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Russian prime minister says pressure from West is strengthening ties with China
Pressure from the West is strengthening Russia's ties with China, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing Wednesday.
Mishustin's visit comes as Russia is increasingly turning to China for diplomatic and economic support amid growing isolation over its invasion of Ukraine.
Also Read: G7 urges China to press Russia to end war in Ukraine, respect Taiwan's status, fair trade rules
In opening remarks at his meeting Wednesday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Mishustin did not mention the 15-month-old war that China, in deference to Moscow, has refused to criticize, focusing instead on economic cooperation between the neighbors that have partnered in challenging the U.S. lead in global affairs.
Relations between the two countries are "at an unprecedented high level," influenced by the "increased turbulence in the international arena and the pattern of sensational pressure from the collective West," Mishustin said.
Also Read; New sanctions: How effective are they in stopping Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
China says it is a neutral party between Russia and Ukraine and wants to help broker an end to the conflict. But it has blamed the West for provoking Moscow and has maintained strong diplomatic and trade ties with Russia in opposition to sanctions against it.
China's special envoy met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other government officials during talks in Kyiv this month. The visit followed a phone call last month between the Ukrainian leader and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that Zelenskyy described as "long and meaningful" and which marked the first known contact between the two since the Russian invasion began.
Also Read: The cyber gulag: How Russia tracks, censors and controls its citizens
Beijing released a peace plan in February but Ukraine's allies largely dismissed it, insisting that Putin must withdraw his forces. Zelenskyy's own 10-point peace plan includes a tribunal to prosecute war crimes committed by Russia.
While sidestepping the conflict, Mishustin emphasized Russia's role as a provider of oil and gas to China and their bonds formed as initial allies among communist nations.
"The peoples of Russia and China cherish their history, rich culture and traditions. We support the further development of our culture, exchanges and communication," Mishustin said.
EU defense ministers fail to agree on new military aid to Ukraine
The defense ministers of the European Union (EU) member states have failed to reach an agreement on new military aid to Ukraine, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said here on Tuesday.
Borrell said after Tuesday's EU defense ministers' meeting that the overwhelming majority of member states had backed a proposal to increase the European Peace Facility budget by 3.5 billion euros (3.77 billion U.S. dollars), although he stressed that not all of it will be used to assist Ukraine.
"I still don't have unanimity on this, and it's still being discussed," he said, adding that he expected the remaining "hurdles" to be surmounted soon. He recalled that more than 10 billion euros in military support have already been provided to Ukraine.
Borrell said EU countries had already provided Ukraine with 220,000 artillery shells and 1,300 missiles since March. These alone were worth 800 million euros and the EU was on track to provide 1 billion euros worth of ammunition.
"Our aim is to provide one million projectiles over the next 12 months," Borrell said, adding that the EU had already trained 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers and was on track to train 30,000 by the end of the year.
He explained that as part of a three-pronged strategy, member states are being asked to provide ammunition from their own stocks. There is also an effort for the joint procurement of 155 mm caliber ammunition and to boost the capability of European industry to manufacture the necessary ammunition.
Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, attended the meeting and briefed ministers on the latest developments in the conflict in Ukraine.
Borrell welcomed the decision to initiate training programs for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. He said the training created a positive momentum that will eventually lead to the deployment of these jets in Ukraine.
"I am glad that pilot training has already started, and I hope that soon we will be able to provide this weapon to Ukraine," he said prior to the start of the meeting in Brussels.
Typhoon Mawar closes in on Guam as residents shelter, military sends away ships
Residents stockpiled supplies, battened down windows and abandoned wood and tin homes for emergency shelters as Guam was buffeted by rains and winds Wednesday from Typhoon Mawar, the strongest storm to approach the U.S. Pacific territory in decades.
The U.S. military sent away ships, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration and anyone not living in a concrete house was urged to seek safety elsewhere ahead of the typhoon, which was forecast to arrive as a Category 4 storm but could possibly strengthen to a Category 5. The last Category 5 to make a direct hit in Guam was Super Typhoon Karen in 1962.
Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said on social media that the emergency declaration will support the mobilization of resources into Guam, which is “especially crucial given our distance from the continental U.S.” Guerrero ordered residents of coastal, low-lying and flood-prone areas of the territory of over 150,000 people to evacuate to higher elevations.
Federal assistance will be needed to save lives and property and "mitigate the effects of this imminent catastrophe,” Guerrero said in a letter to the president requesting a “pre-landfall emergency” for Guam. Officials warned residents who aren’t in fully concrete structures — some homes on the far-flung island are made of wood and tin — to relocate.
