US congressional committee subpoenas Blinken over Afghanistan

US congressional committee subpoenas Blinken over Afghanistan
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to media at the David Kempinski Hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 04 September 2024
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US congressional committee subpoenas Blinken over Afghanistan

US congressional committee subpoenas Blinken over Afghanistan
  • Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul says Blinken must appear on Sept. 19 or face contempt charges
  • Events surrounding the US pullback from Afghanistan are becoming increasingly politicized issue ahead of Nov. 5 elections

WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, saying he had refused to appear before the panel to testify on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
In a letter about the subpoena, Chairman Michael McCaul said Blinken must appear before the committee on Sept. 19 or face contempt charges, the committee said.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Blinken was not currently available to testify on the dates proposed by the committee, but has proposed “reasonable alternatives” to comply with McCaul’s request for a public hearing.
“It is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the Department in good faith, the Committee instead has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena,” Miller said in a statement.
He said Blinken had testified before Congress on Afghanistan more than 14 times, including four times before McCaul’s committee. He also said State has provided the committee with nearly 20,000 pages of department records, multiple high-level briefings and transcribed interviews.
McCaul asked Blinken in May to appear at a hearing in September on the committee’s report on its investigation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In his letter to Blinken, the Republican committee chairman said current and former State Department officials confirmed that Blinken was “the final decisionmaker” on the withdrawal and evacuation.
“You are therefore in a position to inform the Committee’s consideration of potential legislation aimed at helping prevent the catastrophic mistakes of the withdrawal, including potential reforms to the Department’s legislative authorization,” McCaul wrote.
The subpoena from McCaul’s committee, which has been investigating the deadly and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan for years, comes as events surrounding the pullback become an increasingly politicized issue ahead of the Nov. 5 elections.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, visited Arlington National Cemetery late last month and took part in a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the 13 servicemembers killed during the US withdrawal.
He also visited Section 60 of the cemetery, where troops are buried and which is considered hallowed ground in the military.
Federal law and Pentagon policies do not allow political activities in that section of the cemetery, but videos were taken by Trump’s campaign and used in advertisements.
During a speech in Pennsylvania on Friday, Trump said families of service members who died in Afghanistan had asked him to go to the cemetery.


Scholz denies halting German arms exports to Israel, pledges weapons

Scholz denies halting German arms exports to Israel, pledges weapons
Updated 10 sec ago
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Scholz denies halting German arms exports to Israel, pledges weapons

Scholz denies halting German arms exports to Israel, pledges weapons
  • The pledge put him at odds with French President Macron, who has suggested an embargo on weapons for use in Gaza
  • German opposition politician Sahra Wagenknecht has said German weapons deliveries to Israel are “aiding and abetting war crimes”

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected claims Thursday that Berlin had imposed a de facto stop on arms exports to Israel and said more defense goods would be sent soon.
The pledge put him at odds with France, where President Emmanuel Macron last week suggested an embargo on weapons for use in Gaza, sparking a sharp rebuke from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Scholz told the German parliament that “we have not decided to stop delivering weapons. We have delivered weapons and we will deliver weapons.”
The government had taken steps “that ensure that there will be further deliveries soon,” Scholz added, without specifying what equipment would be sent.
Conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz had charged, during a parliamentary session on Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, that the German government had for months failed to approve any new arms deliveries to Israel.
Germany has long sought to atone for the Holocaust by pledging steadfast support for Israel but the relationship has come under strain since the October 7 attack sparked the devastating Gaza war.
Berlin has repeatedly joined other Western governments in calling for ceasefires in Gaza and in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hamas’ ally Hezbollah.
Merz — the CDU party’s candidate who hopes to topple Scholz in elections next September — alleged there were “cracks in Germany’s solidarity” with Israel.
For months “the government has been refusing to grant export permits for the delivery of ammunition and even for the delivery of spare parts for tanks to Israel,” he charged.
The parliamentary group leader of Scholz’s SPD party, Rolf Muetzenich, insisted Berlin was supporting Israel with weapons as well as humanitarian and financial aid.
He added that the use of defense exports must “comply with international humanitarian law.”
German far-left opposition politician Sahra Wagenknecht sharply criticized German weapons deliveries to Israel, saying they are “aiding and abetting war crimes.”
“Israel has the right to protect itself and its citizens,” she told the Rheinische Post daily. “But Israel does not have the law on its side when it razes Gaza to the ground and buries its inhabitants under rubble and ash with unbridled ruthlessness.”
She added that “this brutality is being repeated in Lebanon. Israel’s government, which is partly made up of right-wing radicals, is threatening to plunge an entire region into the abyss. There must be no weapons from Germany for this.”
 


