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International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Russia’s Shoigu and Gerasimov

International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Russia’s Shoigu and Gerasimov
FILE — Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, gestures as he speaks to Russian Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov prior to a meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin with the top military brass in Moscow. (AP)
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Updated 25 June 2024
Reuters
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International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Russia’s Shoigu and Gerasimov

International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Russia’s Shoigu and Gerasimov
  • The Hague-based court said Shoigu and Gerasimov were suspected of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity
Updated 25 June 2024
Reuters
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THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Sergei Shoigu, the former Russian defense minister, and leading Russian general Valery Gerasimov on Tuesday for alleged crimes committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Shoigu was removed from his post of defense minister last month, and appointed Secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, in the most significant changes Russian President Vladimir Putin made to his military command since the start of the war in 2022.
The Hague-based court said Shoigu and Gerasimov were suspected of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity for directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects in Ukraine.
Judges had found there were “reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March 2023,” the ICC said in a press release.
Russia, which is not a member of the ICC, has repeatedly said Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is a legitimate military target and denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine is also not a member, but has granted the ICC jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed on its territory.
The warrants for Shoigu and Gerasimov bring the total of arrest warrants issued against senior Russian suspects since the beginning of the invasion to eight. These include Putin, suspected of a war crime over the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
The tribunal has no police force of its own and relies on member states to make arrests.
During the timeframe mentioned in the latest warrants Russia is suspected of having carried out strikes against numerous electric power plants and sub-stations all over Ukraine.
According to ICC judges, there were reasonable ground to believe the strikes targeted mostly civilian objects “and for those installations that may have qualified as military objectives at the relevant time, the expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage,” making the attacks war crimes

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict ICC

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Block by block, Kamala Harris storms Philadelphia in 11th hour vote push

Block by block, Kamala Harris storms Philadelphia in 11th hour vote push
Updated 15 sec ago
AFP
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Block by block, Kamala Harris storms Philadelphia in 11th hour vote push

Block by block, Kamala Harris storms Philadelphia in 11th hour vote push
  • With barely a week to go, Harris is leaving nothing to chance in Philadelphia, where she must run up her vote tally to win the ultimate battleground state of Pennsylvania
Updated 15 sec ago
AFP

PHILADELPHIA: In the home stretch of an extraordinarily tight US presidential race, Kamala Harris is courting support in the largest city of the largest battleground state — one voter at a time.
Locked in a political duel with Republican Donald Trump, the vice president took to the streets of Philadelphia on Sunday for a frantic ground-game of campaigning.
In multiple stops across ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the City of Brotherly Love, Harris hugged voters, cuddled babies, wooed patrons at local establishments, and quoted scripture in a predominantly Black church.
With barely a week to go, Harris is leaving nothing to chance in Philadelphia, where she must run up her vote tally to win the ultimate battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Harris rolled up to Philly Cuts barber shop in the largely Black neighborhood of West Philadelphia to meet residents, before ducking into the African-American-themed Hakim’s Bookstore & Gift Shop.
“I’m so happy to see you,” Harris told an elderly woman, Ann Hughes, before embracing her and confiding: “They’re working me to the bone.”

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, from left, hugs Ann Hughes as her son State Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, looks on at Hakim's Bookstore and Gift Shop during a campaign stop on Oct. 27, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP)

It’s been a frantic pace in the waning days of a bitter presidential race that has seen both candidates use confrontational language, with Trump in particular accused of toxic attacks on Harris.
“She’s boots to the ground,” 43-year-old African-American woman Myrda Scott, who runs a financial firm, told AFP as she awaited Harris at a youth basketball rec center rally.
“Especially here in Philadelphia we like touching, feeling, hearing, seeing the people and being personable with them.”
Trump has repeatedly campaigned in Pennsylvania too. While he courts his bread-and-butter voters including white males, Christian conservatives, and rural residents, he has also sought to peel away Black male support from Harris.
Rosa Jones, a Black woman recently laid off from her customer service job, is stressed because her son is voting for Trump.
While Scott expressed confidence about a Harris victory, “I have some jitters” about the election, 68-year-old Jones told AFP.
But she believes Harris needs to keep at it with “these little gatherings here, where she’s sitting with everyday people up close.”

