‘God saved me’: Kursk rout sparks panic, bombs along Ukraine border

‘God saved me’: Kursk rout sparks panic, bombs along Ukraine border
Residents who evacuated due to shelling from villages that are close to the border with Russia gather in an evacuation center in Sumy, on August 11, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
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Updated 12 August 2024
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‘God saved me’: Kursk rout sparks panic, bombs along Ukraine border

‘God saved me’: Kursk rout sparks panic, bombs along Ukraine border
  • Moscow has been forced to redeploy troops and carry out mass civilian evacuations as it struggles to stem the advance

SUMY, Ukraine: The roar of artillery fire was deafening as Tetyana conferred with neighbors in her small village, which hugs the Russian border, over whether they should hold tight or flee.
The days were relatively calm in Myropillya, she said, but the nightly bombardments had become so unbearable that even sheltering in basements no longer felt safe.
“You know what they say, it’s only when we start to feel the burning ourselves that we leave,” the 59-year-old told AFP.
Finally prompted to flee after Ukraine’s shock border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, she was at a gathering point for evacuees in the eastern city of Sumy.
The offensive has been one of Ukraine’s speediest operations since Moscow invaded in February 2022. Analysts say it is the most significant ground operation by a foreign army inside Russia since World War II.
Moscow has been forced to redeploy troops and carry out mass civilian evacuations as it struggles to stem the advance.
For Ukraine, it has been a morale boost at an otherwise perilous moment in the war.
But Russia has also responded by pounding Ukrainian border areas — where it says troops and equipment are stationed — prompting Ukrainian officials to order the evacuation of some 20,000 people on its side of the new frontline.
Sitting alone and disoriented at the Sumy evacuation center, 80-year-old Anna was tearful as she described the intensifying artillery fire in her village of Yunakivka, near the border.
“I was about to hang myself. But God saved me,” she told AFP.
“But I don’t know what to do now,” she added, perched on a temporary bed next to the few plastic bags of belongings she had been able to bring with her.
Overseeing efforts to help those who fled, aid worker Vitaliy Kaporukhin said the Ukrainian attack — planned in secret and launched without warning — had caught border residents off guard.
“People are upset,” said Kaporukhin, who works with the aid organization, Pluriton. “They’re having to leave their homes. They’re having to leave everything behind.
“Fortunately, it’s an operation from our side, and Russian forces didn’t come here. That would have been worse.”
AFP journalists saw dozens of Ukrainian military vehicles daubed with white triangles, the insignia apparently used to identify forces involved in Kursk operation, kicking up dust on roads in the Sumy border territory.
Kyiv has been tight-lipped about the operation but a top Ukrainian official told AFP its aim was to destabilize Russia by showing up its weaknesses.
In one frontier village, servicemen who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity said they had been deployed inside Russia. They described intensive Russian bombardments along the border and in the Kursk region.
Another group preparing to cross into Kursk voiced confidence they could hold ground there, citing weak Russian resistance — for now.
Ukrainian troops have carved rows of new defensive lines into the Sumy region’s landscape.
Closer to the Russian border, smoke trails from Ukrainian projectiles could be seen marking the sky above sweeping fields of bright sunflowers.
The fresh scrutiny on Sumy represents a dramatic shift for a region that, compared with other eastern regions, has been spared the brunt of more than two years of devastating fighting with Russia.
But windows covered by plywood and gutted carcases of Soviet-era buildings point to frequent and deadly aerial attacks on Sumy and the surrounding area.
Air raid sirens and explosions rang out over the city, itself just 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Russian border, at regular intervals.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army stormed into the surrounding region when he ordered the invasion in February 2022, but within several weeks had been pushed by an unexpectedly resolute Ukrainian resistance.
This weekend the Ukrainian army said it was the region most heavily targeted by Russian aerial attacks, retaliatory strikes for the ongoing offensive.
“The border villages have already been wiped out,” said Tetyana, whose first regret was having to leave behind the pickles she had spent the summer preparing. “There is nothing left there.”
Despite the evacuations and the looming threat of Russian retaliation, life has seemed relatively normal in the region’s main civilian hub in recent days.
Shouting children played in a water fountain in the center of the Sumy, which had a population of around 250,000 before the war. Residents enjoyed evening meals on restaurant terraces dotting the historic center.
At the evacuation center, residents who had fled reported that Moscow had stepped up attacks, using devastating glide bombs on border areas.
Retired metal worker Mykola, who left his village of Khotyn some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Russia, admitted it had pained him to have to leave his home.
But he found some consolation from Ukraine’s offensive in Kursk.
“Let’s let them find out what it’s like,” the 70-year-old said. “They don’t understand what war is.
“Let them have a taste of it.”