Erdogan inaugurates mosque in Albania, pledges military drones as he begins Balkan tour

Erdogan inaugurates mosque in Albania, pledges military drones as he begins Balkan tour
Updated 36 min 12 sec ago
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Erdogan inaugurates mosque in Albania, pledges military drones as he begins Balkan tour

Erdogan inaugurates mosque in Albania, pledges military drones as he begins Balkan tour
  • Two sides sign agreements to boost cooperation in agriculture and education
  • Erdogan will also visit Serbia as he tries to boost ties with a region once ruled by the Ottoman empire

TIRANA, Albania: Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled Thursday to Albania’s capital to inaugurate a Turkish-funded mosque with 50-meter-high minarets as part of a trip to boost ties and discuss regional issues.
Erdogan also said that his country would give an unspecified number of drones to boost military capabilities in Albania, whose population is slightly more than 50 percent Muslim.
The new Namazgah mosque in Tirana is one of the largest in the Balkans.
Erdogan met with Albanian President Bajram Begaj and later with Prime Minister Edi Rama, with whom he has close ties. Following a meeting of top officials from both countries, the two sides signed agreements to boost cooperation in agriculture and education.

A view of The Great Mosque of Tirana or Namazgah Mosque, the largest mosque in the Balkans, on the day of its inauguration on October 10, 2024. (REUTERS)

Turkiye is a strategic partner of Albania and one of its largest investors, contributing to infrastructure and other sectors. Erdogan said the two countries should aim to double their annual trade to 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion).

Some 600 Turkish companies employ more than 15,000 people in Albania, Erodgan said in February when he hosted Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
It is one of the five biggest foreign investors in the country, he said, with $3.5 billion (3.2 billion euros) committed there.
Construction of the new mosque was started in 2015 with some 30 million euros ($34 million) from the state-run Turkish Muslim organization Diyanet.
The construction already had been completed for more than a year, but the inauguration was delayed because of Erdogan’s concerns that a group that Turkiye calls the Fetullah Terrorist Organization, or FETO, would have influence over the mosque.
Under agreements reached with the local Albanian Muslim community, Turkiye’s Diyanet organization will have representation on the mosque’s governing board.

CaptionAlbanian Prime Minister Edi Rama (R) and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan exchange signed documents at the Prime Minister's office in Tirana, on October 10, 2024. (AFP)

Turkiye says that FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated a failed coup in Turkiye on July 15, 2016, which left 251 people dead and nearly 2,200 wounded. Gulen has denied any involvement.
In addition to the four minarets, the Namazgah mosque has a central dome of 30 meters and the capacity to hold 8,000 people. It sits on a 10,000-square-meter parcel of land near Albania’s parliament, and the first floor includes a cultural center.
The site is near landmark Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals.
Sunni Muslims make up nearly 46 percent of Albania’s population, and Bektashi Muslims another 5 percent. Catholics are 8 percent and Orthodox Christians 7 percent, according to a 2023 census. The various religious groups live together peacefully without tensions.

Kamikaze drones

At a briefing after the meetings, Rama said Turkiye’s gift of military drones sends a “very clear message” that “Albania cannot be attacked.”
“It is a present that comes as a strong message from the Republic of Turkiye that Albania is unhittable,” Rama told a joint news conference during on one-day visit by Erdogan.

The so-called kamikaze drone is a loitering munition that cruises toward its target before plummeting at velocity and detonating on impact.
Rama also said that the acquisition of an unspecified number of Turkish kamikaze drones does not mean “Albania will attack anyone.”
Most countries in the Western Balkans, including Albania, have started to upgrade their aging militaries after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Albania and Turkiye are both members of NATO. The government in Tirana has already acquired a fleet of Turkish-made Bayraktar reconnaissance and attack drones.

Trip to Serbia

On Friday, Erdogan will move on to Serbia, where Turkiye made a major diplomatic comeback in 2017 with a landmark visit to Belgrade.
The trip helped Erdogan and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic mend ties between the countries.
The five centuries of the Ottoman presence in Serbia have traditionally weighed heavily on relations between Belgrade and Ankara.
Another source of tension has been Turkiye’s cultural and historic ties with Serbia’s former breakaway province of Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move Belgrade still refuses to recognize.
But Erdogan’s 2017 visit repaired Turkiye’s relationship with Serbia, Belgrade-based analyst Vuk Vuksanovic told AFP.
Since then “the Balkans is quite a success story for Turkiye,” he added.

Even so, it has not been all plain sailing with Belgrade furious last year when Turkiye sold drones to Kosovo, something Serbia said was “unacceptable.”
But the row could be patched up, the analyst insisted.
“I would not be surprised if we see a military deal at the end of this visit,” Vuksanovic said.
He expected the talks in Belgrade to focus on “military cooperation, the position of Turkish companies, and attempts by Belgrade to persuade Ankara to tone down support for Kosovo.”
Even though the rapprochement is relatively recent, economic ties between the two countries are already significant.
Turkish investment in Serbia has rocketed from $1 million to $400 million over the past decade, the Turkiye-Serbia business council told Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.
Turkish exports to Serbia hit $2.13 billion in 2022, up from $1.14 billion in 2020, according to official Serbian figures.
Turkish tourists are also hugely important for Serbia, second only in visitor numbers to those from Bosnia.
 

