Ukraine strikes Moscow in biggest drone attack to date

Ukraine strikes Moscow in biggest drone attack to date
A firefighter sits in a truck near a damaged multi-story residential building following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye in the Moscow region on Sept. 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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Ukraine strikes Moscow in biggest drone attack to date

Ukraine strikes Moscow in biggest drone attack to date
  • Russia said it destroyed at least 20 Ukrainian attack drones as they swarmed over the Moscow region
  • The drone attacks damaged at high-rise apartment buildings in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow region

MOSCOW: Ukraine struck the Moscow region on Tuesday in its biggest drone attack so far on the Russian capital, killing at least one woman, wrecking dozens of homes and forcing around 50 flights to be diverted from airports around Moscow.
Russia, the world’s biggest nuclear power, said it destroyed at least 20 Ukrainian attack drones as they swarmed over the Moscow region, which has a population of more than 21 million, and 124 more over eight other regions.
At least one person was killed near Moscow, Russian authorities said. Three of Moscow’s four airports were closed for more than six hours and almost 50 flights were diverted.
Kyiv said Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, had attacked it overnight with 46 drones, of which 38 were destroyed.
The drone attacks on Russia damaged at high-rise apartment buildings in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow region, setting flats on fire, residents told Reuters.
A 46-year-old woman was killed and three people were wounded in Ramenskoye, Moscow regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said.
Residents said they awoke to blasts and fire.
“I looked at the window and saw a ball of fire,” Alexander Li, a resident of the district told Reuters. “The window got blown out by the shockwave.”
Georgy, a resident who declined to give his surname, said he heard a drone buzzing outside his building in the early hours.
“I drew back the curtain and it hit the building right before my eyes, I saw it all,” he said. “I took my family and we ran outside.”
The Ramenskoye district, some 50km southeast of the Kremlin, has a population of around quarter a million of people, according to official data.
More than 70 drones were also downed over Russia’s Bryansk region and tens more over other regions, Russia’s defense ministry said. There was no damage or casualties reported there.
As Russia advances in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv has taken the war to Russia with a cross-border attack in Russia’s western Kursk region that began on Aug. 6 and by carrying out increasingly large drone attacks deep into Russian territory.
DRONE WAR
The war has largely been a grinding artillery and drone war along the 1,000 km (620 mile) heavily fortified front line in southern and eastern Ukraine involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
Moscow and Kyiv have both sought to buy and develop new drones, deploy them in innovative ways, and seek new ways to destroy them — from shotguns to advanced electronic jamming systems.
Both sides have turned cheap commercial drones into deadly weapons while ramping up their own production and assembly to attack targets including tanks, energy infrastructure such as refineries and airfields.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has sought to insulate Moscow from the grinding rigours of the war, says the Ukrainian drone attacks are “terrorism” as they target civilian infrastructure — and has vowed a response.
Moscow and other big Russian cities have largely been insulated from the war.
Russia has hit Ukraine with thousands of missiles and drones in the last two-and-a-half years, killing thousands of civilians, wrecking much of the country’s energy system and damaging commercial and residential properties across the country.
Ukraine says it has a right to strike back deep into Russia, though Kyiv’s Western backers have said they do not want a direct confrontation between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine about Tuesday’s attacks. Both sides deny targeting civilians.
Tuesday’s attack follow drone attacks Ukraine launched in early September targeting chiefly Russia’s energy and power facilities.
Authorities of the Tula region, which neighbors the Moscow region to its north, said drone wreckage fell onto a fuel and energy facility but the “technological process” of the facility was not affected.


Mozambique observers warn against vote irregularities

Mozambique observers warn against vote irregularities
Updated 12 October 2024
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Mozambique observers warn against vote irregularities

Mozambique observers warn against vote irregularities
  • The ruling Frelimo party “disproportionately benefited from the use of state resources, including vehicles and public servants, during the campaign,” said an IRI statement

MAPUTO: Election observers in Mozambique have warned against irregularities after a vote expected to renew the ruling party’s grip on power, with some in the opposition already claiming fraud.
After a largely peaceful election on Wednesday, tensions were simmering in the southern African nation, though official results are not expected for another two weeks.
“Observers reported stacks of folded ballot papers in 10 counting processes followed, indicating possible ballot stuffing,” the EU’s election observation mission to Mozambique said.
Along with the US-funded International Republican Institute, also deployed in Mozambique, observers were critical of the context in which the vote took place.
The ruling Frelimo party “disproportionately benefited from the use of state resources, including vehicles and public servants, during the campaign,” said an IRI statement.
The party has been in power since independence 49 years ago.
Both the EU and IRI raised legitimacy issues with the voter roll.
“Overall, the registration rate in-country was 104 percent,” the EU said, while IRI said, “inflated voter rolls exceeded population estimates, particularly in Frelimo strongholds.”
The IRI went further, saying “the electoral process itself has, so far, fallen short of international standards for democratic elections.”
Observers from the Commonwealth, in their statement, called on “appropriate institutions provided by law to look into these matters.”
They urged “political party leaders and their supporters to continue to show restraint.”
Although outgoing President Filipe Nyusi, 65, is stepping down after the two terms allowed by the constitution, his party’s candidate, Daniel Chapo, 47, is widely expected to win.
One of the main opposition candidates, Venancio Mondlane, 50, warned that the “regime will do everything to ensure it does not lose the elections.”

