European countries vow billions in military support for Ukraine as US envoy meets Putin

European countries vow billions in military support for Ukraine as US envoy meets Putin
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Britain's Defense Secretary John Healey (L), Ukraine's Minister of Defense Rustem Umierov and Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (R) sign documents following a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Brussels on April 11, 2025. (AFP)
European countries vow billions in military support for Ukraine as US envoy meets Putin
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Britain's Defense Secretary John Healey, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov pose for a family photo during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on April 11, 2025. (REUTERS)
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Updated 12 April 2025
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European countries vow billions in military support for Ukraine as US envoy meets Putin

European countries vow billions in military support for Ukraine as US envoy meets Putin
  • British Defense Secretary John Healey said that new pledges of military aid totaled over 21 billion euros ($24 billion)
  • Ukraine has endorsed a US ceasefire proposal, but Russia has effectively blocked it by imposing far-reaching conditions

BRUSSELS: European countries vowed Friday to sends billions of dollars in further funding to help Ukraine keep fighting Russia’s invasion, as a US envoy pursued peace efforts in a trip to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid growing questions about the Kremlin’s willingness to stop the more than three-year war.
Russian forces hold the advantage in Ukraine, with the war now in its fourth year. Ukraine has endorsed a US ceasefire proposal, but Russia has effectively blocked it by imposing far-reaching conditions. European governments have accused Putin of dragging his feet.
“Russia has to get moving” on the road to ending the war, US President Donald Trump posted on social media. He said the war is “terrible and senseless.”
In Russia, the Kremlin said Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in St. Petersburg. Witkoff, who has been pressing the Kremlin to accept a truce, initially met with Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, footage released by Russian media showed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Witkoff during his visit to Russia was discussing efforts to end the war with Putin and other officials. “This is another step in the negotiating process toward a ceasefire and an ultimate peace deal,” she said.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said Witkoff’s meeting with Putin lasted 4 1/2 hours, and cited the Kremlin as saying that the two discussed “aspects” of ending the war, without providing any details.
After chairing a meeting of Ukraine’s Western backers in Brussels, British Defense Secretary John Healey said that new pledges of military aid totaled over 21 billion euros ($24 billion), “a record boost in military funding for Ukraine, and we are also surging that support to the frontline fight.”
Healey gave no breakdown of that figure, and Ukraine has in the past complained that some countries repeat old offers at such pledging conferences or fail to deliver real arms and ammunition worth the money they promise.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last week that Ukraine’s backers have provided around $21 billion so far in the first three months of this year. European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Friday that more than $26 billion have been committed.
Ahead of the “contact group” meeting at NATO headquarters, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said a key issue was strengthening his country’s air defenses.
Standing alongside Healey at the end of it, Umerov described the meeting as “productive, effective and efficient,” and said that it produced “one of the largest” packages of assistance Ukraine has received. “We’re thankful to each nation that has provided this support,” he said.
Britain said that in a joint effort with Norway just over $580 million would be spent to provide hundreds of thousands of military drones, radar systems and anti-tank mines, as well as repair and maintenance contracts to keep Ukrainian armored vehicles on the battlefield.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed his appeals for more Patriot systems since 20 people were killed a week ago, including nine children, when a Russian missile tore through apartment buildings and blasted a playground in his home town.
Zelensky joined Friday’s meeting by video link.
Russia holds off agreeing to ceasefire
The Russian delay in accepting Washington’s proposal has frustrated Trump and fueled doubts about whether Putin really wants to stop the fighting while his bigger army has momentum on the battlefield.
“Russia continues to use bilateral talks with the United States to delay negotiations about the war in Ukraine, suggesting that the Kremlin remains uninterested in serious peace negotiations to end the war,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said in an assessment late Thursday.
Washington remains committed to securing a peace deal, even though four weeks have passed since it made its ceasefire proposals, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
“It is a dynamic that will not be solved militarily. It is a meat grinder,” Bruce said Thursday about the war, adding that “nothing else can be discussed … until the shooting and the killing stops.”
Observers expect a new Russian offensive
Ukrainian officials and military analysts believe Russia is preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in coming weeks to ramp up pressure and strengthen the Kremlin’s hand in the negotiations.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that his country would provide Ukraine with four IRIS-T short- to medium-range systems with missiles, as well as 30 missiles for use on Patriot batteries. The Netherlands plans to supply a Hawkeye air defense system, an airborne early warning aircraft.
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said that his country is monitoring the world armaments market and sees opportunities for Ukraine’s backers to buy more weapons and ammunition.
Pevkur said he believes Putin might try to reach some kind of settlement with Ukraine by May 9 — the day that Russia marks victory during World War II — making it even more vital to strengthen Kyiv’s position now.
“This is why we need to speed up the deliveries as quickly as we can,” he said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was absent from the forum that the United States created and led for several years, although he spoke via video.
At the last contact group meeting in February, Hegseth warned Ukraine’s European backers that the US now has priorities elsewhere — in Asia and on America’s own borders — and that they would have to take care of their own security, and that of Ukraine, in future.


