World
India records over 20,000 COVID-19 cases for third day
India on Saturday recorded over 20,000 new cases of COVID-19 for the third straight day, officials said.
According to federal health ministry data released on Saturday morning, 20,044 new cases of COVID-19 were reported during the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 43,730,071.
Read: Covid claims five more lives in Bangladesh, infects 1,007 others
With the new infections, India's active caseload stands currently at 140,760.
The South Asian country also logged 56 deaths from the pandemic during the cited period, bringing the death toll to 525,660 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Currently the daily positivity rate stands at 4.80 percent and the weekly positivity rate at 4.40 percent, the ministry data showed.
Macao extends lockdown to curb biggest COVID-19 outbreak
The Chinese gambling enclave of Macao on Saturday extended its lockdown by five days as it grapples with the biggest outbreak of the coronavirus in over two years.
Authorities said that industries and commercial companies will remain closed until July 23. The lockdown, which began July 11, had initially been set to expire Sunday.
As part of the lockdown, authorities have suspended dine-in services and ordered all residents to avoid leaving their homes unless absolutely necessary. Those who need to go out must wear KN95 masks or similar.
The city, which has a population of 680,000, recorded 31 infections on Friday. Since its latest outbreak that began June 18, the city has reported some 1,700 infections.
Read: G20 finance leaders in Bali to tackle Ukraine, inflation
The government also said in a separate statement that it would allocate 10 billion patacas ($1.24 billion) as handouts for businesses affected by the outbreak.
Casinos, which are the city’s largest employers and the main income generator for the government, were initially allowed to operate in spite of the flare in cases in June but have since been ordered to close as part of the lockdown last week.
Sri Lanka begins choosing leader to replace ex-president
Sri Lankan lawmakers met Saturday to begin choosing a new leader to serve the rest of the term abandoned by the president who fled abroad and resigned after mass protests over the country’s economic collapse.
A day earlier, Sri Lanka’s prime minister was sworn in as interim president until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose term ends in 2024. Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana promised a swift and transparent political process that should be done within a week.
The new president could appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by Parliament.
Parliament’s secretary general, Dhammika Dasanayake, said during a brief session on Saturday that nominations for the election of the new president will be heard on Tuesday and if there is more than one candidate, the lawmakers will vote on Wednesday.
Dasanayake also read Gotabaya’s resignation letter out loud in Parliament.
In the letter, Rajapaksa says he was stepping down following requests by the people of Sri Lanka and political party leaders. He notes that the economic crisis was looming even when he took office in 2019 and was aggravated by frequent lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
Security around the Parliament building in the capital, Colombo, was heightened on Saturday with armed masked soldiers on guard and roads near the building closed to the public.
In a televised statement on Friday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he would initiate steps to change the constitution to curb presidential powers and strengthen Parliament, restore law and order and take legal action against “insurgents.”
Read: Sri Lankan president resigns, Parliament to convene
It was unclear to whom he was referring, although he said true protesters would not have gotten involved in clashes Wednesday night near Parliament, where many soldiers reportedly were injured.
“There is a big difference between protesters and insurgents. We will take legal action against insurgents,” he said.
Wickremesinghe became acting president after Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka on Wednesday and flew first to the Maldives and then to Singapore. Many protesters insisted that Wickremesinghe too should step aside.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s opposition leader, who is seeking the presidency, vowed to “listen to the people” and to hold Rajapaksa accountable.
In an interview with The Associated Press from his office, Sajith Premadasa said that if he wins the election in Parliament, he would ensure that “an elective dictatorship never, ever occurs” in Sri Lanka.
“That’s what we should do. That is our function — catching those who looted Sri Lanka. That should be done through proper constitutional, legal, democratic procedures,” Premadasa said.
Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for imports of basic necessities such as food, fertilizer, medicine and fuel for its 22 million people. Its rapid economic decline has been all the more shocking because, before this crisis, the economy had been expanding, with a growing, comfortable middle class.
The protests underscored the dramatic fall of the Rajapaksa political clan that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.
The Rev. Jeewantha Peiris, a Catholic priest and protest leader, said the country had “come through a hard journey.”
“We are happy as a collective effort because this struggle of Sri Lanka was participated by all the citizens of Sri Lanka, even diaspora of Sri Lanka,” he said.
