Germany pledges winter aid package for Ukraine/node/2571724/world
Germany pledges winter aid package for Ukraine
People walk past an installation with a power transformer, damaged by a Russian military strike, in the city center, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv. (Reuters)
Moscow has pounded Ukraine’s energy network throughout the two-and-a-half year war
Moscow is also targeting the country’s energy reserves
Updated 17 September 2024
AFP
BERLIN: Germany will provide 100 million euros ($111 million) in aid to help Ukraine through the coming winter as it weathers Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
“Ukraine is facing another winter of war and Putin is waging a brutal war of cold,” the ministry wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Russia is deliberately attacking Ukraine’s heat and energy supply. This is why Germany is providing a further 100 million euros in winter aid for the (Ukrainian) energy supply.”
Moscow has pounded Ukraine’s energy network throughout the two-and-a-half year war, destroying swathes of the country’s infrastructure and causing severe power shortages and blackouts.
Russian forces have recently shifted their focus from shelling energy distribution networks to targeting energy production facilities, which are much more costly and take years to repair or rebuild.
Moscow is also targeting the country’s energy reserves.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal last week laid out plans to repair and protect the country’s power system ahead of the winter, including reinforcing facilities against drone attacks and impacts from missile fragments.
Shmygal said all hospitals and more than 80 percent of schools across the country were equipped with generators, but there was still “an urgent need for another 1,800 high-capacity generators.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in June that Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities had destroyed half of its electricity generation capacity since last winter.
In early September, the EU announced 40 million euros in humanitarian aid for Ukraine to help with repair work, electricity, heating and housing ahead of the coming winter.
Center-left set to win as pro-Ukraine Lithuania votes
Lithuania’s main parties all agree on the need for strong support for Ukraine and to maintain or increase defense spending
The Baltic state of 2.8 million people has been warily eyeing perceived threats from neighboring Russia
Updated 13 October 2024
AFP
VILNIUS: Lithuanians vote Sunday in elections likely to deliver a change of government but keep much else the same, including the NATO and EU member’s strong support for Ukraine and moves to bolster defense policy.
The vote is likely to see the center-left replace the ruling conservatives, and could also see a new populist party whose leader is on trial for alleged anti-Semitic comments enter parliament for the first time.
The Baltic state of 2.8 million people has been warily eyeing perceived threats from neighboring Russia, fearing it could be the next target if Moscow were to succeed in its ongoing war against Ukraine, which began in 2022.
Lithuania’s main parties all agree on the need for strong support for Ukraine and to maintain or increase defense spending, currently around three percent of GDP.
Opinion polls show the Social Democratic Party, which last led the government from 2012 to 2016, ahead of 14 other parties and coalitions, with the latest survey predicting they will secure around 20 percent of the vote.
The ruling center-right Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats are expected to receive around 15 percent, with six or seven parties likely to cross the electoral threshold in total.
Despite the potential change in government, no major changes in foreign policy are anticipated.
“There is no real alternative to what Lithuania chose 20 years ago,” political analyst Linas Kontrimas told AFP, referring to the country joining the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
President Gitanas Nauseda, who was re-elected for a second term this May with backing from the Social Democrats, is believed to support a change in government.
During the campaign, Nauseda — who defeated current Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte in the presidential vote — met with leaders of all parliamentary parties except the conservatives, who have been in frequent conflict with him during their four-year term.
“I voted for the authorities to work together, not against each other, to solve the problems of the Lithuanian people,” Nauseda said after casting an early vote, although he did not reveal his party preference.
Other opposition parties have united against the ruling conservatives.
“The time of the conservatives is over,” Social Democratic leader Vilija Blinkeviciute, a former social security and labor minister, told reporters.
The Social Democrats have pledged to increase progressive taxation, tax luxury goods and provide additional funding for social services, as well as cut taxes for families with children, raise pensions and offer VAT relief on food.
The election has also been marred by controversy surrounding a new populist party, Nemunas Dawn, led by former long-time MP Remigijus Zemaitaitis, which is expected to win parliamentary seats.
Last year, Zemaitaitis gave up his seat in parliament after facing criticism over alleged anti-Semitic comments.
He is currently on trial for incitement to hatred, although he denies the charge and insists he only criticized the Israeli government’s policies in the Gaza Strip.
Most political parties have vowed to exclude Zemaitaitis from any ruling coalition.
“I think we are facing not only a geopolitical threat, but also an internal political threat,” Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, the leader of the conservatives, told reporters after he cast his early vote.
During World War II, 90 percent of Lithuania’s Jewish population of approximately 208,000 were killed, often with the help of local collaborators, and the country’s historical memory of the Holocaust remains a subject of intense debate.
