance, he added.
The veteran Kremlin leader dismissed Western suggestions that Russian forces might go beyond Ukraine and attack European countries as “nonsense.” He also said Moscow would not repeat the mistake of the Soviet Union and allow the West to “drag” it into an arms race that would eat up too much of its budget.
“Therefore, our task is to develop the defense-industrial complex in such a way as to increase the scientific, technological and industrial potential of the country,” he said.
Putin said Moscow was open to discussions on nuclear strategic stability with the United States but suggested that Washington had no genuine interest in such talks and was more focused on making false claims about Moscow’s alleged aims.
“Recently there have been more and more unsubstantiated accusations against Russia, for example that we are allegedly going to deploy nuclear weapons in space. Such innuendo... is a ploy to draw us into negotiations on their terms, which are favorable only to the United States,” he said.
“...On the eve of the US presidential election, they simply want to show their citizens and everyone else that they still rule the world.”


UN warns global drought carries $300 billion annual cost

UN warns global drought carries $300 billion annual cost
Updated 13 sec ago
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UN warns global drought carries $300 billion annual cost

UN warns global drought carries $300 billion annual cost
  • Drought projected to affect 75% of the world’s population by 2050, a UN report cautioned
  • The UN urged investment in ‘nature-based solutions’ to cut the price of dessication and benefit the environment
RIYADH: Drought costs the world more than $300 billion each year, the United Nations warned Tuesday in a report published on the second day of international talks on desertification in Saudi Arabia.
Fuelled by “human destruction of the environment,” drought is projected to affect 75 percent of the world’s population by 2050, the report cautioned.
It said the crisis has already exceeded $307 billion in costs annually around the globe.
The warning coincides with a 12-day meeting in Riyadh for the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), seeking to protect and restore land and respond to drought amid ongoing climate change.
The UN urged investment in “nature-based solutions” such as “reforestation, grazing management, and the management, restoration and conservation of watersheds” to cut the price of dessication and benefit the environment.
Marked by devastating droughts in Ecuador, Brazil, Namibia, Malawi and nations bordering the Mediterranean, which sparked fires and produced water and food shortages, 2024 is on course to be the hottest year since records began.
“The economic cost of drought extends beyond immediate agricultural losses. It affects entire supply chains, reduces GDP, impacts livelihoods, and leads to hunger, unemployment, migration, and long-term human security challenges,” Kaveh Madani, a co-author of the UN report, said.
“Managing our land and water resources in a sustainable way is essential to stimulate economic growth and strengthen the resilience of communities trapped in cycles of drought,” Andrea Meza Murillo, a senior UNCCD official, said.
“As talks for a landmark COP decision on drought are underway, the report calls on world leaders to recognize the outsized, and preventable, costs of drought, and to leverage proactive and nature-based solutions to secure human development within planetary boundaries,” she added.

Life demanded for killer in femicide that outraged Italy

Life demanded for killer in femicide that outraged Italy
Updated 24 min 46 sec ago
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Life demanded for killer in femicide that outraged Italy

Life demanded for killer in femicide that outraged Italy
  • Prosecutors have asked for life in prison for Filippo Turetta for killing Giulia Cecchettin in November last year
  • Cecchettin was stabbed at least 75 times in a shocking murder that prompted protests over violence against women across Italy