Also read: Guam braces for hit from Typhoon Mawar as storm heads toward Pacific US territory
Guam is a crucial hub for U.S. forces in the Pacific, and the Department of Defense controls about a third of the island. Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson, Joint Region Marianas commander, authorized the evacuation of defense personnel, dependents and employees in areas expected to be affected
All ships were moved out to sea as a standard precaution, according to the Navy, and any personnel remaining on the island were sheltering in place. About 6,800 U.S. service members are assigned to Guam, according to the Pentagon.
With rain from the storm's outer bands already falling over the island as of late morning local time, the typhoon had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) with gusts peaking at 170 mph (274 kph), said Landon Aydlett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Guam. Its center was about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of the island and was moving to the north-northwest.
That was a slight downgrade from earlier when Mawar was reported to be a Category 4 “super typhoon,” meaning maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph) or greater. But it still posed extreme danger to life and property.
The weather service warned of “considerable damage” from a “triple threat” of winds, torrential rains and life-threatening storm surge of 4 to 6 feet (1.2 to 2 meters), with dangerous surf of 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 meters). It said the storm could hit Wednesday afternoon in the southern part of Guam, which lies west of the International Date Line and is a day ahead of the U.S. mainland and Hawaii.
“This is going to be a rough afternoon for us across the island,” Aydlett said. “So watch out.”
If Guam doesn’t take a direct hit, it will be very close, said Patrick Doll, the lead weather service meteorologist in Guam. Mawar is a Malaysian word that means “rose,” he noted.
Shool buses picked up residents at island community centers and transported them to 11 elementary schools outfitted as shelters. Civic workers in various villages warned residents to secure loose objects in their yards and seek shelter immediately. Some spread the word by megaphone, while others turned to social media. Power flickered off and on as the rain and wind intensified, and officials said nearly 900 people were in shelters.
Guerrero urged residents in a YouTube message to remain calm and ordered the National Guard to help those in low-lying areas evacuate, saying, “We are at the crosshairs of Typhoon Mawar. Take action now.”
The storm was moving at 6 mph (10 kph) but had an eye 17 miles (27 kilometers) wide, meaning people at the typhoon's center could see calm conditions for over three hours and conclude, far too soon, that the worst is over, Doll said. As the eye leaves, the winds could rise to 150 mph (241 kph) in minutes, so people should remain sheltered until the government gives the all-clear.
“Folks may say, ‘Hey it’s over, we could go outside and start cleaning up,’” Doll said. “That is totally wrong.
In low-lying Agat along the southern coast, resident Reuel Drilon began preparing Friday and spent the weekend tying down patio furniture and trash containers. Nearly every home in the village, he said, has a mango tree — which officials warned could be ripped from the ground and become roadblocks and deadly flying projectiles.
“A lot of folks are keeping their eyes on trees,” he told The Associated Press. "Down south, we have a lot of coconut trees and mango trees.”
Joshua Paulino, a client manager at Xerox Guam, was sheltering at home in the central village of Chalan Pago with his wife, two sons and mother after the family closed the shutters and secured outdoor objects. He worried that the storm could dump rain on the island for a long time, since it was forecast to pass by gradually.
“This storm is moving very slowly so that is making me really uneasy,” Paulino said by text message.
And an ocean away in Los Angeles, Marichelle Tanag was fretting from afar after her parents, who are in their 70s and have survived many typhoons in their decades on the island. They boarded up windows, stocked up on a couple of weeks of food, prepared the generator and filled bathtubs with water. Their home in Tamuning, also in central Guam, is made of concrete, but she worried about it nevertheless.
“Will the house stand? ... If not, will they be able to go to another place of safety if needed, as fast as possible, and not get in the way of any of the flying debris?” Tanag said by phone.
Rota, an island in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, was also under a typhoon warning, Doll said. Tinian and Saipan, in the Northern Marianas, were under tropical storm warnings. Some people in those areas are still in temporary shelters or tents after Category 5 Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018, Doll noted.
The western Pacific is “a notorious breeding ground for intense tropical cyclones,’’ said Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Jeff Masters. “They’ve got a much bigger area to romp around in and more time to intensify.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has warned that in a warmer world, the number of Category 4 or stronger storms will increase by 10% — and Mawar “could well be a harbinger of the type of battering that the U.S. could expect to see,” Masters said
Over 150 doctors on strike at NYC hospital that was once called pandemic epicenter
About 160 resident physicians went on strike Monday over what they called low pay at New York City's Elmhurst Hospital Center, a public hospital once known as the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
The doctors-in-training at the Queens hospital, who are employed by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, are the first doctors to go on strike in the city since 1990, according to their labor union, the Committee of Interns and Residents local of the Service Employees International Union.