 

 


Over 200 women in legal talks with Harrods over Fayed abuse claims

Harrods is advising new complainants to obtain advice through the Harrods Survivors Group legal team or another legal team.
Harrods is advising new complainants to obtain advice through the Harrods Survivors Group legal team or another legal team.
Updated 10 October 2024
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Over 200 women in legal talks with Harrods over Fayed abuse claims

Harrods is advising new complainants to obtain advice through the Harrods Survivors Group legal team or another legal team.
  • New allegations have emerged after the BBC last month aired an expose claiming he had raped and sexually abused women during his ownership of Harrods

LONDON: More than 200 women are now in settlement talks with Harrods over alleged abuse by its former owner Mohamed Al Fayed, the upmarket London department store said Thursday.
The Egyptian billionaire died last year aged 94. But new allegations have emerged after the BBC last month aired an expose claiming he had raped and sexually abused women during his ownership of Harrods.
“Since the airing of the documentary, so far there are 200+ individuals who are now in the Harrods process to settle claims directly with the business,” the store said in a statement.
Separately, the BBC said Thursday that another 65 women had told them they were abused by Fayed, while lawyers for the Justice for Harrods Survivors group representing alleged victims said they now have more than 70 clients.
Harrods is advising new complainants to obtain advice through the Harrods Survivors Group legal team or another legal team.
The new allegations sent to the BBC stretch back to 1977, include sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape: 37 of the 65 new claimants had worked at the UK’s most famous shop, the broadcaster added.
Justice for Harrods Survivors said women were now “feeling safe to come forward” and that the number of accusers was “increasing on a daily basis.”
The group “now retains 71 clients and is processing a further 220 inquiries” having been contacted by people from all around the world, it added.
London’s Metropolitan Police said it was also investigating a number of new allegations.
In 2008, Fayed was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl and prosecutors reviewed evidence in 2009. In 2015 he was investigated over claims of rape two years earlier.
In both instances, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was no “realistic prospect of conviction” and did not bring charges against the Harrods chairman.
Harrods’ managing director, Michael Ward, has admitted his former boss presided over a “toxic culture of secrecy, intimidation, fear of repercussion and sexual misconduct.”
But he said he had not been “aware of his criminality and abuse” and expressed his “personal horror at the revelations.”
Fayed’s accusers say the assaults took place in his apartments in London and his properties in Paris, including the Ritz hotel. The businessman also owned Fulham Football Club.
Allegations include a repeated pattern of women who underwent a selection process for positions close to Fayed, and an “invasive” gynaecological examination, the results of which were shared with Fayed.
The women said when they tried to complain about their abuse they were threatened by senior security staff, demoted and subject to false allegations until they had “no choice” but to leave Harrods.
Fayed sold Harrods to the investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund for a reported £1.5 billion ($2.2 billion).


Princess Kate joins husband William on visit to English town hit by killings, riot

Britain’s Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales, speak to members of the emergency services.
Britain’s Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales, speak to members of the emergency services.
Updated 10 October 2024
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Princess Kate joins husband William on visit to English town hit by killings, riot

Britain’s Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales, speak to members of the emergency services.
  • Disinformation spread on social media in the aftermath of the July attack wrongly identified the assailant as an Islamist migrant, and led to violent clashes

LONDON: Prince William was accompanied by wife Kate on Thursday for their first joint public engagement since she ended chemotherapy treatment, meeting bereaved families of three young girls murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in Southport.
Southport, a quiet seaside town in northwest England, drew a global spotlight on July 29 when three girls were stabbed to death and other children were seriously hurt in an attack on the summer vacation event. Rioting then broke out days later.
On their visit on Thursday, William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, spoke privately with families of the victims and a dance teacher who was present at the time of the attack, and later met representatives from local emergency services who had responded to the incident.
“We continue to stand with everyone in Southport,” the pair said in a statement through their office, Kensington Palace, signed with their initials.

