WARSAW – About 100 soldiers from the Russian Wagner group have moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Saturday.

Poland, a former Warsaw Pact member that has been a full member of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance since 1999, has been concerned about the possibility that the war could spill over onto its territory since Russian invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier this month, Poland began moving more than 1,000 troops to the east of the country amid rising concerns that the presence of Wagner fighters in Belarus could lead to increased tension on its border.

“The situation is getting increasingly dangerous. … Most likely they (the Wagner personnel) will be disguised as the Belarusian border guard and help illegal migrants get to the Polish territory (and) destabilize Poland,” Morawiecki said at a press conference in Gliwice, western Poland.

“They will most likely try to enter Poland pretending to be illegal migrants and this poses additional threats,” Morawiecki said.

However, he did not disclose the source of his information on the Wagner movements, and Anton Motolko, founder of the Belarusian opposition Hajun project, which monitors military activity in the country, told Reuters his group had not seen any evidence of the Wagner group moving closer to Grodno.

The city has a potentially significant position because it is near the Suwalki Gap, a strategic strip of land along the Polish-Lithuanian border that divides Belarus, Russia’s ally, from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

Earlier in July, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now but ordering them to gather their strength for Africa, where they are involved in a number of conflicts, while they train the Belarusian army.

The following day, some Wagner fighters arrived at the training ground of the 38th airborne assault brigade outside the city of Brest, just a few miles from the Polish border.

Wagner’s move to Belarus was part of a deal that ended the group’s mutiny attempt in June, when they took control of a Russian military headquarters, marched on Moscow and threatened to tip Russia into civil war, President Vladimir Putin has said. 
…

After leaving it to the last minute against South Africa, Sweden left nothing to chance Saturday in a 5-0 win over Italy which sealed its place in the knockout rounds of the Women’s World Cup. 

Sweden relied on Amanda Ilestedt’s 90th-minute winner to salvage a 2-1 win from a sub-par performance in its opener against South Africa. 

Ilestedt was Sweden’s first scorer Saturday, this time in the 39th, and her glancing header from a corner sparked a flood of four Swedish goals in 11 minutes on either side of halftime. Her second goal came in the 50th and was a mirror image of the first. 

Rebecka Blomqvist finished it off in stoppage time with Sweden’s fifth goal. 

The Swedish attack again looked hesitant in the first 20 minutes. Italy appeared more composed over the ball in that period and more threatening with Sofia Cantore particularly dangerous on the right.  

But as the first half progressed, Sweden began to look more composed, more organized and then more ruthless. The crowd of just over 29,000 appeared to sense the change. 

Joanna Andersson curled the ball in from the right in the 39th, and Ilestedt rose highest at the near post to glance the ball on a narrow angle into the net. 

Fridolina Rolfo looked certain to score in the 43rd, one-on-one with Francesca Durante, but the goalkeeper threw herself toward Rolfo’s feet and snuffed out the threat. 

Rolfo had to wait only moments for her second goal of the tournament. Another corner and this time the delivery eluded Durante and found Rolfo on the far post who headed home. 

Rolfo turned deliverer in the first minute of stoppage time. Sent clear by a neat back-heel she passed low and beyond Durante, finding Stina Blackstenius, who tapped in; her goal was her 29th for the national team. 

Sweden led 3-0 at halftime, and the scoring continued after the break. On a corner in the 50th, Ilestedt was on station at the near post to head home. 

The clinical nature of Sweden’s attack was highlighted by the fact possession was almost evenly shared. But Sweden had 14 shots on target, Italy four and the Italians will be haunted by Sweden’s seven corners, all of which represented an immediate danger. 

Ilestedt was player of the match and in every sense a towering figure in attack. Blackstenius, Rolfo and Asllani also were back in form and there was every sign Saturday the third-ranked Swedes are peaking at the right time. 

Italy heads back to the drawing board with the first order of business to address its defense from set pieces. 
…

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday urged Denmark to take urgent action to prevent burnings of the Quran, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.

In a phone call with his Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Fidan condemned the “continuous vile attacks against the Quran.” He told Rasmussen it was unacceptable to allow such actions under the guise of freedom of expression, the source said.

Rasmussen on Saturday wrote on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter: “Turkey and Denmark are close allies. Important to not let these acts succeed in creating division.”

He also reiterated Denmark’s “strong condemnation of these provocative acts by few individuals.”

The comments came after a small group of anti-Islam activists set fire to Qurans in front of the Egyptian and Turkish embassies in Copenhagen on Tuesday, after similar protests in Denmark and Sweden over recent weeks.

Denmark and Sweden have deplored the burning of Islam’s holy book but say they cannot prevent it under rules protecting free speech.
…

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA — French President Emmanuel Macron held discussions with his Sri Lankan counterpart Saturday on an open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region in the first-ever visit by a French leader to the Indian Ocean island nation.

As the fourth-largest creditor to Sri Lanka, France had pledged cooperation in debt restructuring to help the island nation recover from its economic crisis.

Macron arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday night, following his trip to the South Pacific region, to mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations, Sri Lanka’s president’s office said.

Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe praised France’s significant role in global affairs, particularly in areas such as climate mitigation, global debt restructuring, and matters related to the Indo-Pacific region, the statement said.

“Sri Lanka and France are two Indian Ocean nations that share the same goal: an open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific. In Colombo we confirmed it: strengthened by 75 years of diplomatic relations, we can open a new era of our partnership,” Macron said in a Twitter message after the meeting.
…

African leaders pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to move ahead with their plan to end the Ukraine conflict and to renew a deal crucial to Africa on the safe wartime export of Ukrainian grain, which Moscow tore up last week.

While not directly critical of Russia, their interventions on the second day of a summit were more concerted and forceful than those that African countries have voiced previously.

They served as reminders of the depth of African concern at the consequences of the war, especially rising food prices.

“This war must end. And it can only end on the basis of justice and reason,” African Union (AU) Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat told Putin and African leaders in St. Petersburg.

“The disruptions of energy and grain supplies must end immediately. The grain deal must be extended for the benefit of all the peoples of the world, Africans in particular.”

Reuters reported in June that the African plan floats a series of possible steps to defuse the conflict, including a Russian troop pullback, removal of Russian tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, suspension of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Putin and sanctions relief.

Putin gave it a cool reception when African leaders presented it to him last month. In public remarks on Friday, he restated in similar terms his argument that Ukraine and the West, not Russia, were responsible for the conflict.

Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso said the initiative “deserves the closest attention,” calling “urgently” for peace.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told Putin: “We feel that we have a right to call for peace — the ongoing conflict also negatively affects us.”

The stream of calls prompted Putin repeatedly to defend Russia’s position and finally to make an eight-minute statement, later issued by the Kremlin in a video, at the start of evening talks with the African leaders behind the peace plan.

He again accused the West of backing a “coup” in Kyiv in 2014 — when a wave of street protests forced Ukraine’s pro-Russian president to flee — and of trying to draw Ukraine into the U.S.-led NATO military alliance and undermine Russian statehood.

He said it was Kyiv that was refusing to negotiate under a decree passed shortly after he claimed last September to have annexed four Ukrainian regions that Russia partly controls, adding: “The ball is entirely in their court.”

‘New realities’

Russia has long said it is open to talks but that these must take account of the “new realities” on the ground.

AU chair Azali Assoumani said Putin had shown his readiness to talk, and “now we have to convince the other side.”

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected the idea of a ceasefire now that would leave Russia in control of nearly a fifth of his country and give its forces time to regroup after 17 grinding months of war.

At the summit, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi urged Russia to revive the Black Sea grain deal which, until Moscow refused to renew it last week, had granted Ukraine a “safe corridor” to export grain from its seaports despite the conflict.