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris greets youth basketball players at The Alan Horwitz "Sixth Man" Center on Oct.27, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images/AFP)

Harris’s route took her through a working class Puerto Rican neighborhood to Freddy and Tony’s Restaurant, where she spoke with voters, snapped selfies and addressed diners.
“Truly the path to victory runs through Philly and through Pennsylvania,” she said. “It runs through all of you.”
Awilda Cubero, a Puertorriquena who moved to Philadelphia two decades ago, was glowing about Harris’s round of intimate get-out-the-vote stops.
“She has to come, in person, to talk to the people,” she told AFP. “That’s politics,” added, Cubero, 66, rubbing the fingers of one hand together. “That’s the connection.”
At the Church of Christian Compassion, Harris hugged supporters in the predominantly Black congregation and then preached at the pulpit.
“Yes these next nine days will test us,” Harris said, urging Philadelphians to vote early and knock on doors.
“Joy cometh in the morning,” she added, as congregants lept to their feet.

Topics: US Election 2024 Kamala Harris

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Georgian president won’t recognize parliamentary election result and calls public protests

Georgian president won’t recognize parliamentary election result and calls public protests
Updated 41 min 20 sec ago
AP
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Georgian president won’t recognize parliamentary election result and calls public protests

Georgian president won’t recognize parliamentary election result and calls public protests
  • “This election cannot be recognized, because it is the recognition of Russia’s intrusion here, Georgia’s subordination to Russia,” Zourabichvili said
Updated 41 min 20 sec ago
AP

TBILISI, Georgia: Georgia’s president said Sunday she did not recognize the results of this weekend’s parliamentary vote, which election officials say was won by the ruling party, adding that the country fell victim to a “Russian special operation” aimed at moving it off a path toward Europe.
Standing alongside opposition leaders, President Salome Zourabichvili urged Georgians to rally Monday night on Tbilisi’s main street to protest what she called a “total falsification, a total stealing of your votes,” raising the prospect of further political turmoil in the South Caucasus nation.
She spoke the day after an election which could decide whether Georgia embraces Europe or falls under the sway of Russia.
“This election cannot be recognized, because it is the recognition of Russia’s intrusion here, Georgia’s subordination to Russia,” Zourabichvili said.
The Central Election Commission said Sunday that the ruling party, Georgian Dream, got 54.8 percent of Saturday’s vote with almost 100 percent of ballots counted.
Georgian Dream has become increasingly authoritarian over the past year, adopting laws similar to those used by Russia to crack down on freedom of speech. Brussels suspended Georgia’s EU membership process indefinitely because of a Russian-style “foreign influence law,” passed in June. Many Georgians viewed Saturday’s vote as a referendum on the opportunity to join the European Union.
The election campaign in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people, which borders Russia, was dominated by foreign policy and marked by a bitter fight for votes and allegations of a smear campaign.
Zourabichvili suggested “Russian elections” were held in the country, and said “technology was used to whitewash counterfeiting. Such a thing has never happened before.”
European electoral observers said the election took place in a “divisive” environment marked by intimidation and instances of vote buying, double voting and physical violence.
During the campaign, Georgian Dream used “anti-Western and hostile rhetoric ... promoted Russian misinformation, manipulations, and conspiracy theories,” said Antonio López-Istúriz White, the head of the European Parliament monitoring delegation.
“Paradoxically, the government further claimed that it was continuing Georgia’s European integration,” he added.
The conduct of the polls, he said, is more evidence that points to the ruling party’s “democratic backsliding.”
President of the European Council Charles Michel said he called on Georgia’s officials to “swiftly, transparently and independently investigate” the electoral irregularities and called on the ruling party to demonstrate its “firm commitment” to the EU.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who is a member of Georgian Dream, on Sunday described his party’s victory as “impressive and obvious,” and said “any attempts to talk about election manipulation ... are doomed to failure.”
Hungary’s Victor Orbán was the first foreign leader to congratulate Georgian Dream and will be the first foreign leader to visit Georgia and meet the prime minister when he visits the capital for a visit Monday and Tuesday.
Georgian electoral observers, who were stationed across the country, also reported multiple violations and said the results do not reflect “the will of the Georgian people.”
In the capital Tbilisi, Tiko Gelashvili, 32, said, “The results that were published are just lies and rigged.”
Initial figures suggested turnout in the vote was the highest since Georgian Dream was first elected in 2012.
The United National Movement opposition party said its headquarters were attacked on Saturday while Georgian media reported two people were hospitalized after being attacked outside polling stations.
“The most important question is whether or not these elections will be recognized by the international community,” said Natia Seskuria, executive director of the Regional Institute for Security Studies in Tbilisi. Georgia’s “economic and political prospects” hinge on the election, she said.
Georgians have a complex relationship with Russia, which ruled it from Moscow until Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia and Georgia fought a short war in 2008, and Moscow still occupies 20 percent of Georgia’s territory.
Despite that, Georgian Dream has adopted Russia-style laws and many Georgians fear the government is distancing the country from the West and into Moscow’s orbit.
The election observers said instances of intimidation and electoral violations were particularly noticeable in rural areas.
Georgian Dream scored its highest share of the vote — polling almost 90 percent — in the Javakheti region of southern Georgia, 135 kilometers (83 miles) west of the capital. In Tbilisi, it got no more than than 44 percent of the vote in any district.
Javakheti is predominantly agricultural and many people are ethnic Armenians who speak Armenian, Russian and limited Georgian. Before the election, the AP traveled to the region where voters suggested they were instructed how to vote by local officials. Several questioned why Georgia needed a relationship with Europe and suggested it would be better off allied with Moscow.