Mount Sinai “refuses to pay us the same as our coworkers doing the exact same job at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan,” Dr. Joya Dupre, a second-year internal medicine resident at Elmhurst, said in a union statement. ”It feels, fundamentally, like Mount Sinai is saying that this community does not matter. Like we as Elmhurst residents do not matter, as largely immigrant, union doctors.”
Mount Sinai released a statement Monday saying it was “working towards an equitable and reasonable resolution that is in the best interest for both our residents at Elmhurst as well as for the Mount Sinai Health System.” It also said it was working with Elmhurst on contingency plans to ensure patient care is not affected by the strike.
The resident physicians and Mount Sinai have been in negotiations for nearly a year. A five-day strike is planned.
Pay has been the major sticking point. The union says first-year Mount Sinai resident physicians working at Elmhurst are making about $7,000 less annually than their peers working at Mount Sinai's main campus in Manhattan.
Also Monday, the union announced that another 500 resident physicians at Mount Sinai Morningside/West in Manhattan have authorized a strike, also over pay.
Elmhurst was among several city hospitals overrun by the coronavirus when the pandemic began. Medical staff at Elmhurst described gasping patients arriving — seemingly nonstop — ventilators running low, and death totals so high that a refrigerated morgue truck had to be stationed outside.
US bomb designed to hit targets like Iran underground nuclear sites briefly reappears amid tensions
As tensions with Iran have escalated over its nuclear program, the U.S. military this month posted pictures of a powerful bomb designed to penetrate deep into the earth and destroy underground facilities that could be used to enrich uranium.
The U.S. Air Force on May 2 released rare images of the weapon, the GBU-57, known as the “Massive Ordnance Penetrator.” Then it took the photos down — apparently because the photographs revealed sensitive details about the weapon's composition and punch.
The publication of the photographs comes as The Associated Press reported that Iran is making steady progress in constructing a nuclear facility that is likely beyond the range of the GBU-57, which is considered the U.S. military last-ditch weapon to take out underground bunkers.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT AMERICA'S MASSIVE ORDNANCE PENETRATOR?
The U.S. developed the Massive Ordnance Penetrator in the 2000s as concerns grew over Iran hardening its nuclear sites by building them underground.
The Air Force posted images of the bombs on the Facebook page for Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The base is home to the fleet of B-2 stealth bombers, the only aircraft that can deploy the bomb.
In a caption, the base said it had received two Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs so a munitions squadron there could “test their performance.”
It is not the first time the Air Force has published photos and videos of the bomb that coincided with rising acrimony with Tehran over its nuclear program. In 2019, the U.S. military released a video of a B-2 bomber dropping two of the bombs. The Air Force did not respond to requests for comment on why it posted — and removed — the most recent set of photos.
WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM THE PHOTOS?
The latest photos revealed stenciling on the bombs that listed their weight as 12,300 kilograms (27,125 pounds). It also described the bomb as carrying a mix of AFX-757 — a standard explosive — and PBXN-114, a relatively new explosive compound, said Rahul Udoshi, a senior weapons analyst at Janes, an open-source intelligence firm.
The weight of the bomb, judging from the stenciling, shows the majority of it comes from its thick steel frame, which allows it to chew through concrete and soil before exploding. However, it remains unclear what the exact effectiveness of the weapon would be.
The Warzone, an Internet news site, first reported on the publication of the photographs. The AP contacted Whiteman Air Force Base and the Air Force’s Global Strike Command with questions about the images. Within a day, the Facebook post vanished.
Udoshi said the Air Force likely took them down because they revealed too much data about the bombs. “Immediate removal from the internet without comment (or) justification means there is a potential lapse,” Udoshi said.
WHAT ROLE WOULD THIS BOMB PLAY IN POTENTIALLY TARGETING IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM?
The AP reported on Monday that satellite imagery from Planet Labs PBC reveals Tehran has been digging tunnels in the mountain near the Natanz nuclear site in central Iran. Excavation mounds at the site suggest the facility could be between 80 meters (260 feet) and 100 meters (328 feet) under the ground, according to the experts and AP’s analysis.