ROME: A student who admitted murdering his ex-girlfriend in a brutal case that sparked outrage and soul searching in Italy will be sentenced Tuesday.
Prosecutors have asked for life in prison for Filippo Turetta, 22, for killing Giulia Cecchettin in November last year, just days before she was due to graduate from the University of Padua.
Cecchettin, also 22, was stabbed at least 75 times in a shocking murder that prompted protests over violence against women across Italy.
Turetta’s lawyer Giovanni Caruso has called the request for life imprisonment excessive, saying his client was “not Pablo Escobar,” the notorious Colombian drug baron.
When the trial opened in Venice in September, he warned against a “media trial” and last week insisted there were no “aggravating circumstances” such as cruelty, or premeditation.
But prosecutor Andrea Petroni said Turetta acted with “particular brutality,” attacking Cecchettin before fleeing with her in his car.
Her body was found a week after she went missing in a gully near Lake Barcis north of Venice.
Turetta was arrested a day later near Leipzig in Germany after his car ran out of petrol.
Giulia’s father, Gino Cecchettin, refused to comment on the potential sentence.
“I’m already dead inside... for me nothing will change. I will never see Giulia again,” he told RAI public radio last week.
“The only thing I can do... is to ensure there are as few possible cases like Giulia’s, that there are fewer parents who have to mourn a dead daughter.”
Cecchettin’s murder is one of a string of femicides that have made headlines in Italy in recent years, but it struck a nerve, pushing the issue to the forefront of public discourse.
At her funeral last year, thousands of people turned out to pay their respects and her father implored men to “challenge the culture that tends to minimize violence by men who appear normal.”
Giulia’s sister, Elena, called for a cultural revolution, urging sympathizers to “burn everything” – a message since scrawled on walls and protest banners, often alongside the phrase “Patriarchy kills.”
Out of 276 murders recorded by Italy’s interior ministry so far this year, 100 of the victims were women – 88 killed by someone close to them, the vast majority by a partner or ex.
This compares to 110 out of 310 murders in the same period last year, with 90 killed by someone close to them. In 2022, 106 women were killed by someone close to them, and 107 in 2021.
Cecchettin’s family has set up a foundation in her name, pressing for better education, more support for women facing violence and greater efforts to encourage equality and respect.
Last month, thousands of people marched through Rome and the Sicilian capital Palermo to mark an international day against femicide, many of them walking in Cecchettin’s name.
While denouncing historic discrimination against women and a lack of policies such as sex education in schools, some of the campaigners accused Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government in particular of failing women.
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara sparked an uproar last month by saying that “male domination no longer exists” in law in Italy, and linking violence against women to illegal immigration.
Elena Cecchettin hit back that her sister, a biomedical engineering student, was killed by a “young white Italian.”
Meloni, Italy’s first woman prime minister, said last week that legislation was not lacking in Italy, but that “the challenge remains above all cultural.”
The leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party also made a link with illegal immigration – even though official figures from 2022 show that 94 percent of Italian female murder victims were killed by Italians.


Joe Biden kicks off two-day Angola visit

Joe Biden kicks off two-day Angola visit
Updated 34 min 8 sec ago
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Joe Biden kicks off two-day Angola visit

Joe Biden kicks off two-day Angola visit
  • US president arrived in the oil-rich Portuguese-speaking country centered on a multinational project to rehabilitate a railway line ferrying minerals

LUANDA: US President Joe Biden is in Angola on Tuesday for the first and only visit to sub-Saharan Africa of his presidency, which is focused on a major infrastructure project that is a counterpoint to China’s investments.
Biden arrived in the oil-rich Portuguese-speaking country late Monday for a two-day visit centered on a multinational project to rehabilitate a railway line ferrying minerals from inland countries to the Angolan port of Lobito for export.
In anticipation of his trip, the Angolan government declared December 3 and 4 public holidays and deployed heavy security across the capital Luanda, a city of around 9.5 million people.
Biden, who hands over to Donald Trump on January 20, starts his visit on Tuesday with talks with President Joao Lourenco in the capital Luanda and is due to later deliver remarks at the National Slavery Museum.
On Wednesday, he is to travel to Lobito, an Atlantic port city about 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Luanda.
The port is at the heart of the Lobito Corridor project that has received loans from the United States, the European Union and others to rehabilitate a key railway connecting the mineral-rich inland countries of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia with Lobito, from where they can be exported.
It is “a real game changer for US engagement in Africa,” John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, told reporters Monday.
“It’s our fervent hope that as the new team comes in and takes a look at this, that they see the value too, that they see how it will help drive a more secure, more prosperous, more economically stable continent.”
The Lobito project is a piece in the geopolitical battle between the United States and its allies and China, which owns mines in the DRC and Zambia among an array of investments in the region.
A similar railway project involving Chinese investment is aimed at ferrying minerals out via a Tanzanian port on the Indian Ocean.
A senior US official told journalists ahead of Biden’s trip that African governments are seeking an alternative to Chinese investment, especially when it results in “living under crushing debt for generations to come.”
Angola, for instance, owes China $17 billion, about 40 percent of the nation’s total debt.
Lourenco, too, appears to want to diversify his country’s partnerships beyond China and Russia.
“We’re not asking countries to choose between US and Russia and China,” Kirby said. “We’re simply looking for reliable, sustainable, verifiable investment opportunities that the people of Angola and the people of the continent can rely on.”
Human rights organizations have urged Biden to raise Angola’s rights record.
Amnesty International said in a report last month that Angolan police had killed at least 17 protesters between November 2020 and June 2023 as part of a long-running crackdown on dissent.
It urged Biden, 82, to demand that Angola “immediately release five government critics arbitrarily detained for more than a year.”
Angola, a nation of 37 million people, was devastated by a 27-year civil war that started on independence from Portugal in 1975, when the UNITA rebel movement challenged the MPLA that is still in power.
During the Cold War years the United States funnelled covert aid to UNITA. It recognized the MPLA government only in 1993, becoming an importer of its oil.