Topics: Georgia Salome Zourabichvili Parliamentary election Russia

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Russian forces thwart attempted cross-border assault from Ukraine, official says

Russian forces thwart attempted cross-border assault from Ukraine, official says
Updated 27 October 2024
AP
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Russian forces thwart attempted cross-border assault from Ukraine, official says

Russian forces thwart attempted cross-border assault from Ukraine, official says
  • Russian officials and state media have sought to downplay the significance of Kyiv’s thunderous run in Kursk, but the country’s forces have so far been unable to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the province
Updated 27 October 2024
AP

KYIV, Ukraine: Russian forces thwarted an attempt at another cross-border incursion by Ukraine into southwestern Russia, a local official reported Sunday, months after Kyiv staged a bold assault on its nuclear-armed enemy that Moscow is still struggling to halt.
An “armed group” sought Sunday to breach the border between Ukraine and Russia’s Bryansk region, its governor, Aleksandr Bogomaz, said but was beaten back. Bogomaz did not clarify whether Ukrainian soldiers carried out the alleged attack, but claimed on Sunday evening that the situation was “stable and under control” by the Russian military.
There was no immediate acknowledgement or response from Ukrainian officials.
The region neighbors Kursk province, where Ukraine launched a surprise push on Aug. 6 that rattled the Kremlin and constituted the largest attack on Russia since World War II. Hundreds of Russian prisoners were blindfolded and ferried away in trucks in the opening moments of the lightning advance, and Ukraine’s battle-hardened units swiftly pressed on across hundreds of square miles (square kilometers) of territory.
Responsibility for previous incursions into Russia’s Belgorod and Bryansk regions has been claimed by two murky groups: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion.
Russian officials and state media have sought to downplay the significance of Kyiv’s thunderous run in Kursk, but the country’s forces have so far been unable to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the province. Western officials have speculated that Moscow may send troops from North Korea to bolster its effort to do so, stoking the almost three-year war and bringing geopolitical consequences as far away as the Indo-Pacific region.
Russian lawmakers Thursday ratified a pact with Pyongyang envisioning mutual military assistance, a move that comes as the US confirmed the deployment of 3,000 North Korean troops to Russia.
North Korean units were detected Wednesday in Kursk, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, known by its acronym GUR. The soldiers had undergone several weeks of training at bases in eastern Russia and had been equipped with clothes for the upcoming winter, GUR said in a statement late Thursday. It did not provide evidence for its claims.
Moscow warns West against approving long-range strikes against Russia
Also on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is working on ways to respond if the US and its NATO allies allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with long-range Western missiles.
Putin told Russian state TV that it was too early to say exactly how Moscow might react, but the defense ministry has been mulling a range of options.
Russia has repeatedly signaled that it would view any such strikes as a major escalation. The Kremlin leader warned on Sept. 12 that Moscow would be “at war” with the US and NATO states if they approve them, claiming military infrastructure and personnel from the bloc would have to be involved in targeting and firing the missiles.
He reinforced the message by announcing a new version of the nuclear doctrine that considers a conventional attack on Russia by a nonnuclear nation that is supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack on his country — a clear warning to the US and other allies of Kyiv.
Putin also declared the revised document envisages possible nuclear weapons use in case of a massive air attack, opening the door to a potential nuclear response to any aerial assault — an ambiguity intended to deter the West.
Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly said they need permission to strike weapons depots, airfields and military bases far from the border to motivate Russia to seek peace. In response, US defense officials have argued that the missiles are limited in number, and that Ukraine is already using its own long-range drones to hit targets farther into Russia.
That capability was evidenced by a Ukrainian drone strike in mid-September that hit a large Russian military depot in a town 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the border.
The US allows Kyiv to use American-provided weapons in more limited, cross-border strikes to counter attacks by Russian forces.
Civilian deaths reported in Kherson as warring sides trade drone strikes
In a separate update, Bryansk Gov. Bogomaz claimed that over a dozen Ukrainian drones were shot down over the region on Sunday. Separately, a total of at least 16 drones were downed over other Russian regions, including the Tambov province some 450 kilometers (290 miles) north from the border, officials reported. There were no reports of casualties from any of the alleged attacks.
In Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed three civilians on Sunday, local Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin claimed. Another Kherson resident died in a blaze sparked by shells hitting a high-rise, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Service.
Air raid sirens wailed for over three hours in Kyiv overnight into Sunday, and city authorities later reported that “around 10” drones had been shot down. They said no one had been hurt. Ukraine’s air force on Sunday reported that it had shot down 41 drones launched by Russia across Ukrainian territory.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Russian forces Ukraine