Experts say the size of the construction project indicates Iran likely would be able to use the underground facility to enrich uranium as well — not just to build centrifuges. Those tube-shaped centrifuges, arranged in large cascades of dozens of machines, rapidly spin uranium gas to enrich it. Additional machines would allow Iran to quickly enrich uranium under the mountain’s protection.
That could be a problem for the GBU-57: In previously describing the bomb’s capabilities, the Air Force has said it could tear through 60 meters (200 feet) of ground and cement before detonating.
COULD THE UNITED STATES STILL TRY TO DROP THE BOMB?
U.S. officials have discussed using two such bombs in succession to ensure a site is destroyed. But even then, the new depth of the Natanz tunnels likely presents a serious challenge.
Further complicating any possible U.S. military strike is that the B-2 had been grounded for months since December when one caught fire after an emergency landing. On Monday, Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, the commander of the Air Force's Global Strike Command, announced the B-2 grounding had been lifted.
“While the B-2 fleet safety pause is officially over, our ability to deliver nuclear deterrence and provide long-range strike was never in doubt," an Air Force statement said.
Facebook parent Meta hit with record fine for transferring European user data to US
The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday (May 22, 2023) and ordered it to stop transferring user data across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears.
The penalty fine of 1.2 billion euros from Ireland's Data Protection Commission is the biggest since the EU's strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago, surpassing Amazon's 746 million euro penalty in 2021 for data protection violations.
The Irish watchdog is Meta's lead privacy regulator in the 27-nation bloc because the Silicon Valley tech giant's European headquarters is based in Dublin.
Meta, which had previously warned that services for its users in Europe could be cut off, vowed to appeal and ask courts to immediately put the decision on hold.
Read more: Facebook user data issue: Facebook parent company Meta will pay $725M
“There is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe,” the company said.
“This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and U.S.,” Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global and affairs, and Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead said in a statement.
It's yet another twist in a legal battle that began in 2013 when Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems filed a complaint about Facebook’s handling of his data following former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about U.S. cybersnooping.
The saga has highlighted the clash between Washington and Brussels over the differences between Europe's strict view on data privacy and the comparatively lax regime in the U.S., which lacks a federal privacy law.
Read more: Meta oversight board urges changes to VIP moderation system
An agreement covering EU-U.S. data transfers known as the Privacy Shield was struck down in 2020 by the EU's top court, which said it didn’t do enough to protect residents from the U.S. government's electronic prying.
That left another tool to govern data transfers — stock legal contracts. Irish regulators initially ruled that Meta didn't need to be fined because it was acting in good faith in using them to move data across the Atlantic. But it was overruled by the EU's top panel of data privacy authorities last month, a decision that the Irish watchdog confirmed Monday.
Meanwhile, Brussels and Washington signed an agreement last year on a reworked Privacy Shield that Meta could use, but the pact is awaiting a decision from European officials on whether it adequately protects data privacy.
EU institutions have been reviewing the agreement, and the bloc's lawmakers this month called for improvements, saying the safeguards aren't strong enough.
Read more: Meta contributes over Tk1.5 crore for Sitrang-hit people's rehabilitation efforts
Meta warned in its latest earnings report that without a legal basis for data transfers, it will be forced to stop offering its products and services in Europe, “which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.”
The social media company might have to carry out a costly and complex revamp of its operations if it's forced to stop shipping user data across the Atlantic. Meta has a fleet of 21 data centers, according to its website, but 17 of them are in the United States. Three others are in the European nations of Denmark, Ireland and Sweden. Another is in Singapore.
Other social media giants are facing pressure over their data practices. TikTok has tried to soothe Western fears about the Chinese-owned short video sharing app's potential cybersecurity risks with a $1.5 billion project to store U.S. user data on Oracle servers.
Read more: Ohio retirement fund sues Facebook over investment loss
G20 officials arrive in disputed Kashmir as India largely puts region's intense security out of view
Delegates from the Group of 20 nations arrived in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday to participate in a tourism meeting condemned by China and Pakistan, as authorities significantly reduced visibility of the security in the disputed region's main city.
The meeting scheduled for later Monday is the first significant international event in Kashmir since New Delhi stripped the Muslim-majority region of semi-autonomy in 2019. Indian authorities hope the meeting will show that the controversial changes have brought "peace and prosperity" to the region.
The delegates will discuss topics like green tourism and destination management. Side events on ecotourism and role of films in promoting tourist destinations have also been scheduled.
On Monday, the region's main city of Srinagar, appeared calm and roads never as clean. Most of the security checkpoints were removed or camouflaged with cubicle-like security posts made of G20 signages behind which security officials stood.