Egypt is a big buyer of grain via the Black Sea route, and Sissi told the summit it was “essential to reach agreement” on reviving the deal.

Putin responded by arguing, as he has in the past, that rising world food prices were a consequence of Western policy mistakes long predating the Ukraine war.

He has repeatedly said Russia quit the agreement because the deal was not getting grain to the poorest countries and the West was not keeping its side of the bargain.

Russia’s withdrawal and its bombardment of Ukrainian ports and grain depots have prompted accusations from Ukraine and the West that Russia is using food as a weapon of war and driving the global wheat price up by some 9%.

On Thursday, Putin promised to deliver up to 300,000 tons of free Russian grain — which U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a “handful of donations” — among six of the countries attending the summit.

Assoumani said this might not be enough, and what was needed was a cease-fire.

Putin wanted the summit to energize Russia’s ties with Africa and enlist its support in countering what he describes as U.S. hegemony and Western neo-colonialism.

Many of the leaders praised Moscow’s support for their countries in their 20th-century liberation struggles, and the final declaration promised Russia would help them seek compensation for the damage done by colonial rule.

The leaders of Mali and Central African Republic, whose governments have relied heavily on the services of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, both expressed gratitude to Putin.
…

A declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released Thursday says that support from China is “critical” to Russia’s ability to continue waging its war against Ukraine.

The report, which was requested by Congress, assesses how a range of actors, including the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, state-owned Chinese companies and other Chinese entities, are supporting Russia’s economy and its military, nearly 18 months after the Kremlin’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

“Beijing is pursuing a variety of economic support mechanisms for Russia that mitigate both the impact of Western sanctions and export controls,” the report finds.

“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has increased its importation of Russian energy exports, including oil and gas supplies rerouted from Europe. Beijing has also significantly increased the use of its currency, the yuan, and its financial infrastructure in commercial interactions with Russia, allowing Russian entities to conduct financial transactions unfettered of Western interdiction.”

The report also finds that China has been directly supporting the Russian war effort by selling technology and “dual use” equipment — meaning items that may have both civilian and military uses — to Moscow.

Enabling a ‘brutal invasion’

The report was released by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Representative Jim Himes, the most senior Democrat on the committee, said, “This unclassified assessment, mandated by last year’s Intelligence Authorization Act, details the extent of China’s support for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s ongoing invasion.

“Russia’s war against Ukraine has been enabled in no small part by China’s willingness to support them, in direct and indirect ways. I hope this report makes clear to Beijing that the United States, and the world, will know if they take further actions to enable Putin’s brutal invasion.”

Representative Mike Turner, the committee’s Republican chairman, had not issued a statement about the report as of Friday afternoon.

China responds

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning commented on the report in her daily news briefing Friday, saying there was nothing out of the ordinary involved in her country’s trade with Russia, while decrying Western sanctions on Moscow.

“China is engaged in normal economic and trade cooperation with Russia and other countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit,” Mao said. “We oppose unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction that have no basis in international law or mandate from the Security Council. China-Russia cooperation does not target any third party and shall be free from disruption or coercion by any third party.”

China and Russia have significantly deepened their relationship in recent years. In the days prior to the launch of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin announced that their countries’ partnership had “no limits.”

Oil and gas

In the wake of the invasion, a united front of nations led by the United States applied an extraordinary web of sanctions, severing the flow of goods and services between Russia and most major Western markets.

The report finds that since the invasion, trade with China has replaced much of that lost commerce. In 2022, bilateral trade between Russia and China hit a record high, with Russian imports from China rising by 14% and exports to China jumping by 43%.

Much of Russia’s exports to China came in the form of oil and gas products that Moscow previously sold to the West. China’s purchase of the petroleum products has been a valuable source of income for the Kremlin, and steep discounts on Russian fuel have been a boon to China.

China is providing supertankers to move Russian oil to market as well as the insurance coverage that shipping companies demand, after sanctions cut Russia off from the global maritime insurance market.

Semiconductor trade

One of the West’s major efforts against Russia has involved cutting the country off from a reliable supply of semiconductors needed for many modern devices, including military vehicles and weapons systems.

The report notes the appearance of a web of newly formed businesses in Hong Kong, which it characterizes as “shell companies” that are being used to purchase semiconductors on the open market and then resell them to Russia in violation of U.S. export control rules.

China is supplying both dual use goods and some explicitly military material to Russia, the report says.

“[C]ustoms records show PRC state-owned defense companies shipping navigation equipment, jamming technology and fighter-jet parts to sanctioned Russian government-owned defense companies,” the report reads. “Russia has continued to acquire chips through circuitous routes, with a large portion flowing through small traders in Hong Kong and mainland PRC, according to foreign press.”

After Russian banks were largely cut off from systems that allow cross-border payments, many began to rely on Chinese banks to facilitate trade between the two countries and between Russian companies and firms in third countries that are not participating in Western sanctions.

Russia has also been accepting payments and purchasing goods using China’s currency, the yuan. By August 2022, six months after the beginning of the invasion, Russia’s use of the yuan in offshore payments had increased by a factor of 10.

Open source

Ian Johnson, a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA that even though much of the material in the report was drawn from sources that were already public, its assembly in one place makes the scope of Beijing’s support for Moscow clearer.

“I don’t think it’s new, but it reinforces and systematically explains what many people have felt: that China is trying to help Russia as much as possible without getting in big trouble regarding sanctions,” Johnson said.

“They’re trying to push the envelope as much as possible, and anything they can do — by sopping up extra energy that Russia hasn’t been able to unload, letting them use the yuan — makes it a little bit easier for Russia,” he said. “All these things are also in China’s interest. It’s not entirely altruistic. They have many reasons for wanting to keep Russia afloat.”
…

Pope Francis urged governments to do more to fight climate change and protect “our common home” as improving weather conditions Friday helped firefighters contain wildfires in Greece, Italy and other countries in southern Europe.

Francis, who has been outspoken on environmental issues, sent a telegram of condolences to Greece, where wildfires killed five people over the past week, including the pilots of a water-dropping aircraft.

The pope noted that successive heat waves have exacerbated the dangers of the summer fire season. He offered his prayers for firefighters and emergency personnel in particular.

“[I hope] that the risks to our common home, exacerbated by the present climate crisis, will spur all people to renew their efforts to care for the gift of creation, for the sake of future generations,” Francis said.

Fueled by the heat waves and strong gusts of wind, wildfires in Europe’s Mediterranean region have kept travelers and residents on alert. In Greece, fires scorched hundreds of square kilometers of land outside Athens, on the island of Rhodes and elsewhere this month.

As the situation improved considerably on Friday, Greece’s minister for the police unexpectedly stepped down, citing “personal grounds.” Greek media said Notis Mitarachi’s resignation was requested after it emerged that he had been on a family holiday during the wildfire crisis.

The main opposition Syriza party issued a statement accusing the center-right government of using “personal grounds” as a euphemism for “[Mitarachi’s] holidays while the country was burning from end to end.”

In central Greece, authorities maintained an exclusion zone around one of the country’s largest air force bases after a wildfire triggered powerful explosions at a nearby ammunition depot Thursday. Fighter jets stationed at the 111th Combat Wing base were moved to other facilities.

The depot blasts near the central city of Volos shattered windows in nearby towns and prompted the evacuation of more than 2,000 people. Local news broadcasts showed a ground-shaking fireball erupting.

Residents were rushed onto private boats mobilized by the coast guard and taken to a conference center in Volos, some 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the weapons storage site. A civilian traffic ban and evacuation order remained in effect Friday within a 3-kilometer radius of the depot.