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Britain foreign minister seeks to avoid ‘catastrophic’ escalation in calls with Israel and Iran

Britain foreign minister seeks to avoid ‘catastrophic’ escalation in calls with Israel and Iran
Updated 27 October 2024
Reuters
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Britain foreign minister seeks to avoid ‘catastrophic’ escalation in calls with Israel and Iran

Britain foreign minister seeks to avoid ‘catastrophic’ escalation in calls with Israel and Iran
Updated 27 October 2024
Reuters

LONDON: Britain’s foreign minister David Lammy said he had spoken to his Israeli and Iranian counterparts in separate calls on Sunday seeking to avoid escalation into a “catastrophic” regional war after Israel struck Iranian military sites.
“Today I held important calls with Israeli FM (Israel Katz) and Iranian FM (Abbas Araghchi). The UK continues to press for de-escalation and an end to the conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza,” Lammy said in a statement after a Israeli air attack early on Saturday against Iranian targets.
“A regional war would be catastrophic and is in no one’s interests,” he said.

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UK minister criticizes Israel’s proposed legislation against UNRWA efforts

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Updated 27 October 2024
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UK minister criticizes Israel’s proposed legislation against UNRWA efforts

UK minister criticizes Israel’s proposed legislation against UNRWA efforts
  • Hamish Falconer highlighted the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling Israel’s potential decision “neither in Israel’s interest nor realistic”
Updated 27 October 2024
Arab News

LONDON: The UK’s Middle East minister has warned that Israel’s status as a democracy would be “deeply harmed” if the Knesset proceeded with a bill to cut all cooperation with the UN Relief and Works Agency, it was reported on Sunday.

Speaking at a London conference hosted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Hamish Falconer highlighted the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling Israel’s potential decision “neither in Israel’s interest nor realistic.”

Falconer’s statements mark the strongest criticism from a Western official regarding the potential legislation, which is anticipated to reach a vote in the Knesset this week unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intervenes.

The UK, along with six other European foreign ministries, have jointly urged Israel to drop the bill, emphasizing in a statement: “It is crucial that UNRWA and other UN organizations be fully able to deliver humanitarian aid and their assistance to those who need it most, fulfilling their mandates effectively.”

Falconer’s concern extended to the restrictions on aid entering Gaza, and he stressed the impact on civilian lives amid Israeli military operations, The Guardian reported.

“We are deeply concerned by legislation currently under consideration by the Israeli Knesset which would critically undermine UNRWA,” he said.

“Given the agency’s vital role in delivering aid and essential services at a time when more aid should be getting into Gaza, it is deeply harmful to Israel’s international reputation as a democratic country that its lawmakers are taking steps that would make the delivery of food, water, medicines, and healthcare more difficult.”

The UK minister, who recently visited the Egypt-Gaza border, described harrowing scenes, including “thousands of trucks waiting to cross … warehouses full of life-saving items — medical equipment, sleeping bags, and tarpaulin for the winter.”

He also noted that the level of aid “getting in is far too low,” with humanitarian convoys facing repeated attacks and significant blockages.

Falconer also raised concerns about Israel’s military approach in Gaza, calling for a balance between pursuing Hamas and protecting civilians.

“Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization, it hides behind Gazan civilians, but all parties must do everything possible to protect civilians and fully respect international humanitarian law,” he told the conference. “The Israeli government must take all necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties, to ensure aid can flow into Gaza, and freely through all humanitarian land routes.”

Amid escalating tensions, Falconer advised “calmer heads to prevail,” while former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, addressing the conference via video link, emphasized that “Hamas cannot be allowed to continue to govern Gaza.”

Blair advocated for the establishment of a new governance structure, adding: “Israel will need to pull back to allow the development of a different governance structure for Gaza that would then enable reconstruction to take place.”

Polls commissioned by the Tony Blair Institute, he shared, indicate that many residents favor international oversight and ties to the Palestinian Authority, with strong support for reform of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

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