Also Read: With G20 event, India seeks to project normalcy in disputed Kashmir
Officials said hundreds of officers were specially trained for what they call "invisible policing" for the event.
Shops in the city center also opened earlier than usual after several meeting between trade representatives and security officials. But authorities closed the main road leading to the convention center for civilian traffic and shut many schools in the city.
Mondays' measures contrasted starkly to the security imposed in the days before the event. A massive security cordon was placed around the venue on the shores of Dal Lake in Srinagar with elite naval commandos patrolling in rubber boats in the water. The city's commercial center was spruced up, with freshly black-topped roads leading to the lakeside convention center and power poles lit in the colors of India's national flag.
"We have the making of a unique meeting," India's chief coordinator for the G20, Harshvardhan Shringla, told reporters Sunday. He said the event will have the highest representation of foreign delegates in comparison to previous tourism meetings India held in the states of West Bengal and Gujarat earlier this year.
Last week, the U.N. special rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes, said the meeting would support a "facade of normalcy" while "massive human rights violations" continue in the region. India's mission at the U.N. in Geneva rejected the statement as "baseless" and "unwarranted allegations."
India's tourism secretary, Arvind Singh, told reporters Saturday that the meeting "was not only to showcase its (Kashmir's) potential for tourism but to also signal globally the restoration of stability and normalcy in the region."
The region remains one of the world's most heavily militarized territories, with hundreds of thousands of Indian troops. In 1989, a violent separatist insurgency erupted in the region that sought independence or a merger with Pakistan. India replied with a brutal counter insurgency and tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels have been killed in the conflict.
India's crackdown intensified after 2019 when New Delhi took the region under its direct control. Since then the territory's people and its media have been largely silenced. Authorities have seized scores of homes and arrested hundreds of people under stringent anti-terror laws. The government says such actions are necessary to stop what it calls a "terror ecosystem."
Authorities have also enacted new laws that critics and many Kashmiris fear could transform the region's demographics.
The G20, made up of the world's largest economies, has a rolling presidency with a different member setting priorities each year. India is steering the group in 2023.
India has been promoting tourism in Kashmir as a sign of peace since 2019 decision. But the region, known for rolling Himalayan foothills, has for decades been a major domestic tourist destination. Millions of visitors arrive Kashmir every year and enjoy a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers.
The mainstay of Kashmir's economy, however, continues to be agriculture, and tourism industry only contributes about 7% to the region's GDP.
China, with which India is locked in a military standoff along the mostly unmarked border in the Ladakh region, has boycotted the event. Pakistan, which controls a part of Kashmir but, like India, claims the entire territory, has also slammed New Delhi for holding the meeting in Srinagar.
Both have argued that such meetings can't be held in disputed territories.
India has dismissed Pakistan's criticism, saying that the country is not even a member of the G20.
New sanctions: How effective are they in stopping Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
The U.S. and other Group of Seven nations rolled out a new wave of global sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as they met Friday during a summit in Japan. The sanctions target hundreds of people and firms — including those helping Russia to evade existing sanctions and export controls. Some of the sanctions focus on additional sectors of Russia's economy, including architecture, construction and transportation.
After 15 months of war, the allied nations are still aiming at new targets for financial penalties that block, freeze and seize access to international funds.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the newest sanctions will tighten the grip on Russian President Vladimir Putin's "ability to wage his barbaric invasion and will advance our global efforts to cut off Russian attempts to evade sanctions."
Also Read: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy at center of last day of high-level diplomacy as G7 looks to punish Russia
But there are limits to how much impact they can have.
A look at the sanctions dynamics:
WHAT'S IN THE NEWEST ROUND?
The U.K imposed sanctions on 86 people and companies, including parties connected to the theft and resale of Ukrainian grain. It also banned the import of diamonds from Russia. The European Union, too, plans to restrict trade in Russian diamonds.
The U.S. hit individuals and organizations across 20 countries, focusing on people and firms helping the Kremlin evade existing sanctions to procure technology. The Commerce Department added 71 firms to its list, and the State Department put 200 people, firms and vessels on its blocked list.
Also Read: Ukrainian president meets with world leaders at G7 as Russia claims a key victory in the war
Additionally, new U.S. reporting requirements were issued for people and firms that have any interest in Russian Central Bank assets. The purpose is to "fully map holdings of Russia's sovereign assets that will remain immobilized in G7 jurisdictions until Russia pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine," the Treasury Department said.
HOW EFFECTIVE HAVE THE SANCTIONS BEEN SO FAR?