Sri Lanka remains a powder keg, and the military warned Thursday that it had powers to respond in case of chaos — a message some found ominous.
The speaker urged the public to “create a peaceful atmosphere” for the democratic process and for Parliament to “function freely and conscientiously.”
Sri Lanka is seeking help from the International Monetary Fund and other creditors, but its finances are so poor that even obtaining a bailout has proven difficult, Wickremesinghe recently said.
The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful political family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the country’s collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Rajapaksa acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lanka’s meltdown.
Maduka Iroshan, 26, a university student and protester, said he was “thrilled” that Rajapaksa had quit, because he “ruined the dreams of the young generation.”
Months of protests reached a frenzied peak last weekend when demonstrators stormed the president’s home and office and Wickremesinghe’s official residence. On Wednesday, they seized his office.
The demonstrators initially vowed to stay until a new government was in place, but they shifted tactics Thursday, apparently concerned that an escalation in violence could undermine their message following clashes outside Parliament that left dozens injured.
Protester Mirak Raheem noted the lack of violence and said the work was far from over.
“This is really something amazing, the fact that it happened on the back of largely peaceful protest. But obviously this is just a beginning,” Raheem said, citing work to rebuild the economy and restore public confidence in the political system.
Rajapaksa and his wife slipped away in the night aboard a military plane early Wednesday. On Thursday, he went to Singapore, according to the city-state’s Foreign Ministry. It said he had not requested asylum, and it was unclear if he would stay or move on. He previously has obtained medical services there, including undergoing heart surgery.
Since Sri Lankan presidents are protected from arrest while in power, Rajapaksa likely wanted to leave while he still had constitutional immunity and access to the plane.
As a military strategist whose brutal campaign helped end the country’s 26-year civil war, Rajapaksa and his brother, who was president at the time, were once hailed by the island’s Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Despite accusations of wartime atrocities, including ordering military attacks on ethnic Tamil civilians and abducting journalists, Rajapaksa remained popular among many Sri Lankans. He has continually denied the allegations.
6 people die after storm causes Montana highway pileup
Six people have died after a dust storm fueled by wind gusts topping 60 mph caused a pileup Friday evening on Interstate 90 in Montana, authorities said.
Twenty-one vehicles crashed and Montana Highway Patrol Sgt. Jay Nelson said authorities believe the weather was the cause.
“It appears as though there was heavy winds, causing a dust storm with zero visibility,” he said.
While the highway patrol did not have an immediate count of the number of injuries, Nelson said additional ambulances had to be called in from Billings to help.
Gov. Greg Gianforte said on Twitter: “I’m deeply saddened by the news of a mass casualty crash near Hardin. Please join me in prayer to lift up the victims and their loved ones. We’re grateful to our first responders for their service.”
Also read; Tropical Storm Colin threatens a wet weekend for Carolinas
The incident happened 3 miles (5 kilometers) west of Hardin. A video from The Billings Gazette showed hundreds of tractor-trailers, campers and cars backed up for miles along the two eastbound lanes of the interstate.
The dust storm’s roots can be traced back several hours, when storms popped up in central southern Montana between 1 and 2 p.m. and slowly began moving east, according to Nick Vertz, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Billings.
Those storms prompted a severe thunderstorm watch that covered Hardin and other parts of Montana from mid-afternoon until 9 p.m. Friday. Meteorologists forecasted the potential for isolated hail the size of a quarter, scattered wind gusts up to 75 mph (121 kph) and frequent lightning.
A so-called “outflow” — or a surge of wind that’s produced by storms but can travel faster than them — flew east/southeast about 30 miles (48 kilometers) ahead of the storms, Vertz said.
A 40 mph (64 kph) gust of wind was recorded at the nearby Big Horn County Airport at 4:15 p.m. The crash was reported to the highway patrol at 4:28 p.m.
By the airport weather station’s next reading at 4:35 p.m., the gusts had picked up to 62 mph (100 kph). Another reading 20 minutes later recorded a gust of 64 mph (103 kph).
The wind easily picked up dust — a product of recent temperatures into the 90s and triple digits over the last week — and reduced visibility to less than 1/4 mile (0.4 kilometers).