The explosions did not affect flights at Volos international airport, officials told The Associated Press.

A drop in temperatures and calmer winds helped firefighters get a handle on the blazes in Greece and all major fires were contained by midday Friday, Greek Fire Service officials said.

Conditions also improved elsewhere in Europe’s Mediterranean regions thanks to cooler temperatures, allowing firefighters to contain wildfires along the Croatian coast and in Sicily.

Firefighting teams in Turkey also brought a wildfire burning close to the southern Mediterranean resort of Kemer under control, four days after it erupted, Ibrahim Yumakli, the country’s forestry minister, said.

The governments of the countries hit by heat waves and fires have steered public debate away from the potential impact on tourism. Rhodes, where a fire last weekend required about 19,000 people to be evacuated from several locations on the island, was promised state support Friday for its international advertising campaign.

In Germany, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach sought Friday to address Italian irritation over a mid-July social media post in which he described the heat wave he encountered on a visit to Italy as “spectacular” and added that “if it goes on like this, these vacation destinations will have no future in the long term.”

Lauterbach told reporters in Berlin that he wasn’t warning against vacations in southern Europe and plans to visit Italy again himself.

“Of course, it is more difficult now for the southern countries to organize heat protection in such a way that it is also accessible for every tourist, but I think those countries will know exactly what they have to do,” he said.

Vassilis Kikilias, the Greek minister for climate change and civil protection, said fires had burned 400 square kilometers of land in the country in July alone, while the recent average is 500 square kilometers (nearly 200 square miles) in a year.

“Is the situation any better in other countries bordering the Mediterranean? It’s a fair question … but the answer is no,” Kikilias said.

“The climate crisis that brought us this unprecedented heat wave is here. It’s not a theory. It is our actual experience,” he said. “This is not something that will just occur this year. It will last and we have to face the consequences of what that means.” 
…

A Pakistani journalist forced to flee for his own safety now runs a club for fellow exiles in France. They meet to exchange ideas and share their stories with locals. For VOA, Henry Ridgwell has the story of Taha Siddiqui. Video: Vahid Karami
…

Latest developments:

Ukrainian soldiers recaptured the southeastern village of Staromaiorske in Donetsk region. the recapture is part of Ukraine's ongoing counteroffensive push through the Russian-occupied southeast.
U.S. Abrams tanks are now likely to arrive in Ukraine in September.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited a historic Odesa cathedral that was damaged by a recent Russian airstrike.

On Thursday, less than two weeks after Russia withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the Russia-Africa Conference opened in Saint Petersburg. 

The British Defense Ministry reported Friday that only 17 African heads of state attended the gathering.  Forty-three African leaders attended the last conference.  

Before Russia’s withdrawal from the initiative, 30 million tons of Ukrainian grain were exported to Africa, the ministry said in its daily intelligence update on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  Now, however, according to the ministry, Moscow’s blockade of Ukrainian grain is not only resulting in higher grain prices but will also be responsible for food insecurity across the African continent “for at least the next two years.”

A photograph of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, who staged a failed mutiny in Russia in June, has emerged. The BBC reports after extensive scrutiny and the use of facial recognition software, that the photo is of Prigozhin and Freddy Mapoul, a senior Central African Republic official, who is attending the Russia-Africa Conference.  

The photo marks the first sighting of Prigozhin in Russia since his failed mutiny in June. The photo, according to the BBC, was taken in the Trezzini Palace hotel in St. Petersburg, which is reported to be owned by Prigozhin. 

Ukrainian soldiers have recaptured the southeastern village of Staromaiorske from Russian forces, a video published Thursday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy showed, as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive push through the Russian-occupied southeast.

“The 35th brigade and the ‘Ariy’ territorial defense unit have fulfilled their task and liberated the village of Staromaiorske. Glory to Ukraine!” a soldier said in a video that was not immediately geolocated, according to Reuters.   

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar declared Staromaiorske liberated, saying, “Our defenders are now continuing to clear the settlement.”

Staromaiorske is located in the region of Donetsk, south of a group of small settlements that Ukraine recaptured during a counteroffensive it began in June. 

Zelenskyy has recognized that the counteroffensive against Russian forces, who hold parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, has been slower than he wanted. But Wednesday, he lauded “very good results” from the front.  

Russian forces have established an expansive network of minefields and trenches in the south to deter the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Ukrainian attacks in the strategically significant south had escalated, but he told Russian television that the Ukrainians had made no progress.  

The recapture of Staromaiorske is part of Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive push through the Russian-occupied southeast. The strategy has focused on retaking villages as Ukrainian forces move southward.  

Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian military analyst, said the new focus on the southward push was Staromlynivka, a village less than three miles away. 

“It really serves as a stronghold for the Russian occupiers, the peak of the second defensive line in this location,” he said in an interview with the RBC UA media outlet. 

For months, Ukraine has been running low on ammunition it needs in its lengthy fight against Russia.  

But now, U.S. Abrams tanks are likely to arrive in Ukraine in September, Politico reported Thursday, citing six officials familiar with the plan.

Previously, Pentagon officials said the tanks would arrive on Ukrainian battlefields sometime in the fall. The United States is planning on sending 31 tanks in total.  

A batch of tanks will go to Germany in August, where they will undergo final refurbishments before getting shipped to Ukraine. In June, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he hoped the tanks would arrive in time for the ongoing counteroffensive.  

This development comes a couple of weeks after the United States announced it would send controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine.   

In a joint statement Thursday evening, U.S. President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni affirmed their commitment to continue providing political, military, financial and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

Also on Thursday, Zelenskyy visited the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, which was damaged by a recent Russian airstrike on the southern port city of Odesa. The cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  

Ukrainian culture has been a target since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. Since the war began, at least 274 Ukrainian cultural sites have been damaged, including 117 religious sites, according to UNESCO. 

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

Latest developments:

Ukrainian soldiers recaptured the southeastern village of Staromaiorske in Donetsk region. the recapture is part of Ukraine's ongoing counteroffensive push through the Russian-occupied southeast.
U.S. Abrams tanks are now likely to arrive in Ukraine in September.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited a historic Odesa cathedral that was damaged by a recent Russian airstrike.

 

Ukrainian soldiers have recaptured the southeastern village of Staromaiorske from Russian forces, a video published Thursday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy showed, as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive push through the Russian-occupied southeast.

“The 35th brigade and the ‘Ariy’ territorial defense unit have fulfilled their task and liberated the village of Staromaiorske. Glory to Ukraine!” a soldier said in a video that was not immediately geolocated, according to Reuters.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar declared Staromaiorske liberated, saying, “Our defenders are now continuing to clear the settlement.”

Staromaiorske is located in the region of Donetsk, south of a group of small settlements that Ukraine recaptured during a counteroffensive it began in June.

Zelenskyy has recognized that the counteroffensive against Russian forces, who hold parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, has been slower than he wanted. But Wednesday, he lauded “very good results” from the front.

Russian forces have established an expansive network of minefields and trenches in the south to deter the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Ukrainian attacks in the strategically significant south had escalated, but he told Russian television that the Ukrainians had made no progress.

The recapture of Staromaiorske is part of Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive push through the Russian-occupied southeast. The strategy has focused on retaking villages as Ukrainian forces move southward.

Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian military analyst, said the new focus on the southward push was Staromlynivka, a village less than three miles away.

“It really serves as a stronghold for the Russian occupiers, the peak of the second defensive line in this location,” he said in an interview with the RBC UA media outlet.

For months, Ukraine has been running low on ammunition it needs in its lengthy fight against Russia.

But now, U.S. Abrams tanks are likely to arrive in Ukraine in September, Politico reported Thursday, citing six officials familiar with the plan.