 


Zelensky says Ukrainian forces ‘holding the line’ in Kursk

Zelensky says Ukrainian forces ‘holding the line’ in Kursk
Updated 12 October 2024
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Zelensky says Ukrainian forces ‘holding the line’ in Kursk

Zelensky says Ukrainian forces ‘holding the line’ in Kursk
  • Ukraine has held on to swathes of Russia’s Kursk region since early August
  • “Regarding the Kursk operation, there were attempts by Russia to push back our positions, but we are holding the lines,” Zelensky said

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Moscow had attempted to push back Ukrainian positions in the Russian Kursk region but that Kyiv was “holding the line.”
Ukraine has held on to swathes of Russia’s Kursk region since early August.
“Regarding the Kursk operation, there were attempts by Russia to push back our positions, but we are holding the lines,” Zelensky said.
Russia earlier this week said it had recaptured two villages in the Kursk region, and vowed to continue to push Ukrainian forces out of its territory.
Ukraine has said its offensive is intended to create a buffer zone in the region to stop shelling of its border areas.
Zelensky also acknowledged that the situation for Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region and southern Zaporizhzhia region was “very difficult.”
Kyiv said earlier that Russian attacks Saturday had killed two people in the eastern Donetsk region: a 19-year-old traveling in a civilian car and an 84-year-old pensioner.


Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who sought Scotland’s independence from UK, dies at 69

Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who sought Scotland’s independence from UK, dies at 69
Updated 12 October 2024
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Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who sought Scotland’s independence from UK, dies at 69

Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who sought Scotland’s independence from UK, dies at 69
  • Died in North Macedonia lake-resort town of Ohrid where he was delivering speech at conference, local media reported

LONDON: Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who for decades championed Scotland’s independence from the UK, has died. He was 69.
Salmond, who was a divisive figure in British politics and who as the then leader of the Scottish National Party took Scotland to the brink of independence in a 2014 referendum, died in the North Macedonia lake-resort town of Ohrid, local media reported.
“Unfortunately, Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who was one of the panellists at yesterday’s cultural diplomacy forum that was held in Ohrid, died suddenly today,” according to a statement from the office of former North Macedonia President Gjorgje Ivanov.
Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Party calling him a “monumental figure” of both Scottish and British politics.
“He leaves behind a lasting legacy,” Starmer said. “As first minister of Scotland, he cared deeply about Scotland’s heritage, history and culture, as well as the communities he represented.”
Salmond served as first minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014, and was leader of the Scottish National Party on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000, and from 2004 to 2014. Salmond, as then leader of the Scottish National Party, led the independence campaign in the referendum in 2014, but lost, gaining 45 percent of the vote. Salmond resigned from the SNP in 2018 in the wake of sexual harassment allegations.
He subsequently formed a new party called Alba — the Scottish Gaelic word for Scotland — and was acquitted of the charges.
The current SNP first minister, John Swinney, said that he was “deeply shocked and saddened at the untimely death” of Salmond.
“Over many years, Alex made an enormous contribution to political life, not just within Scotland, but across the UK and beyond,” he said. “He took the Scottish National Party from the fringes of Scottish politics into government and led Scotland so close to becoming an independent country.”
Former UK Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Salmond was a “huge figure in our politics.”
Salmond said that he learned to dream of a better Scotland at his grandfather’s knee, and chose to join the SNP at university in 1973 when his English girlfriend poked too much fun at his separatist sentiments.
Salmond’s academic and professional background prepared him to become Scotland’s most economically optimistic and visionary politician. At St. Andrew’s University. he double-majored in medieval history, reflecting his love of a Caledonia lost, and economics. In his 20s, he worked as an economist first for Britain’s regional government in Scotland and then at the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he analyzed the country’s most dynamic industry, North Sea oil.
He won a seat in the UK Parliament in 1987, and within three years was party leader. He supported Tony Blair’s Labour government in the late 1990s to create a devolved Scottish parliament in Edinburgh, a reform that stopped short of independence, but gave his homeland a taste of self-government for the first time since its 1707 union with England.
Salmond then had a very public forum to push his dream of full independence forward — his government had an array of powers especially on social issues — and managed to convince the government of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to call a referendum. Up until the results were known, it had been considered a close call.
Though the independence campaign lost, Salmond’s SNP managed to capitalize its support and has dominated Scottish politics since. The SNP has been the Edinburgh-based government since, though it suffered a huge setback in this year’s UK-wide general election, when it lost a vast majority of the seats it held in the House of Commons to Labour. The next Scottish election is due to take place in 2026.