While the U.S. and other G7 nations have turned Russia into the most sanctioned country in the world, some foreign policy experts question the effectiveness of the financial penalties and point to Russia's maneuvers to evade them and press its war effort.
Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Russia has demonstrated "a remarkable degree of adaptability to Western sanctions."
She added that the war is "relatively cheap" for Russia to prosecute, amounting to up to an estimated 5% of GDP.
Also Read: Ukraine says troops still engaging Russian forces in Bakhmut after Moscow announces victory in city
"That is easily manageable for Russia in the next couple of years at least, and the cumulative effect of sanctions is just not strong enough to radically alter that," she said.
U.S. officials defend the effectiveness of the sanctions, and argue that they are not designed to work immediately.
Along with imposing individual sanctions, the U.S. and allies have frozen Russian Central Bank funds, restricted Russian banks' access to SWIFT — the dominant system for global financial transactions — and imposed a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil and diesel.
The Treasury Department on Friday in a new progress report said the price cap has been successful in suppressing Russian oil revenues. It cited Russian Ministry of Finance data showing that the Kremlin's oil revenues from January to March of this year were more than 40% lower than in the same period last year.
"Despite widespread initial market skepticism around the price cap, market participants and geopolitical analysts have now acknowledged that the price cap is accomplishing both of its goals," the Treasury Department report.
WHY ARE THE US AND ITS ALLIES STILL FINDING NEW TARGETS?
Treasury officials say that as sanctions are imposed, Russian intelligence keeps looking for ways to get around them, requiring constant adjustments.
Newer sanction efforts have been dedicated to the evaders and the "facilitators" of evasion, who help Russia acquire supplies and technology.
"We know the Kremlin is actively seeking ways to circumvent these sanctions," Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said earlier this year.
"One of the ways we know our sanctions are working is the Kremlin has tasked its intelligence services, such as the FSB and GRU, to find ways to get around them."
Among other things, U.S. officials say, Moscow has turned to North Korea and Iran to resupply the Russian military with drones and surface-to-surface missiles.
WHAT MORE IS THERE TO SANCTION?
Treasury officials say future targets could include newly identified firms and people connected to supply chains that help Russia gain materials for the war, front companies that help Russia evade sanctions and rogue actors from North Korea and Iran.
For the past month, Treasury officials Brian Nelson and Liz Rosenberg have traveled across Europe and Central Asia to press countries that do business with the Kremlin to cut off financial ties because of the war on Ukraine.
They are also increasingly sharing intelligence between countries and firms to spot evasion.
There are also calls for the U.S. and allies to confiscate and transfer Russia's central bank funds to Ukraine for the war effort.
"The G7 countries must sustain and augment their efforts, including by confiscating frozen reserves of the Central Bank of Russia to help fund Ukraine's reconstruction," said Jeffrey J. Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
With G20 event, India seeks to project normalcy in disputed Kashmir
As India prepares to host a meeting of tourism officials from the Group of 20 in the disputed region of Kashmir, authorities have deployed elite commandos and stepped up security in the region's largest city.
The meeting will be the first significant international event in Kashmir since New Delhi stripped the Muslim-majority region of semi-autonomy in 2019. Indian authorities are hoping the meeting will show that the controversial changes have brought "peace and prosperity" to the region.
Since the 2019 changes, the city, known for rolling Himalayan foothills and exquisitely decorated houseboats, has become a major domestic tourist destination. Hotels have been mostly booked out for months. Kashmir has also drawn millions of visitors, who enjoy a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers.
Also Read: Indian troops kill 2 rebels in Kashmir in ongoing operations
For the G20 meeting, the city has spruced up its commercial center and roads leading to the convention center on Dal Lake, while police have increased security even further, placing a massive security cordon around the site.
On a recent Wednesday, gun-toting naval commandos in rubber boats mingled with tourists in canary-yellow gondolas.
Paul Staniland, a political scientist who studies South Asia at the University of Chicago, said the G20 meeting is "in line with Indian government policy to symbolically project normalcy and stability in Kashmir," and is unlikely to herald a change in policy.
ALso Read: India revives civil militia after Hindu killings in Kashmir
"The meeting is good and it could boost tourism," said college student Mufeed Hilal. "But we also want to see the Kashmir issue resolved. That is our basic problem."
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REGIONAL NEIGHBORS AND UN HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERT CRITICIZE KASHMIR MEETING
Pakistan, which controls a part of Kashmir but, like India, claims the entire territory, has slammed New Delhi for holding the meeting in Srinagar.