Previously, Pentagon officials said the tanks would arrive on Ukrainian battlefields sometime in the fall. The United States is planning on sending 31 tanks in total.

A batch of tanks will go to Germany in August, where they will undergo final refurbishments before getting shipped to Ukraine. In June, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he hoped the tanks would arrive in time for the ongoing counteroffensive.

This development comes a couple of weeks after the United States announced it would send controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine.

In a joint statement Thursday evening, U.S. President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni affirmed their commitment to continue providing political, military, financial and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

Also on Thursday, Zelenskyy visited the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, which was damaged by a recent Russian airstrike on the southern port city of Odesa. The cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ukrainian culture has been a target since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. Since the war began, at least 274 Ukrainian cultural sites have been damaged, including 117 religious sites, according to UNESCO.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

President Joe Biden met with Italy’s new leader Thursday at the White House, where the two reaffirmed their support for Ukraine and talked of countering Beijing’s growing ambitions – a particularly salient point for Rome as it mulls quitting China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Biden suggested that the U.S. could fill the gap.

“We’re going to talk about our deepening economic connection that has fueled more than $100 billion in trade last year,” Biden said. “In my mind, there’s no reason why that can’t increase.”

“We know who our friends are in times that are tough,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, in English, sitting next to Biden in the Oval Office. “And I think Western nations have shown that they can rely on each other much more than some have believed.”

After the meeting, the two leaders released a lengthy joint statement affirming their “unshakable alliance, strategic partnership and deep friendship.”

“The United States welcomes the increased presence of Italy in the [Indo-Pacific] region,” the statement read. “The two sides reiterate the vital importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, which is instrumental to regional and global security and prosperity. The United States and Italy also commit to strengthen bilateral and multilateral consultations on the opportunities and challenges posed by the People’s Republic of China.”

The far-right Italian leader is facing heavy pressure and “thinly veiled threats from Beijing” to stay in the agreement, which comes up for renewal in early 2024, wrote Brookings Institution analyst Carlo Bastasin this week.

“The prime minister, in other words, is finding out how unrealistic it would be for a country the size of Italy to pursue an isolated nationalism or aggressive rhetoric against China,” he wrote. “It would be much more reasonable for her to join forces with the other European countries in search of an agreement with the Biden administration.”

Earlier this week, Beijing urged Rome to stay on the path.

“For China and Italy, Belt and Road cooperation began as a new platform for practical cooperation,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. “It has achieved mutually beneficial results in a range of areas. It is in both sides’ interests to further tap into the potential of our Belt and Road cooperation.”

The White House disagrees.

“It’s becoming increasingly obvious that more and more countries around the world are seeing the risks and, quite frankly, the lack of reward for economic partnerships with China in — in that regard,” John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, said ahead of Meloni’s visit.

“We’ve created an alternative,” he said, referring to Biden’s Partnership for Global Investment and Infrastructure (PGII). “I mean, that is a good alternative, and it is getting some traction. And so, we’re going to continue to invest in that and continue to encourage our partners to as well.”

Meanwhile, Meloni, who swept to power in 2022 as leader of the right-wing populist Brothers of Italy party, faces criticism for her harsh stance on sexual minorities and recent moves to restrict rights for same-sex parents. When asked if Biden would raise that, Kirby said the president would.

“We approach our engagement with countries around the world from that perspective — a respect for human rights, civil rights, freedom of expression and equality,” he said. “And we’re never shy about stating that either publicly or privately, and we’ll continue to do that.”
…

Sweden’s prime minister said Thursday that police have received several permit applications for the burning of religious texts in the country next week, and that he fears this may escalate tensions further with the Muslim world.

In his first public comments since the start of the Quran burning crisis that has severely strained Stockholm’s ties with Muslim nations, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told Swedish news agency TT he was “extremely concerned” about a new wave of desecrations. 

“It’s the police that make those decisions, not me. If they [permits] are granted, we face a number of days with the obvious risk of serious things happening,” Kristersson told TT.

A recent string of public Quran desecrations by a handful of anti-Islam activists in Sweden — and more recently in neighboring Denmark — has sparked angry demonstrations in Muslim countries.

Sweden does not have a law specifically prohibiting the burning or desecration of the Quran or other religious texts. The right to hold public demonstrations is valued and protected by the Swedish Constitution. Police generally give permission based on whether they believe a public gathering can be held without major disruptions or risks to public safety.

The Swedish Security Service said Wednesday that Sweden’s image among Muslim nations and its security situation have deteriorated after the recent Quran burnings, and that it could face threats from “within the violent Islamist milieu.”

Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom and security service representatives appeared before the Swedish Parliament’s foreign affairs committee Thursday to discuss the Quran burning crisis, at the request of the opposition Social Democratic Party.

After the meeting, Billstrom told TT that the situation was serious but that there was no “quick fix” to cool down the anti-Swedish mood in the Muslim world.

“Our primary and most important task is to protect Swedish interests and the safety of Swedes both here and abroad,” Billstrom was quoted by TT. “We should take the developments that are now underway very seriously; everyone in our country should do so.”

Kristersson said his government has created a new task force among security agencies to come up with measures to combat terrorism and violent extremism.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has called an emergency remote meeting of members’ foreign ministers on July 31 at the ministerial level to discuss the Quran burnings in Sweden and Denmark. 
…

The Biden administration is dismissing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to supply free grain to several African nations whose leaders are attending a summit in St. Petersburg, and calling instead for a full Russian return to the agreement that allowed Ukraine to send products from their Black Sea ports. 

John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, also told VOA on Thursday that the White House is closely watching a coup in Niger, a West African nation seen as a close U.S. partner in the struggle against Islamic extremism and instability caused by violent Russian mercenaries on the continent. 

The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: John, thank you very much for your time. With Russia nixing the grain deal (to allow shipments out of Ukrainian ports), which is vital for the Global South, it turns out that two-thirds of African leaders are not attending the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg. Does this poor showing mean that Putin’s food-weaponizing strategy, as you call it, is now playing against him?

John Kirby: I certainly can’t speak for the African leaders who decided to go or not to go, or what motivated them. I think the whole world, including African nations, are seeing, quite plainly, the effect of Russia’s decision to pull out of the grain deal, the effect that’s going to have on their economies, on food scarcity across the continent. And I hope that for those leaders who did show up, I hope Mr. Putin is honest with you. I hope he tells them, ‘I’m the reason why food prices are volatile. I’m the reason why you’re going to have more problems with starvation, and with access to food and grain in your countries.’ Because it is, there’s only one party responsible for the volatility we’re seeing, and for the fact that the grain is now going to be much harder to get out of Ukraine. And that’s Russia, that’s Mr. Putin.

VOA: Russia, at least publicly, is trying to downplay the impact of terminating the grain deal. And now Putin is offering, to at least six African countries, free grain and is trying to sort of replace Ukraine as a major food supplier to African nations. First of all, is it possible and how dangerous are those statements from Putin?

Kirby: On the face of it, it looks like a desperate attempt by Mr. Putin to try to paper over the impact that his decision to not extend the deal is going to have on African nations. Obviously, each of these sovereign nations have got to decide for themselves whether this new offer by Mr. Putin is legitimate and whether they want to accept it. But it’s increasingly clear that nations around the world and in the Global South are seeing this reckless, irresponsible decision by Putin for what it is.

VOA: As for alternative ways of executing the grain deal, besides ground transportation, are the U.S. and allies considering sending convoys to escort ships in the Black Sea?