“If they looked up in the sky while they’re in Hardin, they probably didn’t see much of what you’d think of for a thunderstorm cloud, maybe not even much at all,” Vertz said. “It was just a surge of wind that kind of appeared out of nowhere.”
As first responders attempt to clear the wreckage, the meteorologist said they can expect to be safe from additional winds and thunderstorm activity.
“It should be a relatively clear, calm night for them,” he said.
Biden meets with Arab Gulf countries to counter Iran threat
President Joe Biden on Saturday will lay out his strategy for the Middle East as he closes out of the final leg of a four-day trip meant to bolster U.S. positioning and knit the region together against Iran.
In the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, Biden will meet with heads of state from six Arab Gulf countries, plus Egypt, Jordan and Iraq for a regional summit. Hours before the Gulf Cooperation Council summit, the White House released satellite imagery that indicates Russian officials have twice visited Iran in recent weeks for a showcase of weapons-capable drones it is looking to acquire for use in its ongoing war in Ukraine.
None of the countries represented at the summit have moved in lockstep with the U.S. to sanction Russia, a key foreign policy priority for the Biden administration. If anything, the UAE has emerged as a sort of financial haven for Russian billionaires and their multimillion-dollar yachts. Egypt remains open to Russian tourists.
Release of the satellite imagery—which shows Russian officials visited Kashan Airfield on June 8 and July 15 to get a look at the drones—could help the administration better tie the relevance of the war to many Arab nations own concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and other malign activity in the region.
Read: ‘Free Palestine’: Protesters in major US cities decry airstrikes over Gaza
A senior Biden administration officials, who briefed reporters ahead of the summit, said that Moscow’s efforts to acquire drones from Tehran show that Russia is “effectively making a bet on Iran.”
The gathering of leaders comes a day after he championed steps toward normalizing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and sought to rebuild cooperation with the Saudi king and crown prince after once promising to make the kingdom a “pariah” for its human rights abuses.
When he speaks to the Gulf Cooperation Council and its Arab allies, the White House said, Biden will offer his most fulsome vision yet for the region and how the U.S. can cooperate with it.
The U.S. is expected
His first Middle East trip comes 11 months after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and as Biden aims to reprioritize the U.S. away from the Middle East’s ruinous wars and ongoing conflicts stretching from Libya to Syria.
“It’s a strategy fit for purpose for 2022 as opposed to the two decades of major land wars that the U.S. fought in this region over the course of the 2000s,” Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in a preview of the speech.
Energy prices — elevated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — were expected to be high on the agenda. But Biden aides tempered expectations that he would leave with a deal for regional producers to immediately boost supply.
“I suspect you won’t see that for another couple of weeks,” Biden told reporters late Friday.
At the summit, Biden was set to hear a chorus of concern about the region’s stability and security, as well as concerns about food security, climate change and the continued threat of terrorism.
Overall, there’s little that the nine Mideast heads of state agree on when it comes to foreign policy. For example, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are trying to isolate and squeeze Iran over its regional reach and proxies. Oman and Qatar, on the other hand, have solid diplomatic ties with Iran and have acted as intermediaries for talks between Washington and Tehran.
Qatar recently hosted talks between U.S. and Iranian officials as they try to revive Iran’s nuclear accord. Iran not only shares a huge underwater gas field with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, it rushed to Qatar’s aid when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut off ties and imposed a years-long embargo on Qatar that ended only shortly before Biden took office.
Biden’s actions have frustrated some of the leaders. While the U.S. has played an important role in encouraging a months-long ceasefire in Yemen, Biden’s decision to reverse a Trump-era move that had listed Yemen’s rebel Houthis as a terrorist group has outraged the Emirati and Saudi leadership.
On Friday, Biden fist-bumped Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, as he arrived at the royal palace in Jeddah. But he rejected the notion that he was ignoring the kingdom’s human rights abuses as he tries to reset a fraught diplomatic relationship.
“I said, very straightforwardly, for an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am,” Biden said. “I’ll always stand up for our values.”
U.S. intelligence believes that the crown prince likely approved the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S.-based writer, four years ago. Biden said Prince Mohammed claimed that he was “not personally responsible” for the death. “I indicated I thought he was,” the president said he replied.