Speaking on the sidelines of a recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in India, foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the choice of location showed India's "pettiness" and was a "show of arrogance to the world."
Also Read: 2 kids among 6 people die in Kashmir village attack: Police
India's foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, dismissed the Pakistani minister's comments, saying that he was not going to debate the issue "with a country which has nothing to do with the G20," referring to the fact that Pakistan is not a member of the group.
The G20, made up of the world's largest economies, has a rolling presidency with a different member state in charge of the group's agenda and priorities each year. India is steering the group in 2023.
China also criticized India's plan to hold the meeting in Srinagar.
"China firmly opposes holding any form of G20 meeting in disputed areas and China will not attend such a meeting," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters at a daily briefing Friday.
Last month, China skipped another G20 meeting held in the disputed region Ladakh, where Indian and Chinese soldiers are locked in a bitter military standoff high in the mountains after 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in a hand-to-hand melee in 2020.
A U.N. human rights expert on Monday said the meeting would support a "facade of normalcy" while "massive human rights violations" continue in the region.
"The government of India is seeking to normalise what some have described as a military occupation by instrumentalising a G20 meeting and portray an international seal of approval," said Fernand de Varennes, the special rapporteur on minority issues, in a statement.
India's mission at the U.N. in Geneva rejected the statement as "baseless" and "unwarranted allegations." In a tweet on Tuesday, it said it was India's "prerogative to host its meetings in any part of the country."
India also held G20 tourism meetings in the states of West Bengal and Gujarat earlier this year, and one more is scheduled in Goa next month.
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SEARCHES AND PATROLS REDOUBLE AHEAD OF MEETING
Intrusive security measures have been a fact of life in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, when a violent separatist insurgency erupted and Indian forces replied with a brutal crackdown. While the armed rebellion was largely suppressed, the region remains one of the world's most heavily militarized territory, with hundreds of thousands of Indian troops deployed.
For decades, a typical Kashmiri's day has included frisking and questioning by police and soldiers, house raids and random searches of cars. But after New Delhi took the region under its direct control, authorities have seized scores of homes and arrested hundreds under stringent anti-terror laws. The government says such actions are necessary to stop what it calls a "terror ecosystem."
Mehbooba Mufti, the region's former top elected official, said that police had detained hundreds of Kashmiris ahead of the meeting. In a party newsletter, she alleged that there has been an "unprecedented surge in arrests, raids, surveillance and persecution of our people" ahead of the event.
In a statement on Monday, police said there is a "need to enhance the security measures at vulnerable locations to avoid any chance of terrorist attack during the G20" meeting.
Kashmir has remained on edge since the 2019 changes, as authorities put in place new laws that critics and many Kashmiris fear could transform the region's demographics. In New Delhi's effort to shape what it calls "Naya Kashmir," or a "new Kashmir," the territory's people and its press have been largely silenced.
Although violence has ebbed in last few years, fighting between government forces and rebels opposed to Indian rule still erupts periodically. At least 10 Indian soldiers, including five members of army special forces, were killed recently in two militant attacks in Jammu region.
‘Exhaust them’: Why Ukraine has fought Russia for every inch of Bakhmut, despite high cost
The nine-month battle for Bakhmut has destroyed the 400-year-old city in eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people in a mutually devastating demonstration of Ukraine's strategy of exhausting the Russian military.
The fog of war made it impossible to confirm the situation on the ground Sunday in the invasion's longest battle: Russia's defense ministry reported that the Wagner private army backed by Russian troops had seized the city. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said Bakhmut was not being fully occupied by Russian forces.
Regardless, the small city has long had more symbolic than strategic value for both sides. The more meaningful gauge of success for Ukrainian forces has been their ability to keep the Russians bogged down. The Ukrainian military has aimed to deplete the resources and morale of Russian troops in the tiny but tactical patch of the 1,500-kilometer (932-mile) front line as Ukraine gears up for a major counteroffensive in the 15-month-old war.
"Despite the fact that we now control a small part of Bakhmut, the importance of its defense does not lose its relevance," said Col.-Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Commander of Ground Forces for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. "This gives us the opportunity to enter the city in case of a change in the situation. And it will definitely happen."
Also Read: Ukraine says troops still engaging Russian forces in Bakhmut after Moscow announces victory in city
About 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of the Russian-held regional capital of Donetsk, Bakhmut was an important industrial center, surrounded by salt and gypsum mines and home to about 80,000 people before the war, in a country of more than 43 million.
