Ukraine working ‘intensively’ to restore air travel

Parked planes are seen at Boryspil International Airport after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Boryspil, on Feb. 24, 2022. (Reuters)

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Updated 18 January 2024

Reuters

January 18, 2024 19:22

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Ukraine working ‘intensively’ to restore air travel

“I can tell you we are working very intensively to recover the air connection in Ukraine,” Rostyslav Shurma, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said
Shurma declined to give a timeline for the possible restoration of air travel

Updated 18 January 2024

Reuters

January 18, 2024 19:22

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KYIV: Ukraine is working “intensively” with partners to restore air travel suspended for nearly two years, with the main focus on Boryspil International Airport outside the capital Kyiv, a presidential official said on Thursday.
Ukraine’s airspace was abruptly closed by Russia’s invasion in February 2022 due to the security risk for civil aviation and anyone visiting has to make their way by road or rail from a neighboring country.
Kyiv sees a restoration of air travel as a goal toward victory for the economy.
“I don’t want to create over-expectations ... but I can tell you we are working very intensively to recover the air connection in Ukraine,” Rostyslav Shurma, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said during a panel discussion in Davos.
Shurma declined to give a timeline for the possible restoration of air travel but said Ukraine had an “internal roadmap and schedule.”
He said Kyiv was consulting Israeli colleagues on technical specifications to enable the restoration process, without elaborating. Israel has long experience in deploying air defense systems to protect its infrastructure.
“We need to get approvals from the IATA (International Air Transport Association) and FAA (the US Federal Aviation Administration) which is not an easy case. And it depends more on the bold decisions of international partners that we believe we’ll get,” Shurma said.
An insurance program for grain shipments through the Black Sea corridor, run by broker Marsh with other insurers and Ukrainian state banks, could be used as a blueprint for restoring air travel, Marsh’s CEO John Doyle said.
“The near-term focus is moving past that Unity facility (for grain shipments), using that as a blueprint to support other aspects of the economy. As we discussed, travel is an important part of it. That’s going to be part of our focus over the coming months,” he told the same panel in Davos.
Shurma said Ukraine was considering reopening either Boryspil airport or another in the western region of Lviv, but the international hub near Kyiv was the priority.
In December, Boryspil saw the departure of a Boeing 777-300 on a technical flight, a sign the infrastructure remains in working condition.

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Venezuela crackdown helped avert ‘civil war’: attorney general

Updated 9 sec ago

AFP

November 13, 2024 00:41

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Venezuela crackdown helped avert ‘civil war’: attorney general