The first round of Sunday’s election will allocate roughly half of the 141 parliamentary seats through proportional representation, with the remaining seats to be decided in runoff rounds on October 27.
Doctor deems Harris in ‘excellent health.’ Her team aims to contrast with Trump’s scant medical info
Trump has released very little health information, including after his ear was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt in July in Pennsylvania
Asked if she thought Trump’s mental acuity had declined, Harris said, “I invite the public to watch his rallies and be the decision-maker”
Updated 13 October 2024
AP
WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president, her doctor said in a letter released Saturday that summarizes her medical history and status.
Dr. Joshua Simmons, an Army colonel and physician to the vice president, wrote that Harris, 59, maintains a healthy, active lifestyle and that her most recent physical last April was “unremarkable.”
She “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” he wrote in a two-page letter.
Harris’ campaign hopes the release of her medical report will draw a contrast with Republican Donald Trump, who has shared only limited information about his health over the years, and raise questions about his fitness to serve, according to a campaign aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Trump has released very little health information, including after his ear was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt in July in Pennsylvania.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said Saturday that Trump has voluntarily released updates from his personal physician as well as detailed reports from Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who, before he was elected to Congress, was Trump’s physician at the White House. Jackson also treated Trump after the assassination attempt.
Republican presidential nominee President Donald Trump looks on during a Hispanic roundtable at Beauty Society on October 12, 2024 in North Las Vegas, Nevada. (AFP)
“All have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief,” Cheung said in a statement. The campaign press office provided links to some of Trump’s past medical reports. They included: https://tinyurl.com/yckc495b and https://tinyurl.com/4z27pk2f
If Trump, who is 78, were to be elected next month, he would be the oldest president in US history by the time his term ends in 2029.
Harris addressed the issue on Saturday before she traveled to North Carolina.
“It’s clear to me that he and his team do not want the American people to really see what he is doing and if he is fit to be the president,” she told the reporters accompanying her.
Asked if she thought Trump’s mental acuity had declined, Harris said, “I invite the public to watch his rallies and be the decision-maker.”
Simmons, who said he has been Harris’ primary care physician for the past 3 1/2 years, said the vice president has a history of seasonal allergies and urticaria, or hives. She has been able to “dramatically” improve her symptoms over the past three years with an immunotherapy medication that helps the body become less sensitive to allergens.
Simmons said Harris’ latest blood work and other test results were “unremarkable.” Her blood pressure is not worryingly high and she is at low risk for heart disease.
According to the summary of an exam conducted six months ago, Harris’ vital signs showed a blood pressure of 128 over 74, a heart rate of 78 beats per minute, pulse oximetry of 100 percent on room air with a respiratory rate of 16 breaths per minute and a temperature of 98.7 degrees. Pulse oximetry measures the amount of oxygen in a person’s blood.
Simmons reported that Harris’ head, eyes, ears, nose and pharynx are normal.
Also in the report: Harris wears contact lenses for mild nearsightedness; her family history includes maternal colon cancer; she is up to date on preventive care recommendations, including having a colonoscopy and annual mammograms, as well as routine immunizations.
Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was 70 when she died of colon cancer in February 2009.
The vice president “maintains a healthy, active lifestyle, despite her busy schedule,” including “vigorous daily aerobic exercise and core strength training,” Simmons reported. She eats a healthy diet, does not use tobacco products and drinks alcohol “only occasionally and in moderation,” he wrote.
As Harris’ office released the medical report, her campaign highlighted recent media reports raising questions about Trump’s health and mental acuity and his reluctance to provide detailed information about the state of his health and medical history.
Trump eagerly questioned President Joe Biden’s physical and mental fitness when the 81-year-old sought reelection. Since Biden dropped out of the race and was replaced by Harris on the Democratic ticket, Trump’s health has drawn more attention.
Last November, Trump marked Biden’s birthday by releasing a letter from his physician that reported the former president was in “excellent” physical and mental health. The letter posted on Trump’s social media platform contained no details about his weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any tests to support its claims.
New Zealand ship didn’t sink because its captain was a woman, the ‘appalled’ defense minister says
Defense Minister Judith Collins was reacting to comments on social media directed at the woman captain of a navy ship that sank off the coast of Samoa
Updated 13 October 2024
AP
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: New Zealand’s defense minister issued stinging rebukes of what she said were “vile” and “misogynistic” online remarks by “armchair admirals” about the woman captain of a navy ship that ran aground, caught fire and sank off the coast of Samoa.
“Seriously, it’s 2024,” Judith Collins told reporters Thursday. “What the hell’s going on here?”
After days of comments on social media directed at the gender of Commander Yvonne Gray, Collins urged the public to “be better.” Women members of the military had also faced verbal abuse in the street in New Zealand since the ship — one of nine in the country’s navy — was lost on Sunday, Collins said.