The city, named Artyomovsk after a Bolshevik revolutionary when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, was known for its sparkling wine produced in underground caves. It was popular among tourists for its broad tree-lined avenues, lush parks and stately downtown with imposing late 19th century mansions. All are now reduced to a smoldering wasteland.
Fought over so fiercely by Russia and Ukraine in recent months has been the urban center itself, where Ukrainian commanders have conceded that Moscow controlled more than 90%. But even now, Ukrainian forces are making significant advances near strategic roads through the countryside just outside, chipping away at Russia's northern and southern flanks by the meter (yard) with the aim of encircling Wagner fighters inside the city.
Also Read: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy at center of last day of high-level diplomacy as G7 looks to punish Russia
"The enemy failed to surround Bakhmut. They lost part of the heights around the city. The continuing advance of our troops in the suburbs greatly complicates the enemy's presence," said Hanna Maliar, Ukraine's deputy defense minister. "Our troops have taken the city in a semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy."
Ukrainian military leaders say their months-long resistance has been worth it because it limited Russia's capabilities elsewhere and allowed for Ukrainian advances.
Also Read: Ukrainian president meets with world leaders at G7 as Russia claims a key victory in the war
"The main idea is to exhaust them, then to attack," Ukrainian Col. Yevhen Mezhevikin, commander of a specialized group fighting in Bakhmut, said Thursday.
Russia has deployed reinforcements to Bakhmut to replenish lost northern and southern flanks and prevent more Ukrainian breakthroughs, according to Ukrainian officials and other outside observers. Russian President Vladimir Putin badly needs to claim victory in Bakhmut city, where Russian forces have focused their efforts, analysts say, especially after a winter offensive by his forces failed to capture other cities and towns along the front.
Some analysts said that even Ukraine's tactical gains in the rural area outside urban Bakhmut could be more significant than they seem.
Also Read: Zelenskyy says ‘Bakhmut is only in our hearts’ after Russia claims controls of Ukrainian city
"It was almost like the Ukrainians just took advantage of the fact that, actually, the Russian lines were weak," said Phillips O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews. "The Russian army has suffered such high losses and is so worn out around Bakhmut that ... it cannot go forward anymore."
Ukrainian forces in the outskirts of Bakhmut and in the city bore relentless artillery attacks until a month ago. Then, Ukrainian forces positioned south of the city spotted their chance for a breakthrough after reconnaissance drones showed the southern Russian flank had gone on the defensive, Col. Mezhevikin said.
After fierce fighting for weeks, Ukrainian units had made their first advance in the vicinity of Bakhmut since it was invaded nine months ago.
In all, nearly 20 square kilometers (eight square miles) of territory were recaptured, Maliar said in an interview last week. Hundreds of meters (yards) more have been regained almost every day since, according to Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for Ukraine's Operational Command East.
"Previously we were only holding the lines and didn't let Russians advance further into our territory. What has happened now is our first advance (since the battle started)," Maliar said.
Victory in Bakhmut does not necessarily bring Russia any closer to capturing the Donetsk region — Putin's stated aim of the war. Rather, it opens the door to more grinding battles in the direction of Sloviansk or Kostiantynivka, 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, said Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst at the U.S.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War.
Satellite imagery released this week shows infrastructure, apartment blocks and iconic buildings reduced to rubble.
In the last week, days before Russia announced that the city had fallen into their control, Ukrainian forces retained only a handful of buildings amid constant Russian bombardment. Outnumbered and outgunned, they described nightmarish days.
Russia's artillery dominance is so overwhelming, accompanied by continuous human waves of mercenaries, that defensive positions could not be held for long.
"The importance of our mission of staying in Bakhmut lies in distracting a significant enemy force," said Taras Deiak, a commander of a special unit of a volunteer battalion. "We are paying a high price for this."
The northern and southern flanks regained by Ukraine are located near two highways that lead to Chasiv Yar, a town 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Bakhmut that serves as a key logistics supply route, one dubbed the "road of life."
Ukrainian forces passing this road often came under fire from Russians positioned along nearby strategic heights. Armored vehicles and pickup trucks driving toward the city to replenish Ukrainian troops were frequently destroyed.
With the high plains now under Ukrainian control, its forces have more breathing room.
"This will help us design new logistic chains to deliver ammunition in and evacuate the injured or killed boys," said Deiak, speaking from inside the city on Thursday, two days before Russia claimed it controlled the city. "Now it is easier to deliver supplies, rotate troops, (carry out) evacuations."