Biden is rushing aid to Ukraine. Both sides are digging in. And everyone is bracing for Trump

Biden is rushing aid to Ukraine. Both sides are digging in. And everyone is bracing for Trump
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks with Leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) during their meeting in Kyiv on December 9, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
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Updated 10 December 2024
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Biden is rushing aid to Ukraine. Both sides are digging in. And everyone is bracing for Trump

Biden is rushing aid to Ukraine. Both sides are digging in. And everyone is bracing for Trump
  • Russia, Ukraine and their global allies are scrambling to put their side in the best possible position for any changes that Trump may bring
  • A Ukrainian military commander says his forces will keep fighting but when the aid runs out, they’ll be destroyed

WASHINGTON: The grinding war between Ukraine and its Russian invaders has escalated ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, with President Joe Biden rushing out billions of dollars more in military aid before US support for Kyiv’s defenses is thrown into question under the new administration.
Russia, Ukraine and their global allies are scrambling to put their side in the best possible position for any changes that Trump may bring to American policy in the nearly 3-year-old war. The president-elect insisted in recent days that Russia and Ukraine immediately reach a ceasefire and said Ukraine should likely prepare to receive less US military aid.
On the war’s front lines, Ukraine’s forces are mindful of Trump’s fast-approaching presidency and the risk of losing their biggest backer.
If that happens, “those people who are with me, my unit, we are not going to retreat,” a Ukrainian strike-drone company commander, fighting in Russia’s Kursk region with the 47th Brigade, told The Associated Press by phone.
“As long as we have ammunition, as long as we have weapons, as long as we have some means to defeat the enemy, we will fight,” said the commander, who goes by his military call sign, Hummer. He spoke on condition he not be identified by name, citing Ukrainian military rules and security concerns.
“But, when all means run out, you must understand, we will be destroyed very quickly,” he said.
The Biden administration is pushing every available dollar out the door to shore up Ukraine’s defenses before leaving office in six weeks, announcing more than $2 billion in additional support since Trump won the presidential election last month.
The US has sent a total of $62 billion in military aid since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. And more help is on the way.
The administration is on track to disperse the US portion of a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, backed by frozen Russian assets, before Biden leaves the White House, US officials said. They said the US and Ukraine are in “advanced stages” of discussing terms of the loan and close to executing the $20 billion of the larger loan that the US is backing.
Biden also has eased limits on Ukraine using American longer-range missiles against military targets deeper inside Russia, following months of refusing those appeals over fears of provoking Russia into nuclear war or attacks on the West. He’s also newly allowed Ukraine to employ antipersonnel mines, which are banned by many countries.
Biden and his senior advisers, however, are skeptical that allowing freer use of the longer-range missiles will change the broader trajectory of the war, according to two senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
But the administration has at least a measure of confidence that its scramble, combined with continued strong European support, means it will leave office having given Ukraine the tools it needs to sustain its fight against Russia for some time, the officials said.
Enough to hold on, but not enough to defeat Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces, according to Ukraine and some of its allies.
Even now, “the Biden administration has been very careful not to run up against the possibility of a defeated Putin or a defeated Russia” for fear of the tumult that could bring, said retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, a former supreme allied commander of NATO. He is critical of Biden’s cautious pace of military support for Ukraine.
Events far from the front lines this past weekend demonstrated the war’s impact on Russia’s military.
In Syria, rebels seized the country’s capital and toppled Russia-allied President Bashar Assad. Russian forces in Syria had propped up Assad for years, but they moved out of the way of the rebels’ assault, unwilling to take losses to defend their ally.
Biden said it was further evidence that US support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was wearing down Russia’s military.
Trump, who has long spoken favorably of Putin and described Zelensky as a “showman” wheedling money from the US, used that moment to call for an immediate ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.
And asked in a TV interview — taped before he met with Zelensky over the weekend in Paris — if Ukraine should prepare for the possibility of reduced aid, Trump said, “Yeah. Probably. Sure.”
Trump’s supporters call that pre-negotiation maneuvering by an avowed deal-maker. His critics say they fear it shows he is in Putin’s sway.
Zelensky said Monday that Russian forces’ retrenchment from outposts worldwide demonstrates that “the entire army of this great pseudo-empire is fighting against the Ukrainian people today.”
“Forcing Putin to end the war requires Ukraine to be strong on the battlefield before it can be strong diplomatically,” Zelensky wrote on social media, repeating near-daily appeals for more longer-range missiles from the US and Europe.
In Kursk, Hummer, the Ukrainian commander, said he notices Russian artillery strikes and shelling easing up since the US and its European allies loosened limits on use of longer-range missiles.
But Moscow has been escalating its offensives in other ways in the past six months, burning through men and materiel in infantry assaults and other attacks far faster than it can replace them, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
In Kursk, that includes Russia sending waves of soldiers on motorcycles and golf carts to storm Ukrainian positions, Hummer said. The Ukrainian drone commander and his comrades defend the ground they have seized from Russia with firearms, tanks and armored vehicles provided by the US and other allies.
Ukraine’s supporters fear that the kind of immediate ceasefire Trump is urging would be mostly on Putin’s terms and allow the Russian leader to resume the war when his military has recovered.
“Putin is sacrificing his own soldiers at a grotesque rate to take whatever territory he can on the assumption that the US will tell Ukraine that US aid is over unless Russia gets to keep what it has taken,” Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews, wrote on his Substack channel.
Putin’s need for troops led him to bring in North Korean forces. Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use longer-range missiles more broadly in Russia was partly in response, intended to discourage North Korea from deeper involvement in the war, one of the senior administration officials said.
Since 2022, Russia already had been pulling forces and other military assets from Syria, Central Asia and elsewhere to throw into the Ukraine fight, said George Burros, an expert on the Russia-Ukraine conflict at the Institute for the Study of War.
Any combat power that Russia has left in Syria that it could deploy to Ukraine is unlikely to change battlefield momentum, Burros said.
“The Kremlin has prioritized Ukraine as much as it can,” he said.