As for U.S. concerns over China’s expanding reach, China appears willing to provide Saudi Arabia with missile and nuclear technologies that the U.S. is much more hesitant to do. China is also the kingdom’s biggest buyer of Saudi oil.
For Iraq, which has the deepest and strongest links to Iran of all the Arab countries, its presence at the meeting reflects Saudi efforts — supported by the U.S. — to bring Iraq closer to Arab positions and the so-called Arab fold. Iraq has hosted around five rounds of direct talks between Saudi and Iranian officials since Biden took office, though the talks have produced little results.
Ahead of the summit, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khadhimi, who survived an assassination attempt with armed drones in November, wrote in Foreign Policy that Iraq faces many problems, but is working “to solve Iraqi problems with Iraqi solutions”.
“When U.S. President Joe Biden comes to the Middle East this week, he will be arriving in a region facing numerous challenges, from terrorism to food insecurity and climate change,” he wrote. “But the Middle East is also a region that is increasingly facing those challenges together under a group of leaders pursuing positive change.”
Biden tells Dems to quickly pass pared-down economic package
President Joe Biden seemed to bow Friday to Sen. Joe Manchin’s demand for a slimmed-down economic package, telling Democrats to quickly push the election-year measure through Congress so families could “sleep easier” and enjoy the health care savings it proposes.
Biden’s statement came hours after Manchin, the West Virginian who is one of Congress’ more conservative Democrats, said that if party leaders wanted to pass a measure before next month’s recess, it should be limited to provisions curbing prescription drug prices, extending subsidies for people buying health insurance and reducing the federal deficit.
Even so, Biden’s directive would mean postponing congressional action on easing climate change and raising taxes on higher earners and large companies, components he and Democrats have long wanted in the economic package. That would represent a jarring setback for goals that rank among the party’s most deeply held aspirations and would delay a risky showdown over the plan until the cusp of November’s elections.
The president’s remarks underscored a growing sentiment among Democrats that after months of bargaining with Manchin that only made the president’s top-tier domestic priority ever smaller, it was time to declare victory. Reducing pharmaceutical costs, helping consumers purchase health coverage and trimming federal red ink are Democratic priorities and passage would let them flash achievements before voters that Republicans are on track to solidly oppose.
“Families all over the nation will sleep easier if Congress takes this action. The Senate should move forward, pass it before the August recess, and get it to my desk so I can sign it,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
He thanked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who has spent months negotiating with Manchin, for “his dogged and determined effort to produce the strongest possible bill” and “even offering significant compromises to try to reach an agreement.”
That seemed like an unspoken dig at Manchin, whom Biden’s statement did not mention and who in December sunk a much broader, $2 trillion, 10-year version of the package.
Though its final scope remained unclear, a slimmed-down measure contoured to Manchin’s latest demands could generate around $288 billion in savings over 10 years by letting Medicare negotiate prices for the pharmaceuticals it buys, requiring rebates from drug makers if price increases exceed inflation and other cost reductions. It would spend just a fraction of that on health insurance subsidies that expire in January, with the rest going to deficit reduction, according to early estimates.
Also read: Biden’s Saudi visit aims to balance rights, oil, security
In a sign of movement, Democrats planned to begin vetting the prescription drug language next week with the Senate parliamentarian, said a Democratic aide, to make sure there are no provisions that violate the chamber’s rules and must be dropped. The aide was not authorized to discuss the plans publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Manchin, whose vote is necessary for Democrats to succeed in the 50-50 Senate, had also said Friday that if party leaders want to pursue a broader measure aimed at global warming and raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations, they should wait until later this summer. He argued that would allow time to see what happens to inflation and interest rates this month.
“Let’s wait until that comes out so we know we’re going down the path that won’t be inflammatory to add more to inflation,” Manchin said on “Talkline,” a West Virginia talk radio show hosted by Hoppy Kercheval.
After months of citing inflation fears among his reasons for seeking to trim Biden’s overall package, Manchin raised sharpened concerns this week after the government said annual inflation hit 9.1% in June, the heftiest increase in 41 years. Polls show inflation is voters’ top concern as November elections approach in which Republicans could well win control of the House and Senate.