Sister of North Korea’s leader threatens South Korea over drone flights

Sister of North Korea’s leader threatens South Korea over drone flights
Updated 12 October 2024
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Sister of North Korea’s leader threatens South Korea over drone flights

Sister of North Korea’s leader threatens South Korea over drone flights
  • The ministry said North Korean forces will prepare “all means of attack” capable of destroying the southern side of the border and the South Korean military
  • “The moment a South Korean drone is discovered once again in skies above our capital, a terrible calamity will surely occur,” she said

SEOUL: The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday accused South Korea of deliberately avoiding responsibility for the alleged flights of South Korean drones over the North’s capital, and warned of a “terrible calamity” if they continue.
The statement by Kim Yo Jong came a day after North Korea’s Foreign Ministry claimed that South Korean drones carrying anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets were detected in the night skies over Pyongyang on Oct. 3, and Wednesday and Thursday this week.
The ministry said North Korean forces will prepare “all means of attack” capable of destroying the southern side of the border and the South Korean military, and respond without warning if South Korean drones are detected in its territory again.
South Korea’s defense minister initially denied the accusation, but the South’s military later adjusted its response, saying it couldn’t confirm whether or not the North’s claims were true.
In comments published through state media, Kim, one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, said that the South Korean military’s vague statements should be taken as proof that it was “either the main culprit or accomplice in this incident.”
“If the military stood by while its own citizens employed drones, a widely recognized multi-purpose military tool, to violate another country’s sovereignty, thereby increasing the risk of armed conflict with a potential adversary, this would amount to intentional acquiescence and collusion,” she said.
“The moment a South Korean drone is discovered once again in skies above our capital, a terrible calamity will surely occur. I personally hope that does not happen.”
South Korea’s military and government didn’t immediately respond to Kim’s comments.
Tensions between the Koreas are now at their worst in years as the pace of both North Korea’s missile tests and the South’s combined military training with the United States have intensified in tit-for-tat. The animosity has been exacerbated by Cold War-style psychological warfare campaigns between the Koreas in recent months.
Since May, North Korea has sent thousands of balloons carrying paper waste, plastic and other trash to drop on the South, in what it described as retaliation against South Korean civilian activists who flew balloons with anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border.
South Korea’s military responded to the North’s balloon campaign by using border loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda and K-pop to North Korea.
North Korea is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of the authoritarian government of leader Kim Jong Un and his family’s dynastic rule.
South Korean officials have been raising concern that North Korea may seek to dial up pressure on Seoul and Washington ahead of the US presidential election in November. Experts say Kim’s long-term goal is to eventually force Washington to accept North Korea as a nuclear power and to negotiate security and economic concessions from a position of strength.
In written answers to questions by The Associated Press this month, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said North Korea is likely preparing major provocations around the US election, possibly including a test detonation of a nuclear device or flight-test of an intercontinental ballistic missile test, as it tries to grab Washington’s attention.


Nelson Mandela’s grandson reportedly denied entry to UK ahead of pro-Palestine speaking tour

Nelson Mandela’s grandson reportedly denied entry to UK ahead of pro-Palestine speaking tour
Updated 12 October 2024
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Nelson Mandela’s grandson reportedly denied entry to UK ahead of pro-Palestine speaking tour

Nelson Mandela’s grandson reportedly denied entry to UK ahead of pro-Palestine speaking tour
  • Zwelivelile Mandla Mandela, a former South African MP, was due to attend events in eight cities

LONDON: The grandson of the late South African president Nelson Mandela has reportedly been denied entry to the UK ahead of a planned speaking tour supporting the Palestinian cause, it was reported this weekend.

Zwelivelile Mandla Mandela, a former South African MP, was due to attend events in eight cities, including London, Edinburgh and Brighton, as part of Black History Month.

However, he was forced to join remotely for a Sheffield event after being informed that he required a visa, The Independent reported on Friday.

The Sheffield Palestine Coalition against Israeli Apartheid said in a statement that British officials had initially informed Mandela he did not need a visa due to his South African government passport.

However, on Monday, he was informed otherwise, and despite efforts from senior ANC figures, no visa has been issued.

Mandela, who has openly expressed support for the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, said during the Sheffield event: “It seems that there are those who are intent on preventing me from being physically with you in Britain.”

He added: “I have been criticized for statements that I have made in support of the Palestinian resistance and its various formations.”

Some of Mandela’s remarks have attracted controversy, including his praise of late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, whom he called “one of the great freedom fighters,” according to Iranian state media.

The UK Home Office has faced pressure regarding Mandela’s entry into the country, with concerns raised over his past statements. A Home Office spokesperson responded by saying: “The UK has robust safeguards to ensure visas are only issued to those who we want to welcome to our country.”

Mandela is expected to visit the Irish capital, Dublin, later this month, and his visa requirement has reportedly been waived.

His grandfather, Nelson Mandela, was an outspoken supporter of the Palestinian cause.