All 75 people on board evacuated to safety with only minor injuries after the vessel ran aground on the reef it was surveying about a mile off the coast of Upolu, Samoa’s most populous island. The cause of the disaster is not known.
“The one thing that we already know did not cause it is the gender of the ship’s captain, a woman with 30 years’ naval experience who on the night made the call to get her people to safety,” Collins said.
One of the posters was a truck driver from Melbourne, Australia, she added.
“I think that he should keep his comments to people who drive trucks rather than people who drive ships,” Collins said. “These are the sorts of people I’m calling out and I’m happy to keep calling them out for as long as it takes to stop this behavior.”
About 20 percent of New Zealand’s uniformed military members are women. Collins is New Zealand’s first woman defense minister and said she stood alongside Gray and Maj. Gen. Rose King, the country’s first woman army chief, who assumed her role in June.
“We are all appointed on merit, not gender,” said Collins.
The sinking prompted fears of a major fuel spill. On Thursday, officials in Samoa said while the vessel was leaking oil from three places, the amount was reducing each day and was dissipating quickly due to strong winds in the area.
Most of the ship’s fuel appeared to have burned out in the fire, according to a statement by the Marine Pollution Advisory Committee. Officials were due to meet with locals Thursday to discuss how to remove the vessel’s anchor and three shipping containers from the reef without further damaging the fragile marine ecosystem.
New Zealand’s government has ordered a military court of inquiry into the episode, which will be led by senior military officers. It will assemble for the first time on Friday.
Passengers, including civilian scientists and foreign military personnel, left the vessel on life boats in “challenging conditions” and darkness, New Zealand’s Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding told reporters after the sinking.
Those on board have since returned to New Zealand by plane.
The specialist dive and hydrographic vessel had been in service for New Zealand since 2019, but was 20 years old and had previously belonged to Norway. The military said the ship, purchased for $100 million NZ dollars ($61 million), was not covered by replacement insurance.
The state of New Zealand’s aging military hardware has prompted warnings from the defense agency, which in a March report described the navy as “extremely fragile,” with ships idle due to problems retaining the staff needed to service and maintain them. Of the navy’s eight remaining ships, five are currently operational.
Golding said the HMNZS Manawanui underwent a maintenance period before the deployment.
North Kosovo ethnic tensions remain risk for violence, NATO official says
The US and the European Union, Kosovo’s leading global allies, have criticized the Pristina government for taking unilateral actions in the north that could spark ethnic violence and risk the lives of some 4,000 NATO troops on duty there
Updated 13 October 2024
Reuters
PRISTINA: Persistent ethnic tension in north Kosovo could trigger a repeat of violence seen in the area last year, when four people died in a gunbattle and NATO peacekeepers were hurt in clashes, a senior official from the military alliance warned on Saturday.
Kosovo is predominantly ethnic Albanian but about 50,000 Serbs in the north reject Pristina’s government and see Belgrade as their capital. A former Serbian province, Kosovo declared independence in 2008 a decade after a guerrilla uprising.
US Navy Admiral Stuart B. Munsch, commander of the Allied Joint Force Command Naples — which oversees NATO’s peacekeeping in force in Kosovo — said the alliance remained concerned about the risk of repeated violence in the volatile north.
“Heated political rhetoric could inspire some non-government forces to commit violence such as what happened last year,” Munsch told reporters in Pristina.
“I would not say that definitely conflict is coming, I think there is a persistent risk,” he said, referring to a lack of progress in EU-mediated talks between Kosovo’s government and Serbia.
A police officer and three gunmen were killed in September 2023 when a group of heavily armed attackers entered from Serbia and attacked police in the village of Banjska.
Four months earlier, more than 90 soldiers were injured when Serb protesters attacked NATO peacekeepers.
Kosovo has accused Serbia of being behind the Banjska attack but Belgrade has denied the accusations.
The US and the European Union, Kosovo’s leading global allies, have criticized the Pristina government for taking unilateral actions in the north that could spark ethnic violence and risk the lives of some 4,000 NATO troops on duty there.
Kosovo rejects such criticism, and the issue has strained Pristina’s ties with its Western supporters.
As part of the EU-mediated dialogue, Kosovo and Serbia have been holding talks for more than a decade to normalize their relations, but there has been little progress.
Like the Serbs living in north Kosovo, Belgrade also considers Kosovo to be part of Serbia and refuses to recognize it as a state.
Trump has long blasted China’s trade practices. His ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles were printed there
Trump didn’t say where the “God Bless the USA” Bibles are printed, what they cost or how much he earns per sale
Updated 13 October 2024
AP
WASHINGTON: Thousands of copies of Donald Trump’s “God Bless the USA” Bible were printed in a country that the former president has repeatedly accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices: China.