In his statement, Biden said action on climate and clean energy “remains more urgent than ever” but acknowledged a willingness to accept delays in congressional action.
“If the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment,” he said.
Biden’s options for executive action or Environmental Protection Agency regulations could include rejecting permits for oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters, tightening pollution allowed from coal-fired plants and restricting natural gas pipelines.
Biden’s comments marked the latest retreat he and congressional Democratic leaders have made since initially pushing wider-ranging goals early last year that would have cost $3.5 trillion or more.
Those priorities would have also provided free pre-kindergarten, low-cost child care, paid family leave and more. They ultimately fell victim to Democrats’ slender majorities in Congress and changes in the political and economic climate that have seen voters’ concerns over the inflation and the economy intensify.
Any plan that emerges faces certain unanimous opposition from Republicans, who argue its boosts in spending and taxes would further inflame inflation.
Manchin had told Schumer on Thursday that he could not support a bill now that would include other party goals like battling climate change and raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations, according to a Democrat briefed on those talks.
The two lawmakers have been negotiating over a package that had been expected to reach around $1 trillion over 10 years, with about half used to reduce federal deficits.
Manchin said he considered his talks with Schumer “still going.” Yet his latest stance provoked a mixture of anger and pragmatism from fellow Democrats.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters she was unsure what remained in her party’s proposal but added, “I would be very, of course, disappointed if the whole saving the planet is out of the bill.” A spokesperson for Schumer did not return requests for comment.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she was skeptical about Manchin’s acceptance of a health care-focused package. “Look, the guy has changed his mind” before, Jayapal told reporters. “So let’s see. I have no confidence.”
“If there was a guarantee that we could get the bigger deal in September, I’m open to that,” said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., who chairs the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. “But to go to the altar, at some point we need to say, ‘I do.’”
Delaying action until after the August break would leave Democrats facing a dangerously ticking clock. Special budget powers expire Oct. 1 that would let them push the legislation through the 50-50 Senate over solid GOP opposition, with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.
That would pose a risk that any Democratic absences because of COVID-19 or other reasons would leave them lacking the votes they need. It would also push congressional action until just weeks before the November elections, when any votes can be quickly spun into a damaging campaign attack ad.
Manchin said he was concerned that raising corporate taxes would prompt layoffs and some of his party’s environmental proposals would hinder “what this country needs to run the economic engine.”
Other Democrats say the broader measure’s initiatives would be more than paid for by making high earners and large corporations pay the costs. And they’ve noted that deficit reduction helps control inflation by reducing the government’s need for borrowing, which would otherwise help boost interest rates.
Russian cruise missiles rain down on southern Ukrainian city
Cruise missiles fired by Russian strategic bombers struck a southeastern Ukrainian city late Friday, killing at least three people and wounding 15, as air raid sirens went off across the country, officials said.
The attack on Dnipro came a day after a Russian missile strike killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 200 in Vinnytsia, a city southwest of Kyiv, the capital.
Russia’s military campaign has been focusing on the Donbas in Ukraine’s east, but Russian forces also have been pounding other parts of the country in a relentless push to wrest territory from Ukraine and soften the morale of its leaders, civilians and troops as the war nears the five-month mark.
Ukraine’s air force said several Kh-101 cruise missiles fired from Tu-95MS strategic bombers over the Caspian Sea hit a factory about 10 p.m. in Dnipro, a major city on the Dnieper River. Four incoming missiles were intercepted, it said. Videos posted on social media showed fiery explosions and towering plumes of dark smoke.
The regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, said the missiles hit the factory and nearby streets, killing at least three people and wounding 15.
One of the dead was a bus driver who had just finished work and was returning to the depot when a missile struck, said Ivan Vasyuchkov, a member of the city council. The emergency service said two vehicles were burned up and 10 others were damaged. The missile strikes also set the factory on fire and blew out windows in nearby apartment buildings.
Airstrikes also were reported in Kremenchuk, another city along the Dnieper River south of Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged everyone to heed air raid sirens and seek cover.
“The occupiers are realizing that we are gradually becoming stronger and the purpose of their terror is very simple — to put press on us, to put pressure on our society, to intimidate people, to cause maximum harm to Ukrainian cities, at least while the Russian terrorists are still capable of doing it,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation.