Dutch government investigating possible missed warnings from Israel following riots

Dutch government investigating possible missed warnings from Israel following riots
Updated 47 min 5 sec ago
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Dutch government investigating possible missed warnings from Israel following riots

Dutch government investigating possible missed warnings from Israel following riots
  • Dutch police say four people remain in custody of the 63 people initially detained

AMSTERDAM: The Dutch government is investigating if possible warning signs from Israel were missed in the events leading up to this week’s assaults on Israeli football fans, Justice Minister David van Weel said in a letter to Parliament.
“An investigation is still being conducted on possible warning signs from Israel,” Van Weel said in his letter late on Friday evening.
At least five people were injured during the assaults on Thursday night and treated in hospital. All were released later on Friday. The incident concerned fans of the visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv football team.
Police on Saturday said four people remained in custody of the 63 people initially detained.
“The Public Prosecution Service has stated that it aims to apply fast-track justice as much as possible,” Van Weel said, adding that it is “the absolute priority” to identify every suspect.
He said the investigation would also examine whether the assaults were organized, with an antisemitic motive.
Political leaders have already denounced the attacks as antisemitic. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on Friday he was “horrified by the anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens” and had assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone that “the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted.”
Israel sent extra planes to The Netherlands to bring fans home, but a Dutch government spokesperson could not immediately confirm how many people made use of this.
Videos on social media on what happened showed riot police in action, with some attackers shouting anti-Israeli slurs. Footage also showed Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters chanting anti-Arab slogans before Thursday evening’s match.
Amsterdam banned demonstrations through the weekend and gave police emergency stop-and-search powers in response to the unrest.
Antisemitic incidents have surged in the Netherlands since Israel launched its assault on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza after the attacks on Israel by Hamas militants in October last year, with many Jewish organizations and schools reporting threats and hate mail.


China’s Xi hails ‘new chapter’ in relations with Indonesia

China’s Xi hails ‘new chapter’ in relations with Indonesia
Updated 09 November 2024
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China’s Xi hails ‘new chapter’ in relations with Indonesia

China’s Xi hails ‘new chapter’ in relations with Indonesia
  • Beijing and Jakarta are key economic allies, with Chinese companies plowing money into extracting Indonesian natural resources in recent years
  • But the two countries have sparred verbally over disputed claims in the South China Sea

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Indonesian counterpart that Beijing hopes for a “new chapter” in bilateral relations, as the two leaders met on Saturday.
Xi held talks with newly sworn-in President Prabowo Subianto in Beijing, the first stop of the Indonesian leader’s inaugural foreign tour since he took office in October.
China is keen to work with Indonesia to “write a new chapter of joint self-reliance, solidarity and cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results as major developing countries,” Xi told Prabowo in front of journalists.
Beijing and Jakarta are key economic allies, with Chinese companies plowing money into extracting Indonesian natural resources in recent years, particularly the nickel sector.
But the two countries have sparred verbally over disputed claims in the South China Sea.
Prabowo said that the relationship between the two countries was “getting stronger and stronger.”
“I would like to reiterate our commitment... to work together for the mutual benefit of our two peoples and for the prosperity, peace and stability of all of Asia,” he added.
Xi held a welcome ceremony for Prabowo at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Saturday before the talks.
Prabowo, who landed in China on Friday, is also meeting Premier Li Qiang and number three official Zhao Leji on his trip, which ends on Sunday.
He will travel onwards to Washington, at the invitation of US President Joe Biden, as part of a world tour which will also include Peru, Brazil and Britain.
Prabowo has pledged to stick to Jakarta’s traditionally non-aligned foreign policy while making the world’s fourth-most populous nation more active abroad.
Confrontations over what Indonesia says are Chinese incursions into its territorial waters have weighed on the trading partners’ relationship in recent years.
In 2020, Indonesia deployed fighter jets and warships to patrol around the Natuna islands in the South China Sea after Chinese vessels entered the area.
Last month, Indonesia said it drove Chinese coast guard ships from contested waters in the South China Sea on three separate occasions.
Indonesia says it is trying to stop foreign vessels from fishing in its waters, costing the economy billions of dollars annually.
Huge unexploited oil and gas deposits are believed to lie under the South China Sea, though estimates vary greatly.
Beijing has for years sought to expand its presence in the contested waters, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis.
It has built artificial islands armed with missile systems and runways for fighter jets, and deployed vessels that the Philippines says harass its ships and block its fishers.
The latest confrontations are an early test for Prabowo, who has pledged to bolster the defense of Indonesian territory.
Prabowo has promised to be bolder on foreign policy than his predecessor Joko Widodo, who focused more on domestic issues.


Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says

Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says
Updated 09 November 2024
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Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says

Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says
  • Russia launched 51 drones, focusing its attack on Odesa and the nearby region in the south of Ukraine
  • Ukraine’s military said that Russia launched more than 2,000 attack drones at civilian and military targets in Octobe