Updated 9 sec ago

AFP

November 13, 2024 00:41

CARACAS: Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab defended the state’s crackdown on opposition supporters after disputed July elections, telling AFP the authorities’ actions helped avert a “civil war.”
The proclamation of authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro as the winner of the July 28 election triggered widespread protests.
The opposition, which had been tipped by polls for an easy win, had published detailed polling-station-level results which showed its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia winning by a landslide.
Twenty-eight people, including two police officers, were killed and 200 injured in the unrest, during which around 2,400 people were arrested.
Saab claimed the violence that marred the protests had been “premeditated.”
“There was an attempt to trigger a civil war,” he said.
“The plan consisting in claiming there was fraud in order to generate a terrorist act. If we had not acted as we did at that moment Venezuela would have been gripped by civil war,” he told AFP in an interview Monday at his office in Caracas.
He denied the security forces had any responsibility for the deaths of demonstrators.
A September 4 report into the killings by Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointed the finger at Venezuelan security forces and pro-government militias known as “colectivos” in some of the deaths.
One of the victims was a 15-year-old boy, Isaias Jacob Fuenmayor Gonzalez, who sustained a gunshot to the neck while taking part in a protest in Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-biggest city, according to HRW.
Saab, whose office walls are lined with portraits of Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar, late Venezuelan socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez, his late Cuban ally Fidel Castro and Maduro, denied allegations his office was under Maduro’s thumb.
Appointed attorney general in 2017, he was re-elected to the position earlier this month by a parliament stacked with Maduro loyalists.
He cited among his achievements increased investment in community policing and 600 convictions handed down to police officers for human rights violations.
He also pointed to nearly 22,000 convictions for corruption under his watch and claimed to have dismantled “34 corruption systems” at graft-ridden state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela.
Five of the last eight oil ministers are in prison or fled the country.
Saab claimed that during the post-election violence “around 500” buildings, including schools, clinics and town halls were damaged by protesters.
He denied that those detained were political prisoners, accusing them of “trying to burn” and “shooting at” demonstrators, without providing any evidence of his claim.
“A political prisoner is someone who has been detained because of his political ideas and who uses peaceful tactics... These people took weapons to (try to) overthrow a legitimately constituted government,” he accused.
The opposition says many of those arrested were arbitrarily arrested.
Venezuela’s Foro Penal rights NGO says some 1,800 people remain behind bars over two months later, including 69 teenagers.
Saab denied that children were being held, but said that the law allowed for the arrest of minors aged between 14 and 17.
He refused to be drawn on how many protesters were still in custody, saying only that “many have been freed.”
And he denied claims by the families of some of the prisoners that their loved ones had been tortured.
Only a handful of countries, including Russia, have recognized Maduro’s claim to have won a third six-year term.
But opposition protests have largely petered out since September, when Gonzalez Urrutia went into exile in Spain after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Saab said the 75-year-old former diplomat would be “automatically detained” if he returned to Venezuela.
Saab also said that opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been in hiding since the election, was under investigation but refused to say whether a warrant had been issued for her arrest.

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Topics: Venezuela

US bans flights to Haiti as gang violence rages

Updated 6 min 59 sec ago

AFP

November 13, 2024 00:34

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US bans flights to Haiti as gang violence rages

Updated 6 min 59 sec ago

AFP

November 13, 2024 00:34

PORT-AU-PRINCE: The United States on Tuesday banned all civilian flights to Haiti for a month, a day after a jetliner was shot at on approach to the capital and as a new prime minister took the reins of a nation ravaged by poverty and gang violence.
The US Federal Aviation Administration’s move came after a Spirit Airlines jetliner arriving from Florida in Port-au-Prince was hit by gunfire and had to reroute to the Dominican Republic.
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime was sworn in on Monday, replacing outgoing premier Garry Conille, who was appointed in May but became embroiled in a power struggle with the country’s unelected transitional council.
On Tuesday, Haiti remained cut off from the rest of the world, with its main airport closed and bursts of gunfire ringing out in several neighborhoods of the capital.
Many stores and schools were shuttered as people feared more attacks by the powerful and well-armed gangs that control 80 percent of the city, even though a Kenyan-led international force has been deployed to help the outgunned Haitian police restore order.
Violent crime in the capital city remains high, with gang members routinely targeting civilians and robberies, rapes and kidnappings are rampant.
The attack on the Spirit Airlines aircraft saw one flight attendant suffer minor injuries. Images posted online appeared to show several bullet holes inside the plane.
The transitional council, aiming to put Haiti on a path to voting in 2026, had been tasked with stabilizing a country that has no president or parliament and last held elections in 2016.
The United States on Tuesday called on Haiti’s leaders to put personal interests aside and concentrate on getting the country back on its feet.
“The acute and immediate needs of the Haitian people mandate that the transitional government prioritize governance over the competing personal interests of political actors,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Haiti has not had a president since the assassination of Jovenel Moise in 2021.
The Caribbean nation has long struggled with political instability, poverty, natural disasters and gang violence.
But conditions sharply worsened at the end of February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in the capital, saying they wanted to overthrow then-prime minister Ariel Henry.
Despite the arrival of the Kenyan-led support mission in June, violence has continued to soar.
A recent United Nations report said more than 1,200 people were killed in Haiti from July through September, with persistent kidnappings and sexual violence against women and girls.
The report said the gangs were digging trenches, using drones and stockpiling weapons as they change tactics to confront the Kenyan-led police force.
Gang leaders have strengthened defenses for the zones they control and placed gas cylinders and Molotov cocktail bombs ready to use against police operations.