Also read: Russian missiles kill at least 23 in Ukraine, wound over 100
The attack on Vinnytsia by cruise missiles launched from a Russian submarine was the latest to fan international outrage since Russian President Vladimir Putin began the invasion on Feb. 24. The dead included three children: a 4-year-old girl, and two boys, 7 and 8.
“She was reaching for her daughter, and Liza was already dead,” the mother’s aunt, Tetiana Dmytrysyna, told The Associated Press on Friday. “The mother was robbed of the most precious thing she had.”
A video of Liza playing earlier in the day and a photo of her lifeless body have gone viral worldwide.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Friday that Russian forces had conducted more than 17,000 strikes on civilian targets during the war, killing thousands of fighters and civilians and driving millions from their homes. The invasion has also rippled through the world economy by hiking prices and crimping exports of key Ukrainian and Russian products such as grain, fuel and fertilizer.
As the fighting raged, Russia noted progress in talks on a possible deal to allow Ukraine to use the Black Sea to export millions of tons of grain that could help feed a world facing shortages and higher food prices.
Alluding to talks in Istanbul this week among Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said a final document had been prepared and that other participants had “largely supported” Russian proposals to help ease grain shipments through Ukrainian ports.
He said work on the “Black Sea initiative” was to be completed shortly to allow shipments of food “while excluding the use of those logistical chains for the deliveries of weapons and military equipment” to Ukraine. He also said the plan seeks to “prevent any provocations.”
About 22 million tons of grain have been stuck in Ukraine because of the war.
It was the most extensive Russian comment yet on the grain talks, which mostly involved military officials. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Russia and Ukraine had taken “a critical step” toward ensuring exports of the desperately needed grain.
After Thursday’s strike on Vinnytsia, nearly 200 people sought medical attention and 80 remain hospitalized, the emergency service said. Zelenskyy said four people were still missing. Search teams were poring over two sites Friday — an office building with a medical center and a concert hall near an outdoor recreation area where mothers with children often stroll.
“Russia deliberately hit civilians and all those responsible for the crime must be brought to account,” said Vinnytsia Gov. Serhiy Borzov, denouncing the “barbaric behavior by Russia that tramples on international humanitarian law.”
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said three missiles were used.
“There is no answer to the question why yesterday, and why in Vinnytsia,” Tymoshenko said. “We expect every second and minute that this could happen in any corner of Ukraine.”
After initial silence about the missile strikes on Vinnytsia, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that its forces had struck an officers’ club — the Soviet-era use of the concert hall.
Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, said the Kalibr cruise missiles landed as the “military facility hosted a meeting between Ukrainian air force command and representatives of foreign weapons suppliers.” He said attendees were discussing prospective supplies of warplanes and weapons.
“Participants of the meeting were eliminated in the strike,” Konashenkov said.
His claim couldn’t be independently verified. Ukrainian authorities have insisted the site had nothing to do with the military.
A Ukrainian singer reported that she had been scheduled to perform in the concert hall Sunday and that her sound engineer was killed in the missile strike. The singer, Roxolana, said on social media that another member of her crew was seriously injured.
In the Donetsk region, the governor reported that eight civilians were killed and 13 wounded Friday when several cities came under Russian shelling. The Donetsk region and the neighboring Luhansk region — now nearly totally controlled by Russian forces — make up the broader Donbas.
“The situation in the Donetsk region is exacerbating every day, and civilians must leave because the Russian army is using scorched-earth tactics,” Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said. It appeared that the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk were next in line for attacks by Russian forces.
Elsewhere, authorities in Mykolayiv said at least 10 explosions occurred in the southern city early Friday, accusing Russia of hitting universities. Mykolayiv Gov. Vitaliy Kim posted a video of smoke rising over the strikes.
The Russian news agency Tass, citing Russian-backed separatists, reported Friday that two civilians were killed and six injured after they said Ukrainian forces shelled a bus terminal in the city of Donetsk a day earlier.
Also, a British aid worker detained by the Donetsk separatists has died in captivity, a separatist official and a U.K. charity involved with his case said Friday.
Punitive political actions over the war continued, with Russian state news media reporting Friday that the Kremlin had barred 384 members of Japan’s parliament from entering Russia, citing retaliation for Japan’s sanctions against Russian parliament members.