Britain's Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales, arrive to meet rescue workers and the families of those caught up in the Southport knife attack earlier this year in Southport, England, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP)


“Meeting the community today has been a powerful reminder of the importance of supporting one another in the wake of unimaginable tragedy. You will remain in our thoughts and prayers.”
It was one of the first engagements Kate has carried out since she began to slowly return to work after ending her course of preventative chemotherapy for cancer, and it was her first in public since then.
Kate’s unexpected appearance came because the couple wanted to visit to show their support to the families and community, and let them know they had not been forgotten.
The visit echoes one made by William’s father King Charles who went to Southport in August where he met some of the surviving children and their families.
Disinformation spread on social media in the aftermath of the July attack wrongly identified the assailant as an Islamist migrant, and led to violent clashes between protesters and police in Southport, and an attempt to attack the town’s mosque.
A teenager, who was 17 at the time of the incident, has been charged with carrying out the murders.
Days of similar rioting followed across the country which police and the government blamed on far-right thuggery, leading to about 1,500 arrests and almost 400 people being jailed as the authorities sought to stamp out the trouble.


Zelensky denies ceasefire with Russia under discussion on trip

Zelensky denies ceasefire with Russia under discussion on trip
Updated 10 October 2024
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Zelensky denies ceasefire with Russia under discussion on trip

Zelensky denies ceasefire with Russia under discussion on trip
  • Zelensky was seeking a military and financial boost during a 48-hour trip to London, Paris, Rome and Berlin
  • “This is not the topic of our discussions,” he said. “It’s not right. Russia works a lot with media disinformation, so it (such reports) is understandable”

PARIS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday a ceasefire with Russia was not under discussion with European allies and urged more Western support ahead of a tough winter during his lightning tour of four capitals.
Zelensky was seeking a military and financial boost during a 48-hour trip to London, Paris, Rome and Berlin, amid fears of dwindling support if Donald Trump becomes US president next month.
Speaking to reporters after talks with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, Zelensky denied media reports that he was discussing the terms of a ceasefire with Russia.
“This is not the topic of our discussions,” he said. “It’s not right. Russia works a lot with media disinformation so it (such reports) is understandable,” he added.
Zelensky has rejected any peace plan that involves ceding land to Russia, arguing Moscow must first withdraw all troops from Ukrainian territory.
Zelensky also said he and Macron had discussed Kyiv’s “victory plan” to defeat Russia, expressing gratitude to the French president for all his support.
“Before winter we need your support,” he added, acknowledging “a difficult situation in the east” and a “big deficit” in terms of some equipment.
Without elaborating, Macron said Zelensky had outlined Ukraine’s “plan for the next weeks” and the pair had discussed strategy for the “next weeks and months.”
Macron emphasized he had reaffirmed France’s support “for the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion.”
Ukraine is facing its toughest winter since the full-scale invasion started in February 2022, as Russia launches strikes on the country’s power grid and advances across the eastern frontline.
The talks came after Macron on Wednesday made a highly unusual visit to a military camp in eastern France, the precise location of which was not disclosed, to meet part of a brigade of Ukrainian troops France is training.
Zelensky arrived in Paris from London where he had had talks with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO chief Mark Rutte.
Speaking after his Downing Street meeting, Zelensky said he had “outlined the details of our victory plan,” adding that it “aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war.”
The meeting, Starmer said, had been a chance to “go through the plan, to talk in more detail.”
Zelensky maintains that Ukraine desperately needs more aid to fight back after Russia captured dozens of small towns and villages in the east.
He is also pushing for clearance to use long-range weapons supplied by allies, including British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, to strike military targets deep inside Russia.
Washington and London have stalled on giving approval over fears it could draw NATO allies into direct conflict with Russia.
Zelensky said he had raised the subject at the Downing Street meeting.
Rutte told reporters “legally, that is possible because legally, Ukraine is allowed to use its weapons, if they can hit targets in Russia, if these targets present a threat to Ukraine.”
But he added: “Whether individual allies do, that’s in the end, always up to individual allies.”
Rutte and Britain cautioned against placing too much focus on long-range missiles.
“No war has ever been won by a single weapon,” Starmer’s spokesman said. The talks were instead about “the range of support” for Ukraine.
A planned meeting of Ukraine’s allies in Germany on Saturday was postponed after US President Joe Biden called off his visit to focus on the threat from Hurricane Milton.
On the ground, questions are growing about the long-term strategy of an offensive into Russia’s Kursk region, given Moscow’s push in the east of Ukraine.
On Thursday, the Kremlin said its missiles had struck two launchers of a US-made Patriot air-defense system, which Ukraine uses against Russian missiles.
“If this is a short-term operation, it will strengthen us,” Bogdan, one serviceman sitting at a cafe in Druzhkivka, near Kramatorsk, told AFP.
“If it’s a long-term operation and we plan to stay in Kursk, it will deplete our main resources.”
Ukraine relies on billions of dollars worth of US aid to fight Russia’s invasion, and the US presidential election in November could prove pivotal.
The German-based Kiel Institute warned Thursday Western military and financial aid to Kyiv could halve to about 29 billion euros ($31 billion) in 2025 if Trump wins the November 5 election.
Trump has promised to end the war “in 24 hours” if he is elected — a prospect Kyiv fears means being forced to make massive compromises to achieve peace.