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Trump picks hard-liner Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel

Updated 17 min 10 sec ago

AFP

November 13, 2024 00:09

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Trump picks hard-liner Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel

“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump says

Updated 17 min 10 sec ago

AFP

November 13, 2024 00:09

WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday he had nominated Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel under his incoming administration, putting a stalwart supporter of that country’s government in a key role.
“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump said in a statement, referring to the Christian pastor-turned-politician.
“He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar quickly offered his congratulations to Huckabee, who has in the past said there was “no such thing as an occupation” when it came to Palestinian territories.
“I look forward to working with you to strengthen the bond between our peoples,” Minister Saar posted to Huckabee on X. “As a longstanding friend of Israel and our eternal capital Jerusalem — I hope you will feel very much at home.”
Huckabee, 69, ran twice for the Republican Party presidential nomination, including in 2016 against eventual winner Trump, who Huckabee was quick to back after falling out of the race.
He has often spoken passionately about his Christian faith and his opposition to gay rights.
Huckabee, whose nomination requires confirmation by the US Senate, has traveled to Israel regularly since 1973, and has led numerous tours there.
In 2017, he was present in Maale Adumim for the expansion of one of Israel’s largest settlements in the West Bank, strongly suggesting he was in support of Trump’s positions on Israel.
“There is no such thing as the West Bank — it’s Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee told CNN there at the time, using the Biblical terms for the area.
“There’s no such thing as a settlement; they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation,” he added.
In December 2023 he visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where dozens of Israelis were massacred in the October 7 attack by Hamas militants, and said: “I wanted to be here to say I stand with Israel. I stand with the Jewish people.”
Huckabee was born in Hope, Arkansas, the same town that gave rise to Democrat Bill Clinton, who served as the state’s governor before he became president.
His daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the current governor of Arkansas. She also served as Trump’s White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019.

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Topics: Mike Huckabee Donald Trump Arkansas Israel

Climate cash should also go to nuclear, says UN atomic chief

Updated 38 min 13 sec ago

AFP

November 13, 2024 00:06

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Climate cash should also go to nuclear, says UN atomic chief

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said he wanted countries from Kenya to Malaysia to go for nuclear, while denying he was pushing for an “irresponsible race” toward civil atomic power

Updated 38 min 13 sec ago

AFP

November 13, 2024 00:06

BAKU: The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that atomic power should also be allowed to tap into climate change funds.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said he wanted countries from Kenya to Malaysia to go for nuclear, while denying he was pushing for an “irresponsible race” toward civil atomic power.

“It should. Already at COP28 in Dubai the international community — not just nuclear countries — agreed that nuclear energy needs to be accelerated.
We need to give ourselves the means to make things happen.
The dialogue with international financial institutions has started in a very positive way. I was at the World Bank this summer, and tomorrow we will meet with the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), as well as the Development Bank of Latin America.
Various financing bodies are beginning to see that markets are pushing in this direction.
We are obviously not a commercial lobby (but) a regulatory agency for everything related to nuclear safety, security, and non-proliferation. We are here to provide assurances and to oversee projects.”

“There are cultural, political and ideological barriers. We are coming out of decades of a negative narrative about nuclear, but it has to happen. I am the first to want to see results straight away.”

“That would be a very good thing. There are many countries — such as Ghana, Kenya and Morocco — that are interested in small modular reactors, for example, and they approach us saying, ‘For us, this would be a good solution.’
Others, like those in Eastern Europe, could benefit from European funding and for whom energy security is crucial in reducing dependency on certain suppliers. So it depends on the model. In Asia, we have Malaysia, the Philippines... countries that genuinely need this.”

“Obviously, the agency does not endorse or promote programs or projects that lack the institutional and technological fabric needed.
We have development models. The United Arab Emirates is a very, very interesting case. It’s a country with financial resources but that initially had absolutely no infrastructure, nuclear regulations etc.
We have established programs for newcomers to guide them step-by-step, through 19 chapters, until they establish nuclear capability.”
That’s what we have done. We are not going crazy, in an irresponsible race toward civil nuclear power. But there are a lot of things we can do.”