Biden’s Saudi visit aims to balance rights, oil, security
President Joe Biden met Friday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man he once pledged to shun for human rights violations, and shared a cordial fist bump as he tried to reset an important diplomatic relationship, bolster Mideast security and increase the global flow of oil.
It was the first encounter for the two leaders, and their chummy gesture was swiftly criticized. But Biden insisted that he did not shy away from pressing the crown prince on the kingdom’s abuses, particularly the 2018 murder of the U.S.-based writer Jamal Khashoggi, which U.S. intelligence believes was approved by the heir to the throne.
“I said, very straightforwardly, for an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am,” Biden said after the meeting. “I’ll always stand up for our values.”
Biden said Prince Mohammed claimed that he was “not personally responsible” for the death of Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post. “I indicated I thought he was,” the president said he replied.
Though he brushed off any focus on the fist bump, it was described as “shameful” by Fred Ryan, the Post’s publisher.
Read: ‘Free Palestine’: Protesters in major US cities decry airstrikes over Gaza
“It projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted redemption he has been desperately seeking,” Ryan said, referring to the crown prince by his initials.
Biden had long refused to speak to Prince Mohammed. But concerns about human rights have been somewhat eclipsed by other challenges, including Iran’s nuclear ambitions and rising gas prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia wants to strengthen its security relationship with the United States and secure investments to transform its economy into one less reliant on pumping oil.
For now, it appears the two leaders are taking incremental steps together. Biden announced that U.S. peacekeepers would leave the Red Sea island of Tiran by the end of the year, paving the way for Saudi Arabia to develop tourist attractions there.
Because of a complex diplomatic arrangement governing control of the strategically located island, America’s departure required Israel’s assent, and the deal was the latest reflection of warmer relations between the Israelis and Saudis.
The agreement followed an earlier announcement that the Saudis were ending strict limits on Israeli commercial flights over their territory.
Biden also said progress was being made on extending a cease-fire in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia had been battling Iran-backed militants for years, leading to a humanitarian crisis.
The United States played down expectations for any immediate increases in Saudi oil production, which could help alleviate high gas prices that are politically damaging to Biden back home. But after his meeting with the crown prince, Biden hinted that relief could be on the way, although “you won’t see that for another couple of weeks.”
The current OPEC+ agreement expires in September, opening the door to potentially higher production after that, although questions remain about how much excess capacity the Saudis have.
Biden’s nearly three hours at the royal palace were widely seen as a diplomatic victory for Prince Mohammed, who has tried to rehabilitate his image, draw investments to the kingdom for his reform plans and bolster the kingdom’s security relationship with the U.S.
The Saudis carefully controlled the visit, even trying to bar Post reporters from a briefing with government officials before relenting.
They also released a steady stream of photos and videos from private meetings that journalists were barred from attending. Biden was shown shaking hands with King Salman, the 86-year-old monarch who suffers from poor health, including two hospitalizations this year, while the crown prince looked on.
Afterward, reporters were only briefly allowed into a meeting that Biden and the crown prince held with their advisers. The two men sat across from each other, an arrangement that burnished the perception that they are counterparts. It’s an image that the crown prince has been eager to foster as he solidifies his path to the throne after sidelining, detaining and seizing the assets of royal rivals and critics.
Prince Mohammed’s rise to power has ushered with it a new era for the kingdom, one in which Saudi Arabia is more assertive on the world stage as it expands its relations with Russia and China. In addition, budding ties with Israel are not only underpinned by shared enmity with Iran, but also a possible hedge against the perception that the U.S. has increasingly disengaged from the region.
Biden has spent his first trip to the Middle East since taking office trying to convince people otherwise.
During an earlier stop in Israel, he said he was going to Saudi Arabia to “promote U.S. interests in a way that I think we have an opportunity to reassert what I think we made a mistake of walking away from: our influence in the Middle East.”
On Saturday, he’ll participate in a gathering of leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — before returning to Washington. The leaders of Mideast neighbors Egypt, Iraq and Jordan are also to attend, and Biden’s national security adviser said Biden would make a “major statement” on his vision for the Middle East.