GCC expects India free trade talks to start in 2025

GCC expects India free trade talks to start in 2025
Updated 56 min 16 sec ago
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GCC expects India free trade talks to start in 2025

GCC expects India free trade talks to start in 2025
  • Secretary general was a key speaker at Kochi Dialogue in Kerala
  • Forum is co-organized by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs

NEW DELHI: The Gulf Cooperation Council looks forward to starting free trade negotiations with India this year, its secretary general said, as he outlined the bloc’s cooperation efforts at the Kochi Dialogue diplomacy conclave this week.

Themed “India’s Look West Policy in Action: People, Prosperity and Progress,” the forum was hosted on Jan. 16-17 by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the Centre for Public Policy Research think tank in Kochi, southern Kerala state.

The event brought together government officials and business leaders from India, as well as delegates from the GCC countries — Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — along with diplomats from Australia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka.

GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi, who was one of the forum’s key speakers, highlighted the significance of India relations for the Gulf bloc and plans to move cooperation forward, including by engaging in long-awaited free trade agreement talks.

“Expanding free trade negotiations will pave the way for economic integration, removing trade barriers, expanding cooperation in digital economies, and transforming industries. I also hope that we hold our first round of FTA negotiation this year, 2025,” Al-Budaiwi told Kochi Dialogue participants.

Economic cooperation plays a crucial role in the GCC’s relations with India, with the value of annual trade exchanges reaching more than $160 billion last year.

Exports from GCC countries to India amount to about $90 billion, representing 71 percent of the bloc’s total exports.

“This underscores the significant importance of this cooperation,” the GCC secretary-general said.

“Trade between the two sides includes a diverse area of industrial and agricultural products, contributing to economic integration and creating opportunities for growth and market expansion.”