11 charged in Russia-based plan to defraud US health care of $10.6 billion

11 charged in Russia-based plan to defraud US health care of $10.6 billion
Updated 22 sec ago
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11 charged in Russia-based plan to defraud US health care of $10.6 billion

11 charged in Russia-based plan to defraud US health care of $10.6 billion
  • Prosecutors said the multinational crime group bought dozens of medical equipment companies from prior legitimate owners to perpetrate the fraud
  • Russia-based Imam Nakhmatullaev organized the group, and got partners from Estonia, the Czech Republic and the US to run the scheme

NEW YORK: US federal prosecutors charged 11 people Friday in a Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare — the American health insurance program for the elderly and disabled — out of $10.6 billion through fraudulent billing for expensive medical equipment.
The “transnational criminal organization” orchestrated a “multi-billion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme” that included purchasing dozens of medical equipment companies from prior legitimate owners to perpetrate the fraud, according to the indictment dated June 18.
More than a million Medicare recipients had their personal information stolen and used by the defendants to file for billions of dollars in claims from Medicare and its supplemental insurers, prosecutors said in the filing.
The claims were filed through medical equipment providers that the group had purchased, but no equipment was ever sent out for the payments.
Medicare paid “approximately $41 million as a result of the fraudulent submissions” and supplemental insurers are estimated to have paid out $900 million more between 2022 and 2024, prosecutors wrote.
The scheme was organized by Imam Nakhmatullaev, who is based in Russia, officials said, and managed the other defendants who were in Estonia, the Czech Republic and the United States.
The fraud was identified after “hundreds of thousands of Americans reported their concerns to Meidcare and its contractors after receiving explanation of benefit forms that reflected them purportedly receiving” equipment that they neither sought or received, the indictment said.
 


As US inflation edges up, Trump renews criticism of Fed chief, calling him ‘stubborn’

As US inflation edges up, Trump renews criticism of Fed chief, calling him ‘stubborn’
Updated 32 min 42 sec ago
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As US inflation edges up, Trump renews criticism of Fed chief, calling him ‘stubborn’

As US inflation edges up, Trump renews criticism of Fed chief, calling him ‘stubborn’
  • Speaking at an event at the White House, Trump called central bank chair Jerome Powell “a stubborn mule and a stupid person” for refusing to cut interest rates

WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure logged a mild uptick Friday while spending weakened, triggering another tirade by President Donald Trump against the central bank chair for not cutting interest rates sooner.
“We have a guy that’s just a stubborn mule and a stupid person,” Trump told an event at the White House, referring to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. “He’s making a mistake.”
With Powell’s term as Fed chief coming to an end next year, Trump hinted at his choice of successor: “I’m going to put somebody that wants to cut rates.”
The president’s remarks came after government data showed the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index climbing 2.3 percent last month from a year ago in May.
This was in line with analyst expectations and a slight acceleration from April’s 2.2 percent increase, but still a relatively mild uptick.
Excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, the PCE price index was up 2.7 percent, rising from April’s 2.6 percent uptick, the Commerce Department’s report showed.
But consumer spending declined, after Trump’s fresh tariffs in April dragged on consumer sentiment. PCE dropped by 0.1 percent from the preceding month, reversing an earlier rise.
While Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners since returning to the White House in January — alongside higher rates on imports of steel, aluminum and autos — these have had a muted effect so far on inflation.
This is in part because he held off or postponed some of his harshest salvos, while businesses are still running through inventory they stockpiled in anticipation of the levies.
But central bank officials have not rushed to slash interest rates, saying they can afford to wait and learn more about the impact of Trump’s recent duties. They expect to learn more about the tariffs’ effects over the summer.

“The experience of the limited range of tariffs introduced in 2018 suggests that pass-through to consumer prices is intense three-to-six months after their implementation,” warned economists Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen of Pantheon Macroeconomics in a note.
They flagged weakness in consumer spending, in part due to a pullback in autos after buyers rushed to get ahead of levies.
And spending on services was tepid even after excluding volatile components, they said.
“There has also been a clear weakening in discretionary services spending, notably in travel and hospitality,” said Michael Pearce, deputy chief US economist at Oxford Economics, in a note.
This reflects “the chilling effect of the plunge in consumer sentiment,” he added.
Between April and May, the PCE price index was up 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department report showed.
As a July deadline approaches for higher tariff rates to kick in on dozens of economies, all eyes are also on whether countries can reach lasting trade deals with Washington to ease the effects of tariffs.
For now, despite the slowing in economic growth, Pearce said risks that inflation could increase will keep the Fed on hold with interest rates “until much later in the year.”
 

 


6.1-magnitude quake hits off southern Philippines

6.1-magnitude quake hits off southern Philippines
Updated 28 June 2025
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6.1-magnitude quake hits off southern Philippines

6.1-magnitude quake hits off southern Philippines
  • Quakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin

MANILA: A magnitude-6.1 earthquake struck deep off the coast of the southern Philippines on Saturday, the United States Geological Survey said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the quake, which the USGS reported occurred at a depth of 101 kilometers (63 miles) about 70 kilometers from the nearest areas of Davao Occidental province.
“The shake was not that strong, but the tables and computers here at the office shook for (about five seconds),” Marlawin Fuentes, a provincial rescuer from the tiny island of Sarangani, told AFP.
No tsunami alert was triggered.
Quakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
Most are too weak to be felt by humans, but strong and destructive ones come at random with no technology available to predict when and where they might strike.
 