Harvey Weinstein hospitalized after ‘alarming’ blood test: attorney

Harvey Weinstein hospitalized after ‘alarming’ blood test: attorney
Updated 03 December 2024
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Harvey Weinstein hospitalized after ‘alarming’ blood test: attorney

Harvey Weinstein hospitalized after ‘alarming’ blood test: attorney
  • Lawyer: Harvey Weinstein will remain at the hospital ‘until his condition stabilizes’
  • Weinstein had previously been hospitalized in September for emergency heart surgery before being reincarcerated

NEW YORK: Former Hollywood movie producer and convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein was hospitalized after an “alarming blood test result,” his lawyer said late Monday.
Weinstein’s attorney Imran Ansari said via email that the 72-year-old was taken to a New York hospital for “emergent treatment due to an alarming blood test result that requires immediate medical attention.”
He will remain at the hospital “until his condition stabilizes,” his lawyer added.
US media reported in October that Weinstein was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.
The disgraced producer, who is currently serving a prison sentence at the notorious Rikers Island prison, “has been suffering from a lack of adequate medical care and enduring deplorable and inhumane conditions,” Ansari said.
In the same email, Weinstein’s spokesman Juda Engelmayer said his client “is suffering from a number of illnesses, including leukemia” and “has been deprived the medical attention that someone in his medical state deserves, prisoner or not.”
“In many ways, this mistreatment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment,” Engelmayer added.
Weinstein had previously been hospitalized in September for emergency heart surgery before being reincarcerated.
The co-founder of Miramax Films is due to be retried in New York in 2025, after an appeals court last year reversed the ruling of his 2020 sentence for raping an actress, Jessica Mann, and sexually assaulting a production assistant, Mimi Haleyi.
The trial was due to begin in November, but has since been delayed.
Weinstein has appeared in court several times due to the proceedings, most recently in October, during which he arrived in a wheelchair, pale and visibly diminished.
Prosecutors in New York, meanwhile, have since charged him in a separate sexual assault case from 2006, to which Weinstein pleaded not guilty and attorneys requested a separate trial.
The next hearing in the case is set for January 29, during which a new trial date will be set for all charges.
Although Weinstein’s conviction in New York was overturned, he remains incarcerated for a separate 16-year prison sentenced issued in 2023 by a court in Los Angeles for additional rape and sexual assault charges.
In 2017, the allegations against Weinstein helped launch the #MeToo movement, a watershed moment for women fighting sexual misconduct.
More than 80 women accused him of harassment, sexual assault or rape, including prominent actors Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd.
Weinstein has claimed that any sexual relations in question were consensual.