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Topics: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Pentagon secrets leaker Jack Teixeira set to be sentenced, could get up to 17 years in prison

Updated 44 min 19 sec ago

AP

November 12, 2024 23:56

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Pentagon secrets leaker Jack Teixeira set to be sentenced, could get up to 17 years in prison

Prosecutors, though, countered that Teixeira does not suffer from an intellectual disability that prevents him from knowing right from wrong

Updated 44 min 19 sec ago

AP

November 12, 2024 23:56

BOSTON: A Massachusetts Air National Guard member who pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified military documents about the war in Ukraine is expected to be sentenced in federal court on Tuesday.
Prosecutors have argued that Jack Teixeira should be sentenced to 17 years in prison, saying he “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history.”
“As both a member of the United States Armed Forces and a clearance holder, the defendant took an oath to defend the United States and to protect its secrets — secrets that are vital to US national security and the physical safety of Americans serving overseas,” prosecutors wrote. “Teixeira violated his oath, almost every day, for over a year.”

An undated picture shows Jack Douglas Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the U.S. Air National Guard, who was arrested by the FBI, over his alleged involvement in leaks online of classified documents, posing for a selfie at an unidentified location. (Social Media Website/via Reuters)

Teixeira’s attorneys will argue that US District Judge Indira Talwani should sentence him to 11 years in prison. In their sentencing memorandum, they acknowledged that their client “made a terrible decision which he repeated over 14 months.”
“It’s a crime that deserves serious consequences,” the attorneys wrote. “Jack has thoroughly accepted responsibility for the wrongfulness of his actions and stands ready to accept whatever punishment must now be imposed.”
Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in March to six counts of the willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act. That came nearly a year after he was arrested in the most consequential national security leak in years.
The 22-year-old admitted that he illegally collected some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets and shared them with other users on the social media platform Discord.
When Teixeira pleaded guilty, prosecutors said they would seek a prison term at the high end of the sentencing range. But the defense wrote that the 11 years is a “serious and adequate to account for deterrence considerations and would be essentially equal to half the life that Jack has lived thus far.”
His attorneys described Teixeira as an autistic, isolated individual who spent most of his time online, especially with his Discord community. They said his actions, though criminal, were never meant to “harm the United States.” He also had no prior criminal record.
“Instead, his intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation,” the attorneys wrote. “To Jack, the Ukraine war was his generation’s World War II or Iraq, and he needed someone to share the experience with.”
Prosecutors, though, countered that Teixeira does not suffer from an intellectual disability that prevents him from knowing right from wrong. They argued that Teixeira’s post-arrest diagnosis as having “mild, high-functioning” autism “is of questionable relevance in these proceedings.”
The security breach raised alarm over America’s ability to protect its most closely guarded secrets and forced the Biden administration to scramble to try to contain the diplomatic and military fallout. The leaks embarrassed the Pentagon, which tightened controls to safeguard classified information and disciplined members found to have intentionally failed to take required action about Teixeira’s suspicious behavior.
Teixeira, who was part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, worked as a cyber transport systems specialist, which is essentially an information technology specialist responsible for military communications networks. He remains in the Air National Guard in an unpaid status, an Air Force official said.
Authorities said he first typed out classified documents he accessed and then began sharing photographs of files that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings. Prosecutors also said he tried to cover his tracks before his arrest, and authorities found a smashed tablet, laptop and an Xbox gaming console in a dumpster at his house.
The leak exposed to the world unvarnished secret assessments of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including information about troop movements in Ukraine, and the provision of supplies and equipment to Ukrainian troops. Teixeira also admitted posting information about a US adversary’s plans to harm US forces serving overseas.

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Topics: Pentagon US

Ukraine working ‘intensively’ to restore air travel

Ukraine working ‘intensively’ to restore air travel

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Ukraine working ‘intensively’ to restore air travel

Ukraine working ‘intensively’ to restore air travel

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