The Saudi visit is one of the most delicate that Biden has faced on the international stage.
Any success in soothing relations could pay diplomatic dividends as the president seeks to ensure stability in the region. But it has also opened Biden, already floundering in public opinion polls at home, to deeper criticism that he is backtracking on his pledges to put human rights at the center of foreign policy. During his campaign for president, he had vowed to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah.”
“If we ever needed a visual reminder of the continuing grip oil-rich autocrats have on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, we got it today,” tweeted Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. “One fist bump is worth a thousand words.”
Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said that, with the visit to Saudi Arabia, Biden was backing down on human rights.
She told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday, “It’s heartbreaking and disappointing. And Biden will lose his moral authority by putting oil and expediency over principles and values.”
Canada imposes new sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas sector, chemical industry
The government of Canada imposed another round of sanctions against Russia’s oil and gas sector and chemical industry, according to the Canadian foreign ministry’s website.
"On July 14, 2022, Canada further amended the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations to prohibit the provision of 2 manufacturing services to the Russian oil, gas, chemical and manufacturing industries," the document says, adding that Canada targeted the manufacturing sector by adding 8 new industries to the list.
According to the document, Canadian citizens and companies are prohibited from providing a number of services to the Russian side, including services incidental to manufacturing of fabricated metal products; motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers; computer, electronic and optical products; electrical equipment and other sectors.
Minister Counselor at the Russian Embassy in Canada Vladimir Proskuryakov told TASS the sanctions were counter-productive and would entail negative effects for Canada as well.
"We believe that a yet another round of sanctions is totally groundless and counter-productive. As we have repeatedly warned, all economic sanctions are a double-edged sword and will certainly boomerang on Canada," the diplomat said.
Read: Russia slams sanctions, seeks to blame West for food crisis
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced those measures on Saturday. She said that once the measures are in effect, Canadian businesses will have 60 days to conclude contracts with targeted industries and services.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a special military operation following a request for help from the leaders of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow's plans did not include an occupation of Ukrainian territories, its goals being the demilitarization and denazification of the country. In response, the West began to gradually introduce sweeping sanctions against Moscow and to supply weapons and military equipment to Kiev estimated at billions of dollars.
Euro likely to weaken further amid energy industry turmoil
The euro is set for a further decline after hitting a 20-year low against the US dollar as the European exit from Russian energy will increase the cost of dollar-priced oil and gas imports, financier Charles Gave told Sputnik.
“We’ll now abandon Russian deliveries and pay our energy in dollars to Qatar, the US, or Venezuela… It gives the dollar a definite advantage. A much larger proportion of transactions will be made in dollars, reinforcing its dominant use as foreign exchange reserve,” he said.
The value of the single currency used by the 19-nation eurozone tumbled to parity with the US dollar on Wednesday for the first time since 2002. Gave said EU sanctions against Russia were hitting Europe very hard, nipping its post-pandemic recovery in the bud.
Prior to the crisis in Ukraine, Europe would pay for Russian energy imports in rubles that were then re-invested, mainly in euros. The EU’s drive for independence from Russian oil and gas will further strengthen the US dollar, which is still the world’s dominant trade and reserve currency.
The dollar could see its share in global foreign-exchange reserves exceed 65 per cent while the euro would slip below 20 per cent, Gave added. It would also mean higher inflation for the eurozone, higher energy costs, and pricier imports.
Read: European Central Bank faces pressure from record inflation
“What we see happening is not a rise in prices, but a fall of the money value in the hands of the European citizens. Europe has quadrupled the money supply in 10 years. We have been printing money at high speed, this is a huge vector of inflation, on top of the other reasons,” Gave explained.
The European Central Bank has not been decisive enough in tackling the galloping inflation, the economist said. Consumer prices across the eurozone added a record 8.6 per cent in June. The highest inflation in the EU is in the Baltic states, where prices rose 22 per cent. Germany, the EU’s economic powerhouse, saw an 8.2 per cent inflation rate last month.
A weaker euro gives European exports a price edge abroad, increasing the competitiveness of national products, and attracts foreign tourists, Gave said. The euro’s crash, however, could destabilise the eurozone, increase the debt burden on France and make Italy and Spain rethink the merits of using the common currency unit.