Airlines suspend flights as Middle East tensions rise

Airlines suspend flights as Middle East tensions rise
Updated 03 December 2024
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Airlines suspend flights as Middle East tensions rise

Airlines suspend flights as Middle East tensions rise
  • Concerns over a wider conflict in the Middle East are spreading
  • Dozens of airlines have canceled services to and from the region

Concerns over a wider conflict in the Middle East have prompted international airlines to suspend flights to the region or to avoid affected air space.
Below are some of the airlines that have canceled services to and from the region:
AEGEAN AIRLINES
The Greek airline has canceled flights to and from Beirut until March 29 and to and from Tel Aviv until Dec. 10. From Dec. 11, some flights to and from Tel Aviv will operate as normal.
AIR ALGERIE
The Algerian airline has suspended flights to and from Lebanon until further notice.
AIRBALTIC
Latvia’s airBaltic has canceled flights to and from Tel Aviv until Dec. 21.
AIR FRANCE-KLM
Air France has extended its suspension of Paris-Tel Aviv flights until Dec. 31 and Paris-Beirut flights until Jan. 5.
KLM has extended the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv until the end of the year at least.
The group’s low-cost unit Transavia has canceled flights to and from Tel Aviv, Amman and Beirut until end-March.
AIR INDIA
The Indian flag carrier has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until further notice.
BULGARIA AIR
The Bulgarian carrier has canceled flights to and from Israel until Dec. 23.
CATHAY PACIFIC
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific has canceled flights to Tel Aviv until Oct. 25, 2025.
CORENDON AIRLINES
The Turkish airline canceled flights to and from Tel Aviv until January.
DELTA AIR LINES
The US carrier has paused flights between New York and Tel Aviv through March 2025.
EASYJET
EasyJet will not rush to resume flights to Tel Aviv after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect, its incoming CEO said on Nov. 27. The UK budget airline had previously suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until March.
EGYPTAIR
The Egyptian carrier in September said it had suspended flights to Beirut until “the situation stabilizes.”
EMIRATES
UAE’s state-owned airline has canceled flights to Beirut until Dec. 31 and to Baghdad until Dec. 14.
ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES
The Ethiopian carrier has suspended flights to Beirut until further notice, it said in a Facebook post on Oct. 4.
FLYDUBAI
Flights to Beirut are currently suspended, a flydubai spokesperson said on Nov. 28.
IAG
IAG-owned British Airways has suspended flights to Tel Aviv until the end of March 2025.
IAG’s low-cost airline Iberia Express has canceled flights to Tel Aviv until Nov. 30, while Vueling has canceled operations to Tel Aviv and to Amman until at least early 2025.
IRAN AIR
The Iranian airline has canceled Beirut flights until further notice.
IRAQI AIRWAYS
The Iraqi national carrier has suspended flights to Beirut until further notice.
 ITA AIRWAYS
The Italian carrier has extended the suspension of Tel Aviv flights through Jan. 12.
LOT
The Polish carrier has canceled flights to Tel Aviv until Dec. 9. Its first scheduled flight to Beirut is planned for April 1.
LUFTHANSA GROUP
The German airline group has extended the suspension of its flights to Tel Aviv until Jan. 31.
Flights for Tehran are canceled until Jan. 31, 2025, and to Beirut until Feb. 28.
SunExpress, a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, has suspended flights to Beirut through Dec. 17.
PEGASUS
The Turkish airline has canceled flights to Beirut until Jan 1.
QATAR AIRWAYS
The Qatari airline has temporarily suspended flights to and from Lebanon.
RYANAIR
Europe’s biggest budget airline does not plan on resuming operations to Israel until March 31 at the earliest, while a decision to resume operations to and from Jordan from December is under discussion, a Ryanair spokesperson said on Nov. 27.
SUNDAIR
The German airline canceled flights to Beirut from Berlin until Feb. 28, from Bremen until March 26 and from Muenster/Osnabrueck until March 29.
TAROM
Romania’s flag carrier has suspended Beirut flights until Dec. 20.
UNITED AIRLINES
The Chicago-based airline has suspended flights to Tel Aviv for the foreseeable future.
VIRGIN ATLANTIC
The UK carrier has suspended Tel Aviv flights until end-March.
WIZZ AIR
The Hungary-based airline has suspended Tel Aviv flights through Jan. 14.