Global trade records reviewed by The Associated Press show a printing company in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou shipped close to 120,000 of the Bibles to the United States earlier this year.
The estimated value of the three separate shipments was $342,000, or less than $3 per Bible, according to databases that track exports and imports. The minimum price for the Trump-backed Bible is $59.99, putting the potential sales revenue at about $7 million.
The Trump Bible’s connection to China reveals a deep divide between the former president’s harsh anti-China rhetoric and his efforts to raise cash while campaigning.
The Trump campaign did not respond to emails and calls seeking comment.
In a March 26 video posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump announced a partnership with country singer Lee Greenwood to hawk the Bibles, inspired by Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” hit song.
In the video, Trump blended religion with his campaign message as he urged viewers to buy the Bible, which includes copies of the US Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Pledge of Allegiance.
“This Bible is a reminder that the biggest thing we have to bring back in America, and to make America great again, is our religion,” Trump said.
Trump didn’t say where the “God Bless the USA” Bibles are printed, what they cost or how much he earns per sale. A version of the $59.99 Bible memorializes the July 13 assassination attempt on the former president in Pennsylvania. Trump’s name is stamped on the cover above the phrase, “The Day God Intervened.”
The Bibles are sold exclusively through a website that states it is not affiliated with any political campaign nor is it owned or controlled by Trump.
The website states that Trump’s name and image are used under a paid license from CIC Ventures, a company Trump reported owning in a financial disclosure released in August. CIC Ventures earned $300,000 in Bible sales royalties, according to the disclosure. It’s unclear if Trump has received additional payments.
AP received no response to questions sent to the Bible website and to a publicist for Greenwood.
For years, Trump has castigated Beijing as an obstacle to America’s economic success, slapping hefty tariffs on Chinese imports while president and threatening even more stringent measures if he’s elected again. He blamed China for the COVID-19 outbreak and recently suggested, without evidence, that Chinese immigrants are flooding the US to build an “army” and attack America.
But Trump also has an eye on his personal finances. Pitching Bibles is one of a dizzying number of for-profit ventures he’s launched or promoted, including diamond-encrusted watches, sneakers, photo books, cryptocurrency and digital trading cards.
The web of enterprises has stoked conflict of interest concerns. Selling products at prices that exceed their value may be considered a campaign contribution, said Claire Finkelstein, founder of the nonpartisan Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law and a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
“You have to assume that everything that the individual does is being done as a candidate and so that any money that flows through to him benefits him as a candidate,” Finkelstein said. “Suppose Vladimir Putin were to buy a Trump watch. Is that a campaign finance violation? I would think so.”
There’s a potentially lucrative opportunity for Trump to sell 55,000 of the Bibles to Oklahoma after the state’s education department ordered public schools to incorporate Scripture into lessons. Oklahoma plans to buy Bibles that initially matched Trump’s edition: a King James Version that contains the US founding documents. The request was revised Monday to allow the US historical documents to be bound with the Bible or provided separately.
The first delivery of Trump Bibles was labeled “God Bless USA,” according to the information from the Panjiva and Import Genius databases. The other two were described as “Bibles.” All the books were shipped by New Ade Cultural Media, a printing company in Hangzhou, to Freedom Park Design, a company in Alabama that databases identified as the importer of the Bibles.
Tammy Tang, a sales representative for New Ade, told AP all three shipments were “God Bless the USA” Bibles. She said New Ade received the orders from Freedom Park Design via the WhatsApp messaging service. The books were printed on presses near the company’s office, she said.
Freedom Park Design was incorporated in Florida on March 1. An aspiring country singer named Jared Ashley is the company’s president. He also co-founded 16 Creative, a marketing firm that uses the same Gulf Shores address and processes online orders for branded merchandise.
Ashley hung up on a reporter who called to ask about the Bibles. Greenwood is a client of 16 Creative, according to the firm’s website. He launched the American-flag emblazoned Bible in 2021.
Religious scholars have denounced the merger of Scripture and government documents as a “toxic mix” that would fuel Christian nationalism, a movement that fuses American and Christian values, symbols and identity and seeks to privilege Christianity in public life. Other critics have called the Trump Bible blasphemous.
Tim Wildsmith, a Baptist minister who reviews Bibles on his YouTube channel, said he quickly noticed the signs of a cheaply made book when his “God Bless the USA” Bible arrived in the mail.
It had a faux leather cover, and words were jammed together on the pages, making it hard to read. He also found sticky pages that ripped when pulled apart, and there was no copyright page or information about who printed the Bible, or where.
“I was shocked by how poor the quality of it was,” Wildsmith said. “It says to me that it’s more about the love of money than it is the love of our country.”