Kirby: No, there’s no active discussion now about inserting warships into the Black Sea. I think we all understand that that will only escalate the tensions and increase the odds of conflict between the West and Russia and that’s not what we’re looking for. What we’re looking for is for the grain to get out. What we’re looking for is for the deal to get extended. And short of that we’re going to work with our allies and partners on other ground routes and maybe even river routes.

VOA: It seems like Bolivia is interested in obtaining (drone) technology from Iran to protect its borders, as they say. Do you find this concerning?

Kirby: We’re concerned about any export of Iranian technology that can be destabilizing. We have leveled many sanctions on Iran, some of them tied directly to their support for Russia and their export of this drone technology to Moscow. We urge all nations, no matter where they are, to carefully consider before they enter into defense arrangements with a nation like Iran.

VOA: Can you elaborate on the coup in Niger? What’s the administration’s strategy and next move to try to get the country back on the path towards democratic governance?

Kirby: Well, we also obviously want to see the democratically elected government fully respected and free to govern as the people of Niger want them to govern. We’re watching events there, very closely. … We continue to urge as we did yesterday, that President (Mohamed) Bazoum be released and be allowed to execute the office that he was voted into to represent the people of Niger. Our State Department colleagues are doing the best they can to keep people advised and aware of the situation on the ground. We advise Americans to be safe, safety first. 

VOA: Some American media outlets reported that President Biden ordered the transfer of evidence to the International Criminal Court to investigate Russian war crimes. Can you elaborate on that?

Kirby: President Biden has been exceedingly clear that we want to make sure that Russia is properly held accountable for war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, that Russian forces and paramilitary forces and private contractors like the Wagner Group are clearly perpetrating on the people of Ukraine. And we’ve been clear from the very beginning that we’re going to help Ukraine. They have a special counsel who’s gathering evidence. We’re going to do what we can to help them collect that evidence, analyze that evidence and have it available for the appropriate international accountability mechanisms that might occur when the war is over. And that will include some coordination, some support of the work that the International Criminal Court is doing. 

VOA: Thank you very much. 

Kirby: Thank you. 
…

KIRKENES, Norway — In a place far above the Arctic Circle, a group of Russian journalists are working with Norwegians to break through the strict state controls that have gripped the media in their homeland.

At the Barents Observer, an online newspaper that has become a leading provider of news from the Far North over the past two decades, the two local journalists are now in the minority.

Based in the town of Kirkenes, close to the Russian border, the news outlet opened its doors to reporters who fled Russia after a clampdown on the press followed the invasion of Ukraine.

Denis Zagore left the Russian city of Murmansk in September, he said.

“When the war started, in my podcasts for Barents Observer, I said ‘dictator Putin,’ I said, ‘not SMO’ (special military operation) or something like that,” Zagore told AFP. “I started to understand it could be unsafe if I continued to do it in Murmansk,” which lies 220 kilometers (137 miles) over the border.

“If you (want to) say Putin is a dictator and war is war, it’s more safe here,” he said.

Blocked in Russia

The Barents Observer now has three Russian reporters and a Russian trainee and has started publishing more articles in Russian than English.

“We were already blocked in Russia and have been in tremendous trouble with the Russian censorship agency,” editor Thomas Nilsen said. “So we said, OK, they want to make more trouble for journalists, then we can make more trouble for them.

“We don’t care about Russian censorship laws. We are here for the freedom of speech and free journalism,” Nilsen said.

Blocked since 2019, the publication is using a multitude of tricks to circumvent Russia’s attempts to limit access. Mirror sites hosted on different addresses, access via VPN services, podcast formats and a presence on YouTube mean tens of thousands of views are maintained, Nilsen said.

Coverage includes general interest news like setbacks facing a marine park in Murmansk or invasions by pink salmon, as well as stories directly linked to the conflict in Ukraine.

“We have a lot of viewers, especially among young people in Russia, that get access and get information about what’s happening with the war, with the repression in Russia, about who ends up in jail and so on,” Nilsen said, “news articles that they don’t get in their local or regional media at home.”

A Putin spider 

Russia has fallen to 164th place — out of 180 — in the annual Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, which Norway has topped for several years.

In early July, Elena Milashina, a Russian journalist with independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was badly beaten in Chechnya.

Foreign media are also on the receiving end. Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, has been in prison since March facing espionage charges.

“Every day we were sitting in our office and didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Elizaveta Vereykina, who worked for the BBC in Moscow before joining the Barents Observer. “Would the police suddenly storm into our office and take us?

“It’s hard to live in a society that absolutely despises everything about you,” she said.

The number of Russian journalists in exile has grown in places such as Tbilisi, Yerevan, Vilnius, Riga and Kirkenes.

Trainee Olesya Krivtsova is waiting for a work permit before she can begin contributing.

She has a tattoo on her right leg: an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the shape of a spider with the Orwellian inscription “Big Brother is watching you.”

On the other ankle, she once wore an electronic bracelet. Reported by university friends in Arkhangelsk for criticizing the war on social networks, Krivtsova was placed under house arrest pending a trial for justifying terrorism and discrediting the Russian army — charges punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

“In the end, I realized the injustice of what was happening, so I left,” she said.

After ridding herself of the ankle bracelet, she traveled via Belarus and Lithuania before reaching Kirkenes.

“She said, ‘I want to change Russia and I want to do it through journalism,’” said Nilsen. “We said, ‘OK, welcome.'”
…

Wildfires reached the outskirts of Athens on Thursday as strong gusts of wind caused flare-ups around Greece, disrupting highway traffic and rail services.

The fires have raged across parts of the country during three successive Mediterranean heat waves over two weeks, leaving five people dead, including two firefighting pilots, and triggering a huge evacuation of tourists over the weekend on the island of Rhodes.

Water-dropping helicopters and a ground crew scrambled early Thursday to a blaze in Kifissia, just north of Athens, which was quickly put out.

Near the central city of Volos, a wildfire burned on two fronts, forcing a section of Greece’s busiest highway to close for several hours, while national rail services passing through the area were delayed.

Firefighters also battled flames on Rhodes for a 10th successive day, while flare-ups were reported on the island of Evia.

Wildfire carbon emissions for July in Greece were the highest by a huge margin — totaling over 1 metric megaton and doubling the previous record — since records started 20 years ago, according to the European Union agency that analyzes satellite data, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.

“Unfortunately, it is not all that surprising, given the extreme conditions in the region,” said Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the agency. “The observed intensity and estimated emissions show how unusual the scale of the fires have been for July relative to the last 20 years of data.”

In Athens, senior members of the armed forces paid tribute to the two pilots killed in a firefighting plane crash this week, at a ceremony held at the Defense Ministry.

Cpt. Christos Moulas and Lt. Pericles Stephanidis died during a low-altitude water drop on the island of Evia.

Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said the operators had shown “self-denial in the line of duty.”

“Greece today is in mourning. Their memories will live on,” Dendias said.

Funeral services for the two airmen will be held in northern Greece later Thursday and on the island of Crete on Friday.

 
…

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says Ukrainian forces have been deliberate in their counteroffensive against Russia and have been “conserving manpower and equipment.”
Russia’s Federal Security Service said it found traces of explosives on a vessel en route from Turkey to Russia that had previously visited a Ukrainian port.

A Ukrainian official said Thursday that Russian forces carried out an overnight missile strike on the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, killing at least one person.

Oleh Kiper, the regional governor, said the attack damaged a small security building, equipment at a cargo terminal and two cars.

Kiper said the attack involved missiles fired from a submarine in the Black Sea.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down one of two missiles Russia fired targeting Odesa, while air defense also downed eight drones that Russia launched overnight.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media that he visited the city of Dnipro, in southeastern Ukraine, to meet with military commanders and discuss issues regarding supplies and strengthening air defenses.