 


Brazil strikes deal with Musk’s Starlink to curb criminal use in the Amazon rainforest

Brazil strikes deal with Musk’s Starlink to curb criminal use in the Amazon rainforest
Updated 28 June 2025
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Brazil strikes deal with Musk’s Starlink to curb criminal use in the Amazon rainforest

Brazil strikes deal with Musk’s Starlink to curb criminal use in the Amazon rainforest
  • Starlink will begin requiring identification and proof of residence from all new users in Brazil’s Amazon region starting in January
  • Starlink, which first arrived in the region in 2022, has enabled criminal groups to manage mining operations in remote areas

BRASILIA: Brazil’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced Friday a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink to curb the use of its services in illegal mining and other criminal activities in the Amazon.
Starlink’s lightweight, high-speed Internet system has rapidly spread across the Amazon, a region that for decades struggled with slow and unreliable connectivity. But the service has also been adopted by criminal organizations, which have used it to coordinate logistics, make payments and receive alerts about police raids.
It’s the first agreement of its kind aimed at curbing such use following years of pressure from Brazilian authorities.
Starlink, a division of Musk’s SpaceX, will begin requiring identification and proof of residence from all new users in Brazil’s Amazon region starting in January. The company will also provide Brazilian authorities with user registration and geolocation data for Internet units located in areas under investigation.
If a terminal is confirmed to be used for illegal activity, Starlink has committed to blocking the service. The deal is for two years and can be renewed.
Illegal gold mining has contaminated hundreds of miles of Amazon rivers with mercury and disrupted the traditional lives of several Indigenous tribes, including the Yanomami. Starlink, which first arrived in the region in 2022, has enabled criminal groups to manage mining operations in remote areas, where logistics are complex and equipment and fuel must be transported by small plane or boat.
“The use of satellite Internet has transformed the logistics of illegal mining. This new reality demands a proportional legal response. With the agreement, connectivity in remote areas also becomes a tool for environmental responsibility and respect for sovereignty,” federal prosecutor André Porreca said in a statement.
Illegal gold miners and loggers have always had some form of communication, mainly via radio, to evade law enforcement. Starlink, with its fast and mobile Internet, has significantly enhanced that capability, Hugo Loss, operations coordinator for Brazil’s environmental agency, told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
“They’ve been able to transmit in real time the locations of enforcement teams, allowing them to anticipate our arrival, which seriously compromises the safety of our personnel and undermines the effectiveness of operations,” Loss said. “Cutting the signal in mining areas, especially on Indigenous lands and in protected areas, is essential because Internet access in these locations serves only criminal purposes.”
Jair Schmitt, head of environmental protection for the agency, said what’s also needed is tighter regulation on the sale and use of such equipment.
The AP emailed James Gleeson, SpaceX’s vice president of communications, with questions about the deal, but didn’t immediately receive a response.
 


Tech firms warn ‘Scattered Spider’ hacks are targeting aviation sector

Aircraft line up on the runway at Sydney International Airport on a windy day in Sydney on June 25, 2025. (AFP)
Aircraft line up on the runway at Sydney International Airport on a windy day in Sydney on June 25, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 28 June 2025
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Tech firms warn ‘Scattered Spider’ hacks are targeting aviation sector

Aircraft line up on the runway at Sydney International Airport on a windy day in Sydney on June 25, 2025. (AFP)
  • Neither company has gone into detail about the intrusions or commented on any potential links between the incidents and Scattered Spider

WASHINGTON: Tech companies Google and Palo Alto Networks are sounding the alarm over the “Scattered Spider” hacking group’s interest in the aviation sector.
In a statement posted on LinkedIn on Friday, Sam Rubin, an executive at Palo Alto’s cybersecurity-focused Unit 42, said his company had “observed Muddled Libra (also known as Scattered Spider) targeting the aviation industry.”
In a similar statement, Charles Carmakal, an executive with Alphabet-owned Google’s cybersecurity-focused Mandiant unit, said his company was “aware of multiple incidents in the airline and transportation sector which resemble the operations of UNC3944 or Scattered Spider.”
Neither executive identified which specific companies had been targeted, but Alaska Air Group-owned Hawaiian Airlines and Canada’s WestJet have both recently reported being struck by unspecified cyber incidents.
Neither company has gone into detail about the intrusions or commented on any potential links between the incidents and Scattered Spider.
The loose-knit but aggressive hacking group, alleged to at least in part comprise youngsters operating in Western countries, has been blamed for some of the most disruptive hacks to hit the United States and Europe in recent memory.
In 2023, hackers tied to the group broke into gaming companies MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, partially paralyzing casinos and knocking slot machines out of commission.
Earlier this year, the group wreaked havoc at British retailers. More recent targets include the US insurance industry.