KYIV: Russian drones attacked Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa overnight, killing one person and injuring 13 others, including two boys, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Saturday.
Several residential apartment buildings, private houses, commercial buildings and dozens of private cars were damaged in what was the second day in a row of Russian drone attacks on the city, Kiper said.
“At night the enemy again attacked Odesa and the nearby region with attack drones. One person died and 13 were wounded. Among the injured there were two children,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Prosecutors said the children were boys aged four and 16.
Russia launched 51 drones, focusing its attack on Odesa and the nearby region in the south of Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that Ukrainian air defense units and mobile drone hunter groups shot down 32 Russian drones.
It also said that 18 drones were “lost,” most likely meaning they had been thwarted electronically.
Russian drones also triggered a large fire in one of Odesa’s districts, public broadcaster Suspilne reported, quoting residents.
Other media outlets in the city posted video footage showing cars and buildings ablaze and thick smoke billowing skyward.
As the war against Russia nears its 1,000-day mark, Moscow’s forces have intensified air attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns, sending swarms of drones almost every night.
Ukraine’s military said that Russia launched more than 2,000 attack drones at civilian and military targets in October.
Moscow says it does not target civilians. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine had verified 11,743 civilian deaths in conflict-related violence from Russia’s full-scale invasion in Feb. 2022 to the end of August this year. The Ukrainian government says the toll is likely to be much higher due to difficulties accessing parts of the country.


Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say

Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say
Updated 09 November 2024
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Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say

Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say

WASHINGTON: Several Maryland boards of elections and an office in a county in California received bomb threats on Friday, state authorities said, adding everyone was safe and law enforcement authorities were conducting probes.
Election officials were counting mail-in ballots when the threats came in Maryland. State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis said the threats led to evacuation of some buildings. He called the threats “cowardly,” adding local officials will resume counting on Saturday.
“Safety is a top concern — but we WILL resume canvassing tomorrow. Cowardly threats whether from abroad or not shall not deter us,” DeMarinis said on social media platform X.
“The Baltimore County Police Department is aware and currently investigating the bomb threat received via email by the Baltimore County Board of Elections Office,” police posted on X, later adding that a probe found that threat unfounded.
In California’s Orange County, the registrar of voters received a bomb threat at an office in Santa Ana after which the office building was evacuated and bomb detection dogs were used to conduct a search. No explosives were located, officials said, adding normal operations will resume on Saturday.
The offices of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Maryland Governor Wes Moore said they were monitoring the situations and working with local officials.
Republican Donald Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election. Counting continued in parts of the country in local, congressional and presidential races.
The FBI said that hoax bomb threats, many of which appeared to originate from Russian email domains, were directed on Tuesday at polling locations in five battleground states — Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — as Election Day voting was under way. Russia denies interfering in US elections.
Ahead of the elections, officials had braced for attacks and threats arising from misinformation and conspiracy theories about the vote.


Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’

Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’
Updated 09 November 2024
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Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’

Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’
  • The US Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump
  • Investigators learned of the plan to kill Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an Iranian government asset

WASHINGTON/TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday described as “totally unfounded” US accusations of a plot by Tehran to assassinate president-elect Donald Trump.

The foreign ministry “rejects allegations that Iran is implicated in an assassination attempt targeting former or current American officials,” spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement, after US prosecutors announced charges over the alleged plot.

The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week’s election with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.

Investigators learned of the plan to kill Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintains a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots.

Shakeri told investigators that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.

The official was quoted by Shakeri as saying that “We have already spent a lot of money” and that “money’s not an issue.” Shakeri told investigators the official told him that if he could not put together a plan within the seven-day timeframe, then the plot would be paused until after the election because the official assumed Trump would lose and that it would be easier to kill him then, the complaint said.

Shakeri is at large and remains in Iran. Two other men were arrested on charges that Shakeri recruited them to follow and kill prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, who has endured multiple Iranian murder-for-hire plots foiled by law enforcement.

“I’m very shocked,” said Alinejad, speaking by telephone to The Associated Press from Berlin, where she was about to attend a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the tearing down of the wall. “This is the third attempt against me and that’s shocking.”

In a post on the social media platform X, she said: “I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech — I don’t want to die. I want to fight against tyranny, and I deserve to be safe. Thank you to law enforcement for protecting me, but I urge the US government to protect the national security of America.”

Lawyers for the two other defendants, identified as Jonathan Loadholt and Carlisle Rivera, did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Iran’s UN Mission declined to comment.

Shakeri, an Afghan national who immigrated to the US as a child but was later deported after spending 14 years in prison for robbery, also told investigators that he was tasked by his Revolutionary Guard contact with plotting the killings of two Jewish-Americans living in New York and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. Officials say he overlapped with Rivera while in prison as well as an unidentified co-conspirator.

The criminal complaint says Shakeri disclosed some of the details of the alleged plots in a series of recorded telephone interviews with FBI agents while in Iran. The stated reason for his cooperation, he told investigators, was to try to get a reduced prison sentence for an associate behind bars in the US

According to the complaint, though officials determined that some of the information he provided was false, his statements regarding a plot to kill Trump and Iran’s willingness to pay large sums of money were determined to be accurate.

The plot, disclosed just days after Trump’s defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials, including Trump, on US soil. Last summer, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot targeting American officials.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the case shows Iran’s “continued brazen attempts to target US citizens,” including Trump, “other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran.”

Iranian operatives also conducted a hack-and-leak operation of emails belonging to Trump campaign associates in what officials have assessed was an effort to interfere in the presidential election.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposed Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the president-elect was aware of the assassination plot and nothing will deter him “from returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.”