UN meetings

Russian bombardments are taking a heavy toll on Ukrainian cultural sites as well as grain supplies that Kyiv had been shipping to impoverished countries.

The mounting damage was spelled out Wednesday at unusual back-to-back U.N. Security Council meetings on Ukraine.

According to UNESCO, since the war began in February 2022, at least 274 Ukrainian cultural sites have been damaged, including 117 religious sites.

“Religious sites should be places of worship, not places of war,” Nihal Saad, director of the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, told the council in her briefing.

But Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s deputy permanent U.N. ambassador, said Zelenskyy’s government was conducting a “campaign” to destroy orthodoxy in Ukraine.

He dismissed condemnations of Russia’s missile strike Sunday on the Transfiguration Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the southern city of Odesa, and suggested it was Ukraine’s fault.

“If the Russian missile truly struck the cathedral, as the Zelenskyy regime claims, then there would be nothing left of the cathedral at all,” Polyansky told the Security Council. “But it was damaged and not completely destroyed.”

At the second hearing, requested by Kyiv, Khaled Khiari, assistant secretary-general for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, told the council that Russian strikes on grain facilities are “a calamitous turn for Ukrainians and the world.” Moscow withdrew last week from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which protected Ukrainian shipments to other countries.

“Port cities that allow for the export of grain, such as Odesa, Reni and Izmail, are a lifeline for many,” Khiari said. “Now, they are the latest casualties in this senseless, brutal war.”

Officials say that strikes on Odesa have damaged infrastructure important for future grain exports. A strike on the port of Chornomorsk last week destroyed 60,000 metric tons of grain, enough to feed 270,000 people for one year, the Word Food Program said.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia’s attacks have global consequences for the world’s food supply, especially in parts of the world struggling with hunger and malnutrition.

“Russia is hell-bent on preventing Ukrainian grain from reaching global markets, which is why it unilaterally suspended its participation in Black Sea Grain Initiative,” she said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was continuing to try to find a way to restart the deal.

Russia has altered its naval activity in the Black Sea, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday, adding that there is a possibility Russian forces are preparing “to enforce a blockade of Ukraine” after withdrawing from the year-old grain shipment deal.

The Defense Ministry said in its daily update that the Russian corvette Sergey Kotov had deployed to the Black Sea to patrol a shipping lane between the Bosporus and Odesa.

“There is a realistic possibility that it will form part of a task group to intercept commercial vessels Russia believes are heading to Ukraine,” the British ministry said.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA – U.S. defense officials watching Ukraine’s slow-moving counteroffensive against Russia are not yet ready to sound any alarms, despite the lack of a major breakthrough.

There had been hope that an influx of U.S. and Western tanks and armored vehicles, as well as new supplies of ammunition, artillery and missile systems might allow Kyiv’s forces to punch through Russian lines.

Speaking during a visit to Papua New Guinea on Thursday, though, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine still has time.

“They still have a lot of options available to them,” Austin told a news conference with Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape.

“They’ve been very deliberate. They’ve been conserving manpower and equipment,” he added. “I think you can expect them to continue to press.”

Ukrainian officials have blamed Russian defenses, specifically minefields laid down by Russian forces as they dug in over the winter, for stalling their advances.

Top U.S. military officials acknowledge the Russian minefields are a problem. However, current and former officials, as well as some analysts, have expressed concerns that Ukrainian commanders have fallen back on old, Soviet-style tactics instead of embracing U.S. doctrines that could speed Kyiv’s advance.

Austin cautioned, however, that some of the expectations for Ukraine’s counteroffensive may have been too optimistic.

“We said throughout that this would be a tough fight and that this would be a long fight,” he said. “We’ve seen a great bit of that play out.”

Austin would not comment on details of Ukraine’s counteroffensive or on media reports quoting U.S. officials as saying that the counteroffensive is now in full swing with additional Ukrainian forces being thrown into the fight.

Still, he held out hope that Ukraine may see increasing victories in coming weeks.

“They have a lot of combat power,” Austin said. “Ukraine is well-trained and well-prepared to be successful.”
…

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – Russia’s defense minister accompanied North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to a defense exhibition that featured the North’s banned ballistic missiles as the neighbors pledged to boost ties, North Korean state media reported Thursday.

The Russian minister, Sergei Shoigu, and a Chinese delegation including a Politburo member arrived in North Korea this week for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War celebrated in North Korea as “Victory Day.”

The missiles were banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions adopted with Russian and Chinese support but this week they provided a striking backdrop for a show of solidarity by three countries united by their rivalry with the U.S.

Shoigu is making the first visit by a Russian defense minister to North Korea since the fall of the Soviet Union.

For North Korea, the arrival of the Russian and Chinese delegations marks its first major opening up to the world since the coronavirus pandemic.

Shoigu gave Kim a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean media reported.

Kim thanked Putin for sending the military delegation led by Shoigu, saying the visit had deepened the “strategic and traditional” relations between North Korea and Russia.

“(Kim) expressed his views on the issues of mutual concern in the struggle to safeguard the sovereignty, development and interests of the two countries from the high-handed and arbitrary practices of the imperialists and to realize international justice and peace,” North Korean media said.

“He repeatedly expressed belief that the Russian army and people would achieve big successes in the struggle for building a powerful country,” it said.

KCNA did not refer to the war in Ukraine but North Korea’s defense minister, Kang Sun Nam, was reported as saying North Korea fully supported Russia’s “battle for justice” and to protect its sovereignty.

Kim led Shoigu on a tour of an exhibition of new weapons and military equipment, KCNA said.

State media photographs showed Kim and his guests at a display of some of the North’s ballistic missiles in multi-axle transporter launchers. Another image showed what analysts said appeared to be a new drone.

One analyst said Shoigu’s inspection of the North Korean missiles visit suggested Russian acceptance of North Korea’s nuclear program.

“We’ve come a long way from when North Korea would avoid showing off its nuclear capabilities when senior foreign dignitaries from Russia and China were in town,” said Ankit Panda of the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, calling the tour “remarkable.”

“The personal tour for Shoigu – and Shoigu’s willingness to be photographed with Kim in the course of this tour – is evidence that Moscow is complacent with North Korea’s ongoing nuclear modernization,” he said.

Kim also met Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Li Hongzhong for talks and was handed a letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean media reported.

The visit by Li’s delegation showed Xi’s commitment to “attach great importance to the DPRK-China friendship,” Kim was quoted as saying by the North’s KCNA state news agency, referring to the North the initial of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

‘No secret’

The Russian visit raises the prospect of more open support for North Korea, especially with Russia isolated by the West over is invasion of Ukraine, analysts said.

“While Russia has kept its official military cooperation with the North Korea limited, any veritable rupture in the so-called post-Cold War order may see Russia more willing to openly violate sanctions, especially given their relatively lax attitude to the shifts in North Korea’s nuclear status last year,” said Anthony Rinna, a specialist in Korea-Russia relations at the Sino-NK think tank.

Last year, North Korea codified a new, expansive nuclear law declaring its status as a nuclear-armed state “irreversible.”

This month, it threatened nuclear retaliation over a show of force by the United States, saying the deployment of strategic military assets near the Korean peninsula could meet criteria for its use of nuclear weapons.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Russia’s overtures to North Korea comes as the Kremlin struggles to procure arms.

“It’s been no secret … Mr. Putin is reaching out to other countries for help and support in fighting his war in Ukraine. And that includes, we know, some outreach to the DPRK,” he said.

North Korea has backed the Kremlin over its war with Ukraine and has shipped weapons including infantry rockets and missiles in support of Russia’s war, the White House has said.

North Korea and Russia deny they have conducted arms transactions.  
…

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday raised the possibility of New Zealand and other nations taking part in the AUKUS defense pact, cooperation that could rile Wellington’s key trade partner China.