GCC investment in India exceeded $5.7 billion across various projects, which according to Al-Budaiwi reflected “promising opportunity” on both sides.

“These investments have enabled us to achieve significant economic benefits, including job creation and enhanced economic growth, making India, our friendly India, key trading partner for GCC countries,” he said.

So far, India has a free trade deal with only one GCC country, the UAE, with which it signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2022.

India has been pursuing a free trade pact with the whole bloc for the past two decades. A Framework Agreement on Economic Cooperation was signed in 2004 but two rounds of negotiations — in 2006 and 2008 — were inconclusive.

The agreement would give India access to a large and affluent market for its goods, as well as concessions on visas in a region that is a second home for about nine million Indian expat workers.

 


South Korea plane crash investigators find feathers in engines

South Korea plane crash investigators find feathers in engines
Updated 17 January 2025
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South Korea plane crash investigators find feathers in engines

South Korea plane crash investigators find feathers in engines
  • Jeju Air crash was the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil
  • South Korean and US investigators are still probing the cause of the crash

SEOUL: Investigators probing the Jeju Air crash that killed 179 people last month have found feathers in both engines, according to South Korean media reports, with a bird strike being examined as one possible cause.
The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to Muan, South Korea, on December 29 carrying 181 passengers and crew when it belly-landed at Muan airport and exploded in a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier.
It was the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil.
“Feathers were found in both engines,” the government-linked National Institute of Biological Resources told South Korean broadcaster MBN, without specifying who gave them the information.
“We have completed the analysis of a total of 17 samples, including feathers and blood,” it said.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport declined to confirm the report when asked by AFP.
South Korean and US investigators are still probing the cause of the crash, which prompted a national outpouring of mourning with memorials set up across the country.
Investigators have pointed to a bird strike, faulty landing gear and the runway barrier as possible issues.
The pilot warned of a bird strike before pulling out of a first landing attempt. The plane crashed on its second attempt when the landing gear did not emerge.
Lead investigator Lee Seung-yeol told reporters last week that “feathers were found” in one of the plane’s recovered engines but cautioned that a bird strike does not lead to an immediate engine failure.
“We need to investigate whether it affected both engines. It is certain that one engine has definitely experienced a bird strike,” he said.
The investigation was further clouded on Saturday when the transport ministry said the black boxes holding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the crashed flight had stopped recording four minutes before the disaster.
Authorities have raided offices at Muan airport, a regional aviation office in the southwestern county, and Jeju Air’s office in the capital Seoul as part of the investigation.
The land ministry has extended Muan airport’s closure until January 19.


Police detain suspect in stabbing of Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan

Police detain suspect in stabbing of Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan
Updated 17 January 2025
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Police detain suspect in stabbing of Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan

Police detain suspect in stabbing of Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan
  • Police were seen escorting a man wearing a white T-shirt, whom the media identified as the suspect
  • Khan, one of Bollywood’s most bankable stars, was taken to hospital Thursday in blood-soaked clothes

MUMBAI: Indian television channels said on Friday police in the financial capital of Mumbai had detained, and were questioning, a suspect in a late-night stabbing attack on Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, but police did not confirm any detention. Khan, 54, was stabbed six times during a burglary attempt at his home in an upscale neighborhood early on Thursday. Doctors who operated on him for wounds to his spine, neck and hands have said he was out of danger.
The India Today channel, among others, showed police escorting a man wearing a white T-shirt into a police-station and identified him as the suspect.
However police officer Dikshit Gedam did not confirm the detention, saying instead there had been no major development.
“There’s no update from yesterday regarding what we said,” Gedam, the senior investigating officer, told Reuters.
The previous day police said they had identified the perpetrator of the apparent robbery attempt, and launched a search for him.
Khan, 54, one of Bollywood’s most bankable stars, who has appeared in many films and television series, had walked into the hospital in blood-soaked clothes, accompanied by his six-year old son, Taimur.
“If the knife had penetrated any further, there would have been an injury to the spine,” Niraj Uttamnani, one of the doctors who treated Khan, told reporters, adding that the actor had escaped by a distance of just 2 mm (0.08 inch).
“He is very fortunate.”
Another doctor, Nitin Dange, added, “He is able to walk, and he is stable.” The attack on Khan, who is the son of India’s former cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore, shocked the film industry and residents of the city, many of whom called for better policing and security.
In a statement on social media, Khan’s wife, Kareena Kapoor Khan, asked media to stop speculating about the case.
“It has been an incredibly challenging day ... and we are still trying to process the events,” the 44-year-old actor said on her Instagram profile.
The couple have two boys, in addition to Khan’s two children from a previous marriage.