“The door’s very much open for New Zealand and other partners to engage as they see appropriate going forward,” Blinken said, as Wellington mulls cooperation on non-nuclear aspects of the joint Australia-U.K.-U.S. accord.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on Wednesday said New Zealand was “open to conversations” about a possible role in AUKUS, so long as it did not relate to the development of nuclear-powered submarines.

New Zealand has been nuclear-free since the mid-1980s.

Instead, officials appear to be eying cooperation on defense technologies such as cyber, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons, which fall under the AUKUS agreement’s so-called “pillar two.”

New Zealand and Australia are the main allies of the United States in the South Pacific.

But New Zealand has recently been accused of putting its trading relationship with China ahead of its friendships with fellow Five Eyes spy group members the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia.

Beijing has vehemently opposed AUKUS, describing the pact as destabilizing for the region.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said that “nothing has been agreed to” on AUKUS yet, and the country’s Cabinet would have to consider any proposals before any agreement is made.  
…

Sinead O’Connor, the gifted Irish singer-songwriter who became a superstar in her mid-20s but was known as much for her private struggles and provocative actions as for her fierce and expressive music, has died at 56.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinead. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time,” the singer’s family said in a statement reported Wednesday by the BBC and RTE. No cause was disclosed.

She was public about her mental illness, saying that she’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. O’Connor posted a Facebook video in 2017 from a New Jersey motel where she had been living, saying that she was staying alive for the sake of others and that if it were up to her, she’d be “gone.”

When her teenage son Shane died by suicide in 2022, O’Connor tweeted there was “no point living without him” and was soon hospitalized.

Recognizable by her shaved head and elfin features, O’Connor began her career singing on the streets of Dublin and soon rose to international fame. She was a star from her 1987 debut album “The Lion and the Cobra” and became a sensation in 1990 with her cover of Prince’s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a seething, shattering performance that topped charts from Europe to Australia and was heightened by a promotional video featuring the gray-eyed O’Connor in intense close-up.

She was a lifelong nonconformist — she would say that she shaved her head in response to record executives pressuring her to be conventionally glamorous — but her political and cultural stances and troubled private life often overshadowed her music.

A critic of the Catholic Church well before allegations sexual abuse were widely reported, O’Connor made headlines in October 1992 when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II while appearing live on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and denounced the church as the enemy. The next week, Joe Pesci hosted “Saturday Night Live,” held up a repaired photo of the pope and said that if he had been on the show with O’Connor, he “would have gave her such a smack.”

Days later, she appeared at an all-star tribute for Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden and was immediately booed. She was supposed to sing Dylan’s “I Believe in You,” but switched to an a cappella version of Bob Marley’s “War,” which she had sung on “Saturday Night Live.”

Although consoled and encouraged on stage by her friend Kris Kristofferson, she left and broke down, and her performance was kept off the concert CD. (Years later, Kristofferson recorded “Sister Sinead,” for which he wrote, “And maybe she’s crazy and maybe she ain’t/But so was Picasso and so were the saints.”)

She also feuded with Frank Sinatra over her refusal to allow the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at one of her shows and accused Prince of physically threatening her. In 1989 she declared her support for the Irish Republican Army, a statement she retracted a year later. Around the same time, she skipped the Grammy ceremony, saying it was too commercialized.

In 1999, O’Connor caused uproar in Ireland when she became a priestess of the breakaway Latin Tridentine Church — a position that was not recognized by the mainstream Catholic Church. For many years, she called for a full investigation into the extent of the church’s role in concealing child abuse by clergy.

In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI apologized to Ireland to atone for decades of abuse, O’Connor condemned the apology for not going far enough and called for Catholics to boycott Mass until there was a full investigation into the Vatican’s role, which by 2018 was making international headlines.

“People assumed I didn’t believe in God. That’s not the case at all. I’m Catholic by birth and culture and would be the first at the church door if the Vatican offered sincere reconciliation,” she wrote in The Washington Post in 2010.

O’Connor announced in 2018 that she had converted to Islam and would be adopting the name Shuhada’ Davitt, later Shuhada Sadaqat — although she continued to use Sinead O’Connor professionally. 

“Her music was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched and beyond compare,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said in a statement on social media. 

O’Connor was born on December 8, 1966. She had a difficult childhood, with a mother whom she alleged was abusive and encouraged her to shoplift. As a teenager she spent time in a church-sponsored institution for girls, where she said she washed priests’ clothes for no wages. But a nun gave O’Connor her first guitar, and soon she sang and performed on the streets of Dublin, her influences ranging from Dylan to Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Her performance with a local band caught the eye of a small record label, and, in 1987, O’Connor released “The Lion and the Cobra,” which sold hundreds of thousands of copies and featured the hit “Mandinka,” driven by a hard rock guitar riff and O’Connor’s piercing vocals. O’Connor, 20 years old and pregnant while making “Lion and the Cobra,” co-produced the album.

“Nothing Compares 2 U” received three Grammy nominations and was the featured track off her acclaimed album “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got,” which helped lead Rolling Stone to name her Artist of the Year in 1991.

O’Connor announced she was retiring from music in 2003, but she continued to record new material. Her most recent album was “I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss,” released in 2014 and she sang the theme song for Season 7 of “Outlander.”

The singer married four times; her union to drug counselor Barry Herridge, in 2011, lasted just 16 days. O’Connor had four children: Jake, with her first husband John Reynolds; Roisin, with John Waters; Shane, with Donal Lunny; and Yeshua Bonadio, with Frank Bonadio.

In 2014, she said she was joining the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party and called for its leaders to step aside so that a younger generation of activists could take over. She later withdrew her application.
…

The past year has lifted Poland’s image in the European Union from rule-of-law defier to leading Ukraine champion, welcoming more than a million refugees since Russia’s invasion and providing billions of dollars in military aid to neighboring Kyiv.

But Poland’s newly acquired luster is fast fading, as Warsaw and four other neighboring countries balk at another Ukraine export — millions of tons of grain that have now lost maritime transport routes since Russia’s pullout this month from the year-old Black Sea Grain Initiative. 

The countries, including Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, argue that Ukrainian cereals are flooding local markets and undercutting local harvests. 

Analysts say money and politics are at stake — not just millions of dollars in EU compensation for farmers from those countries but also key rural votes that governments in Poland and Slovakia are courting ahead of fall legislative elections. 

The grain standoff that is dividing the 27-member bloc — which has largely pulled together since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine — may also carry longer-term implications for the EU. 

Looming on the horizon, although with no fixed date, is Ukraine’s hoped-for membership in the bloc, which may divert millions of dollars of funds from Brussels that its eastern EU neighbors currently enjoy.

“What we’re seeing now is the Eastern European countries coming to terms with the economic implications of their political and military support for Ukraine,” said Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Brussels and the Peterson Institute for International Relations in Washington.

With Kyiv now an EU candidate, “they’re going to have to choose,” Kirkegaard said. “Are they really interested in also supporting Ukraine in the long run? We’re seeing a part of that process playing out now.”

EU agricultural ministers met Tuesday in Brussels to look at ways to expand European overland rail and road “solidarity routes” set up last year to export Ukrainian grain to account for the cutoff of Black Sea routes.

The European Commission is also considering a separate proposal by Lithuania to have the grain exported through five Baltic sea ports. 

Experts have raised questions about whether Europe has the capacity to re-export the extra Ukrainian grain tonnage that previously traveled through the Black Sea. That includes potential problems harmonizing rail gauges — defining the distance between the two rails of the tracks — among member states. 

Tuesday’s meeting reached no agreement on the fate of a temporary deal the EU struck with Poland and four other Eastern European countries in May. That allowed Ukrainian grain shipments to pass through their territories but banned local sale and storage.

Brussels also offered roughly $110 million in compensation for farmers in those countries who were reeling from the cheaper competition.

‘Not European’

The five countries now want the deal — which expires in mid-September — expanded until year’s end.

“I hope that this will be extended,” Polish Agricultural Minister Robert Telus told media website Euractiv. “But if it is not, Poland will still have to tackle the issue, and we have demonstrated we can do that.”

The commission says it will respond before the September deadline. But many other EU members oppose any extension.

“What is not possible is to take the money from Brussels as compensation for the burden, but at the same time close the border to Ukraine,” said German Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir.

That would undermine EU solidarity for Ukraine, he said, adding, “The only one who is happy is [Russian President] Vladimir Putin.” 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticized the push to extend the restrictions on Ukrainian grain exports, calling them “unacceptable” and “not European” during his evening address Tuesday — echoing remarks made by other critics in recent weeks. 

For its part, France’s Liberation newspaper has claimed Warsaw is using “pirate methods” that threaten the bloc’s unity against Russia, “and puts into peril the rest of the economy of Ukraine that it claims to support.”

Poland, along with Hungary, has faced plenty of other EU criticism over the years — from flouting rule-of-law principles to the bloc’s asylum and migration rules. Earlier this month, the EU Commission cited underwhelming progress by both on judicial reforms that are conditioned to its release of millions of dollars in funds.

But for Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party, the need to shore up its key rural base is most immediately at stake, observers say, ahead of this fall’s legislative vote.

“Clearly, it’s an electoral strategy of the Polish government,” Kirkegaard said of Warsaw’s push to extend the Ukrainian grain import restrictions. “Are they going to back down? Probably not. Will the rest of the EU accept that? No.”

The prospect of a stable Ukraine one day joining the bloc also weighs into the calculations of Poland and the other four Eastern European countries, he said. While Kyiv’s membership would offer an extra bulwark against Russia, it would likely divert millions of dollars in EU agricultural and other funds that many nations enjoy today.

With discussions over the next 2027 EU budget looming, “they’re putting their markers down,” Kirkegaard said. “They’re positioning themselves for what is going to be a huge fight.” 
…

Major fires raging in Greece and other European countries have advanced. The flames have caused additional deaths, destroying homes and threatening nature reserves during a third successive wave of extreme temperatures, The Associated Press reported.
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A London jury acquitted Kevin Spacey on sexual assault charges on Wednesday after a four-week trial in which the actor said he was a “big flirt” who had consensual flings with men and whose only misstep was touching a man’s groin while making a “clumsy pass.”

Three men accused the Oscar winner of aggressively grabbing their crotches. A fourth, an aspiring actor seeking mentorship, said he awoke to the actor performing oral sex on him after going to Spacey’s London apartment for a beer and either falling asleep or passing out.

All the men said the contact was unwanted but Spacey testified that the young actor and another man had willingly participated in consensual acts. He said a third man’s allegation that he grabbed his privates like a striking “cobra” backstage at a theater was “pure fantasy.”

He said he didn’t remember a fourth incident at a small party at a home he rented in the country but accepted that he touched the groin of a man he had met at a pub during a night of heavy drinking. He said he had misread the man’s interest in him and said he had probably made an awkward pass.

Defense lawyer Patrick Gibbs said three of the men were liars and incidents had been “reimagined with a sinister spin.” He accused most of them of hopping on a “bandwagon” of complaints in the hope of striking it rich.

Prosecutor Christine Agnew told jurors that Spacey was a “sexual bully” who took what he wanted when he wanted. She said he was shielded by a “trinity of protection”: he knew men were unlikely to complain; they wouldn’t be believed if they did complain; and if they did complain, no action would be taken because he was powerful.

Spacey, who turned 64 on Wednesday, faced nine charges, including multiple counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

The accusations date from 2001 to 2013 and include a period when Spacey — after winning Academy Awards for “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty” — had returned to the theater, his first love. During most of that period he was artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre in London.

The men came forward after an American actor accused Spacey of an incident of sexual misconduct as the #MeToo movement heated up in 2017.

Several of the men said they had been haunted by the abuse and couldn’t bear to watch Spacey’s films.

One of the men broke down when speaking with police as he provided details in a videotaped interview about the oral sex incident that he said he’d never told anyone before. Another man said he was angry about the abuse that occurred sporadically over several years and began to drink and work out more to cope with it.

Spacey choked up and became teary eyed in the witness box as he described the emotional and financial turmoil that the U.S. accusations brought and the barrage of criticism that followed on social media.

“My world exploded,” Spacey testified. “There was a rush to judgment and before the first question was asked or answered I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days.”

Gibbs said Spacey was being “monstered” on the internet every night and became toxic in the industry.

Spacey was booted from “House of Cards” and his scenes in “All the Money in the World,” were scrubbed and he was replaced by Christopher Plummer. Aside from some small projects, he has barely worked as an actor in six years.

A New York jury last year swiftly cleared Spacey in a $40 million lawsuit by “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp on allegations dating back three decades.

Spacey had viewed the London case as a chance for redemption, telling German magazine Zeit last month that there were “people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London.”
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A former U.S. Marine who was freed by Russia last year in a prisoner swap has been injured while fighting for Ukraine against Moscow’s forces, the U.S. State Department said.
The European Union is considering helping fund the costly transportation of grain out of Ukraine after Russia halted a deal that allowed Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain vital to global food security.

Britain’s defense ministry said Wednesday that Russia has altered its naval activity in the Black Sea, adding that there is a possibility Russian forces were preparing “to enforce a blockade of Ukraine.”

Last week, Russia withdrew from a nearly year-old agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that allowed for the safe passage of grain shipments from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Before the deal, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had halted the grain exports, worsening a global food crisis.

The British defense ministry said in its daily update that the Russian corvette Sergey Kotov had deployed to the Black Sea to patrol a shipping lane between the Bosporus Strait and Ukraine’s southern port of Odesa.

“There is a realistic possibility that it will form part of a task group to intercept commercial vessels Russia believes are heading to Ukraine,” the British ministry said.

US aid

The United States will send Ukraine an additional $400 million in military aid, including air defense missiles, small drones and armored vehicles, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The weapons are being provided through the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows for the speedy delivery of defense articles and services from U.S. stocks, sometimes arriving within days of approval. The materiel will come from U.S. excess inventory.

The aid announcement comes at a time when Ukrainian troops are involved in a slow-moving counteroffensive against invading Russian forces.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the assistance is aimed at “strengthening Ukraine’s brave forces on the battlefield” and “helping them retake Ukraine’s sovereign territory.”

“The people of Ukraine continue to bravely defend their country against Russia’s aggression while Russia continues its relentless and vicious attacks that are killing Ukrainian civilians and destroying civil infrastructure,” Blinken said in a statement.

The new aid package includes an array of ammunition, ranging from missiles for Patriot air defense systems and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASMS), Stinger anti-aircraft systems, more ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Stryker armored personnel carriers and a variety of other missiles and rockets.

It also will include for the first time U.S.-furnished Black Hornet surveillance drones — tiny nano drones used largely for intelligence-gathering. Ukraine has previously received these drones from other Western allies.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. has provided more than $43 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

Also Tuesday, Russian lawmakers approved a bill extending the upper age limit for the compulsory military draft from 27 to 30, a move that appears aimed at expanding the pool of recruits for the fighting in Ukraine.

The measure was quickly approved by the lower house on Tuesday. It will need to be approved by the upper house and signed by President Vladimir Putin to become law.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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