Kyiv says Ukraine missiles hit army radars in Russia

Kyiv says Ukraine missiles hit army radars in Russia
Updated 17 January 2025
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Kyiv says Ukraine missiles hit army radars in Russia

Kyiv says Ukraine missiles hit army radars in Russia
  • Kyiv has stepped up its cross border drone and missile attacks on Russian territory
  • Moscow in turn has been targeting Ukrainian energy facilities

KYIV: Ukraine said Friday it had launched a missile strike one day earlier on the western Belgorod region targeting air defense systems and damaging military radars.
Kyiv has stepped up its cross border drone and missile attacks on Russian territory and said this week it had launched its largest barrage of the war on military sites and energy installations over the border.
The Ukrainian General Staff wrote on social media that missile units had carried out “precision strikes” on Russian military targets in Belgorod, which borders Ukraine.
It said it had attacked air defense systems under the 568th anti-aircraft missile regiment and claimed that an S-400 radar had been damaged alongside equipment linked to another brigade.
There was no immediate response from Moscow to the claims, which could not be verified by AFP.
Moscow in turn has been targeting Ukrainian energy facilities and this week launched dozens of missiles and drones at sites mainly in western Ukraine near the border with Poland.
Kyiv said Friday that its air defense systems had shot down 33 Russian drones over 11 Ukrainian region at night.


German prosecutor says currently ‘no prospect’ of charges against Madeleine McCann suspect

German prosecutor says currently ‘no prospect’ of charges against Madeleine McCann suspect
Updated 17 January 2025
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German prosecutor says currently ‘no prospect’ of charges against Madeleine McCann suspect

German prosecutor says currently ‘no prospect’ of charges against Madeleine McCann suspect
  • Christian Brueckner was formally identified in 2020 as a suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann
  • British toddler disappeared from her bedroom in 2007 during a family holiday in Portugal

LONDON: The German prosecutor investigating the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann has said there is currently no prospect of charges being brought against the main suspect in the case, Sky News reported on Friday.
Christian Brueckner was formally identified in 2020 as a suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann, who disappeared from her bedroom in 2007 during a family holiday in Portugal. He denies any involvement.
Brueckner, a convicted child abuser and drug trader, is currently serving a seven-year prison term in Germany for raping a woman in the part of Portugal’s Algarve region where McCann went missing. His sentence runs until September 2025.
In October, Brueckner was acquitted of unrelated charges of rape and sexual abuse of children by a German court, raising the possibility that he will be released from jail this year.
“There is currently no prospect of an indictment in the Maddie case,” German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said in an interview published by Sky News on Friday. He added that as things stand Brueckner would be released in early September.
McCann, then aged 3, disappeared from her bedroom during a family holiday in the resort town of Praia da Luz while her parents were dining with friends nearby. Her fate remains a mystery and no body has ever been found.
German police said in June 2020 that McCann was assumed dead and that Brueckner, in his 40s, was likely responsible for it,
The prosecutor said he could apply for a new arrest warrant for Brueckner to remain in custody beyond September. One of Brueckner’s lawyers, cited by Sky News, said the defense team would oppose such appeal.